Humanity has spent three years listening to Mars. Now Mars has asked a question.

The first exchanges were numbers, patterns, corrections, painstaking proof that two civilizations could recognize meaning without understanding one another. Gavin Marks helped build that fragile language one signal at a time. He knows better than anyone how much can be lost between a message and the meaning people want it to have.

But governments are tired of listening from a distance.

A controlled meeting is becoming possible. So is the chance to turn contact into diplomacy. Around Gavin, scientists, security officials, and rival states are already fighting over who gets to speak, what can be revealed, and how much risk Earth should accept for a civilization it still barely understands.

One bad assumption could undo years of work. One frightened decision could turn caution into hostility.

The distance between Earth and Mars can be measured.

Bridging the Void between them will require something far harder: trusting that the voice on the other side means what you think it means.