THE STORY
The machines kept the time.
The law kept a human signature.
Phoenix, 2027. Engineer Ada Reyes finds the power for an AI that will soon be designing itself. Paralegal Mateo Navarro watches software do his job five minutes faster than he can, and falls for her anyway.
Within ten years the machines invent faster than anyone can check them, and the law still needs a human signature. Ada signs. Mateo spends his life making signatures mean something.
Above them, a radio blip recorded in 2014 turns out to be a timetable from a star 124 light-years away. Our machines adopt it because it is the best schedule anyone has ever seen. Then our own Sun starts keeping its time.
One signature put it there. One signature will decide whether we answer.
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