In Place of Echoes

I sat on the bench for a long time after the echo faded.

Not resting. Not really thinking either. Just holding still.

Patch had retreated to my side, paws tucked neatly beneath her chest, tail wrapped over her toes like a protective loop. She hadn't spoken again. Hadn't purred. She was waiting.

So was I.

Not for the system. For something quieter. A permission I couldn't name.

Because I didn't want to leave.

Not yet.

Maybe not ever.

The sanctuary wasn't paradise, but it was safe. The lighting was warm. The walls didn't shift when I looked away. Nothing here bled. Nothing whispered in the back of my skull. The air was dry. The floor stayed where I left it. And Patch, still more kitten than code now, was alive. Warm. Trusting.

Out there?

Out there was Nullspace.

And Nullspace didn't care what I loved.

The console pulsed again, prompting my return. I stood slowly, bones popping, the ache in my back reminding me that just because I'd eaten and healed didn't mean I was whole. I walked to the console, hand trailing over the panel surface like I needed to prove it was still solid.

It was.

New prompts hovered just above the interface.

[FRAGMENT ENERGY DEPLETED]

[SANCTUARY NODE HOLDING // STABILITY THRESHOLD: 48%]

[TETHER: PATCH_001 – ACTIVE]

[WARNING: FURTHER DEGRADATION EXPECTED WITHOUT ADDITIONAL MEMORY INPUT]

Beneath that:

[NULLSPACE EGRESS AVAILABLE // EST. SURVIVABILITY: 42%]

[FIELD ACCESS PERMITTED // COMPANION ASSIST ENABLED]

[NOTE: RETURN PATH UNSTABLE]

[RE-ENTRY CONDITIONS: UNDEFINED]

I frowned.

Return path… undefined?

Of course it was.

The system would never make it easy.

Even this room, this fragile pocket of warmth, wasn't meant to exist. I had forced it to. Claimed it through instinct and glitch logic. If I stepped out again, I couldn't be sure I'd find my way back in.

And I couldn't leave Patch behind.

She couldn't survive out there on her own, not yet. Maybe not ever.

I sat again, this time on the edge of the pedestal. Patch padded over after a moment and curled herself against my shin. Her body was heavier now, more cohesive. She didn't flicker anymore when she breathed.

"Alright," I whispered. "No guesswork this time."

I opened the debug overlay and began scanning the peripheral logs. Nothing obvious, just tracking pings, low-level stability flags. But then, buried beneath the tether index, I found something new:

[RE-ENTRY POTENTIAL: CONDITIONAL ACCESS // EDGE CASE LOGIC REQUIRED]

[QUERY: WOULD YOU LIKE TO DEFINE A RETURN POINT?]

[WARNING: CONDITIONS MUST BE TRUE UPON RE-ENTRY OR NODE MAY BE UNREACHABLE]

I tapped the prompt.

The system responded with a single flashing glyph: a recursive anchor symbol, the same one I'd seen flicker around Patch during the early stabilisation process.

I looked at her.

She looked back.

"Of course," I said softly. "You're the key."

She mewed in reply. Then promptly walked across the console, tail high, and flopped onto the glowing return icon.

A single system chime acknowledged the interaction.

[RETURN CONDITION ANCHORED: PATCH_001]

[RE-ENTRY LOGIC: NULLPOINTER MUST BE IN PHYSICAL CONTACT WITH PATCH]

[STABILITY: CONTINGENT ON COMPANION LINK INTEGRITY AND EXPOSURE LEVEL BELOW 0.3]

It wasn't a door.

It was a rule.

And like everything else in this broken system, it had loopholes. Caveats. An invitation to break it, but only if I understood the edges.

I exhaled slowly and let the console close. The prompt faded into memory, but I knew it now. I'd created a logic tether. A physical one. If I lost Patch, if I broke the link, or let my exposure rise too far, I might not be able to come back.

Patch walked a slow circle around my legs and then stood still, waiting at the edge of the exit threshold.

The wall opposite the pedestal had transformed while I worked, not dramatically, just a thin rectangular outline pressed into its centre. Now, that shape pulled apart along a clean seam. The air beyond flickered, not like broken code, but like glass under tension.

Beyond the doorway, Nullspace waited.

No light.

No sound.

Just a wide-open dark.

The overlay confirmed it:

[NODE EXIT INITIATED]

[EXPOSURE RESUMPTION ON DEPARTURE: TRUE]

[INTEGRITY CHECKPOINT: PATCH LINKED // MEMORY ANCHOR AVAILABLE]

[CAUTION: NULLSPACE SHIFT DETECTED // ENVIRONMENT MAY HAVE CHANGED SINCE LAST EXIT]

Of course it had.

That was the other thing. Nullspace moved. Not like a map. Like a creature.

It reconfigured based on threat, memory, blood.

I glanced down at my hand. The healed scar across my palm had faded to a paler line, but I remembered the pain. The panic. The way the walls had peeled open, the floor breathing beneath me like the world was alive and trying to crawl into my lungs.

"You remember it too, don't you?" I asked.

Patch sat beside me now, ears flattened slightly, tail low. She didn't make a sound, but her eyes said enough. I crouched to her level and rested my hand against her back. She leaned in. And for the first time, I realised she wasn't just being brave. She was scared too. But staying. For me.

That broke something in the centre of my chest. Not like pain. Like warmth.

I held her for a long moment, then stood, took a deep breath, and faced the exit.

"I'm going to need light," I muttered. "And I'm not going to ask for a torch."

The console blinked.

[REQUEST: CLARIFY]

"Not a real request," I snapped. "Just thinking out loud."

Patch meowed. I swear it sounded sarcastic.

"Right," I muttered. "Guess I better go get a fragment."

I approached the exit. The edge of the threshold flickered once more, the glassy shimmer resolving into a full frame. The system didn't play an animation. It didn't even hum. It just opened. Waiting. Not welcoming. Just ready.

Patch moved beside me and sat at the line.

I stood still for one last moment. My eyes drifted over the room, the pedestal, the vent where Patch had first claimed her spot, the crude console interface that had become a lifeline, the food node, the shallow sanitation hatch, the corner where I'd fallen apart and stitched myself back together with code, breath, and memory.

It wasn't home. But it had become something close.

I looked down at Patch. "You ready?"

She didn't answer.

She just walked forward, and her body passed cleanly through the shimmering light.

I followed.

And Nullspace welcomed us back.