In the final seconds of the visual data attached to the file, the camera shook. Aby’s hand, thin and pale, reached out to touch the glowing core of the PodFlower. The pod was vibrating. It was not cracking open like a fruit; it was unfurling like a mechanical iris.
: Its petals were fused with silicon to withstand the intense UV radiation piercing the dome's cracked glass. PodFlower.Aby_Sekara.1.var
Instead, filling the entire dome, was a massive, sprawling network of glowing, glass-like vines. At the center was a giant, pulsing pod. When the crew ran their scanners over it, the computer didn't register plant matter. In the final seconds of the visual data