Leo, Nadia, and Philip are chosen for humanity’s first young-scientist mission beyond the Solar System. But as Andromeda nears an unknown world, the scanners detect something impossible in orbit.
Leo still half expected someone to tap him on the shoulder and tell him there had been a mistake. Thousands had applied to the New Horizon programme. Somehow, the three of them had made it through every round, every interview, every test. Now they were standing in Earth orbit, about to board the Andromeda, the first ship to carry young scientists beyond the Solar System.
The launch station sprawled around them like a city in motion. Service drones skimmed past the windows, a helicopter drifted overhead, and announcements rolled through the corridors in English, Chinese, and half a dozen other languages. Leo forced himself to keep moving as the airlock cycled open. Ahead of them rose the lift to the main deck. Behind the glass, Earth hung silent and bright, so close it looked touchable.
Nadia had gone quiet, which usually meant she was taking in too much at once. Her gaze kept returning to the planet below, as if she wanted to memorize it before it disappeared. Philip, meanwhile, was already arguing softly with an engineer about the reactor controls, his hands moving as he spoke. Leo had to keep from smiling. They had barely arrived, and Philip was already acting as if he belonged in the ship’s core.
Andromeda was stranger than Leo had imagined. It was a metal world built for years in transit: hydroponic gardens lit by pale grow lamps, laboratories lined with sealed drawers and sensor banks, corridors that curved just enough to make him feel slightly off balance. In one corner of the command module stood Commander Eika Hashimoto, sharp-eyed and unreadable. Beside her, Dr Malik, the expedition’s astrobiologist, watched the young crew with the calm of someone who had already seen too many surprises to be impressed by them.
Then the Hyperspace Portal opened.
The transition lasted less than a second, but Leo felt it in his teeth. When the deck stabilised and the warning lights faded, Andromeda was already in orbit around a world no human being had ever seen before: HD-1032b. On the central display, the planet swelled into view, blue-grey beneath bands of cloud, with dark patches of purple vegetation clinging to the edges of the continents.
Nadia leaned over her console. “The scanners are picking up something near the equator,” she said, her voice suddenly thin. “I’m sending it to the main screen.”
The image resolved slowly, and the room went very still.
A ring hung above the planet’s surface, enormous and perfectly shaped, all clean lines and impossible angles. It did not look like a rock formation. It did not look natural at all.
Philip drew in a sharp breath. “That’s built,” he said. “No erosion does that. No volcanic process does that. Something made it.”
Commander Hashimoto looked from the screen to the three of them, her expression unreadable. “Research team,” she said, “you will descend to the surface. Priority mission. You have two hours.”
Leo’s pulse thudded in his ears as he started mentally checking equipment, samples, emergency packs. Nadia’s fingers had gone white around the edge of the console. Philip was already absorbed in the data, as if the answer might appear if he stared hard enough.
They reached the lander bay in a rush of boots and clipped voices. The air smelled faintly of steriliser and hot circuitry. Leo was just stepping toward the hatch when a new sound cut through the chatter: a sharp, unfamiliar beep from his communicator.
He stopped.
Symbols flashed across the screen, appearing and vanishing too quickly for any onboard system to identify. The corridor lights flickered once, twice. From somewhere deep in the ship came a low pulse, rhythmic and steady, as if the vessel itself had begun listening.
Nadia met Leo’s eyes. “That isn’t a system alert,” she whispered. “It could be a message.”
Philip frowned at the screen. “Or a warning.”
The lander door slid open, and beyond it stretched the purple plain below, silent under a pale, unfamiliar sky. The three young scientists stared at it for one last second, then stepped forward together.
And the communicator beeped again, louder this time, as something in the darkness ahead answered.