[Intro][Clean guitar plays the three-note fan motif slowly while Rex’s relays answer from the distance. No voice enters.]

[Verse 1 - Mara, Female Clean Lead]

At seven ten I crossed the hall before the lobby stirred.
My badge released the basement door without a spoken word.
The server room was cold again; the warning lamps were still.
Handwritten I-P numbers stood in rows along the wall.
His ROOT mug waited by the screen with coffee dried inside.
The workshop voucher lay untouched, its silver seal denied.
Forty-seven keys hung silent by the emergency phone.
Greg-or’s battered office seat faced Server Rex alone.

[Chorus - Mara, Female Clean Lead]

There’s an empty chair below
Where the oldest fan turns slow.
Forty-seven keys lie silent by a mug beside the phone.
There’s an empty chair below,
But the basement knows my name.
When the green light says we’re safe, I’ll check the heat again.

[Verse 2 - Mara]

I searched the archive, loading dock and roof above the stair.
The camera log had failed at two; the exit book was bare.
The C-E-O asked, “Greg-or who?” then checked the staffing chart,
Which filed him under FACILITIES—TEMPORARY—OTHER PART.
Inside his desk I found one drive beneath a folded map,
Its label: FOR MAR-ah—WHEN THE DASHBOARDS ALL LOOK GLAD.
I plugged it into Rex’s port. One plain text file arrived:
“Never trust the green light. Keep the second route alive.”

[Chorus - Mara]

There’s an empty chair below
Where the oldest fan turns slow.
Forty-seven keys lie silent by a mug beside the phone.
There’s an empty chair below,
But the basement knows my name.
When the green light says we’re safe, I’ll check the heat again.

[Instrumental Break][Clean guitar, bass and Rex’s relays reprise motifs from the opening, the cable trace, the root session and the restore.]

[Bridge - Mara]

The phone rang once at eight-oh-two.
A voice upstairs said, “Mail won’t queue.”
I checked the heat, then traced the thread,
And found one loose port blinking red.

[Breakdown - Mara]

No crown remained.
No grand farewell.
One labeled drive.
One fault to tell.

[Build-up - Mara]

I seated the plug and tested twice.
The queue released on the second try.
I marked the port and mapped the line.
The keys struck steel in four-four time.

[Final Chorus - Mara]

There’s an empty chair below,
But the buried systems know.
Forty-seven keys now ring beside my footsteps as I go.
There’s an empty chair below—
One worn seat beside the drives,
Where someone heard the warning sounds that kept the rest alive.

[Refrain - Mara & Distant Office Choir]

When every perfect metric glows,
I’ll test the wire beneath the show.
The green light blinks. The fans run low.
I guard the empty chair below.

[Outro - Mara]

I washed the mug and kept the crack.
Rex turned one steady drive.
The green light blinked. I checked the rack.
The second route was active.