Night had settled over the city as Emma returned to her lab—a cluttered haven of specimens and softly glowing monitors. She sank into her chair, eyes fixed on the magnified wood sample. Under the scanner's light, its cells pulsed like constellations, shifting in ways no Earth plant should.
"Living. Breathing. But nothing like I've ever documented," she murmured, tapping restless fingers against her desk.
"Chloe," she called, voice sharp with focus. "Run a full spectral scan on this sample. Its energy signature is... wrong."
Across the lab, Chloe glanced up, violet hair catching the monitor's glow as her fingers flew across the keyboard. "Running now—" A pause. Her eyes widened. "What the hell? This frequency shouldn't exist in organic matter."
Emma leaned forward, pulse quickening as numbers scrolled across the screen. "It's resonating... like a tuning fork." Her breath caught. "But what could it be responding to?"
---
Far from Emma's lab, the infiltrators watched.
A construction worker adjusted his grip on a steel beam, lifting more weight than any human should. His eyes flickered with alien luminescence—a microsecond betrayal of his true nature.
A neighbor laughed at precisely calculated intervals, his movements too fluid, too deliberate to be natural.
A corporate executive traced wood grain with absent fingers, receiving messages through vibrations only he could interpret.
They blended seamlessly, unnoticeable yet ever-vigilant. Their focus never wavered from the forests—Earth's beating heart, its treasure.
---
Emma's attention stayed locked on her screen, comparing spectral data to forestry reports. With each correlation, cold dread pooled in her stomach.
"These deforestation patterns are strategic," she whispered. "The cutting isn't random—it's methodical. Almost surgical."
Chloe leaned closer to her monitor. "Doc, I'm detecting energy bursts near every major logging site. Brief, encrypted signals—someone's deliberately masking their activity."
Emma's spine stiffened. "Encrypted?" She connected disparate threads, mind racing. "Nobody conceals standard logging operations. Unless—"
Her gaze snapped back to the pulsing cells on screen, watching as they synchronized into patterns too deliberate for natural evolution.
The realization hit like a physical blow.
"It's not about the wood," she breathed, voice barely audible. "It's what's inside it. Some kind of... essential energy."
The lab fell silent save for the quiet hum of equipment. Data continued scrolling, painting a picture neither woman was prepared to fully comprehend—one that stretched beyond Earth, beyond human understanding.
Outside, among ancient trees whose roots ran deeper than anyone suspected, something alien stirred. Their scout vessels had done their work well. The invasion had already begun, silent and methodical as the forest itself.
And Emma, unknowingly, had just discovered their secret.