Three Space Academy interns board a dead station at the edge of the galaxy and find a signal that should not exist.
The silence beyond the dome felt engineered, not natural, as if the universe itself had been stripped bare out here. Chiara stood at the observation deck of the Aurora and watched the Andromedusa Nebula drift past in slow, luminous folds. Beside her, Lu and Tami sat tensely in their swivel chairs, no longer looking like first-year students on an internship and more like three people about to make a mistake they would remember for the rest of their lives.
Vesper XI hung ahead of them in orbit, an abandoned research station wrapped in frost and shadow. It had gone dark ten years ago after an incident no one at the Academy seemed willing to explain in full. The official brief called it a routine survey. The unspoken part was simpler: go in, check the systems, report anything unusual, and do not improvise.
Lu’s fingers moved over the console. She frowned, then froze. "I’m getting a signal," she said quietly. "It’s coming from the station."
Tami leaned in as a burst of static bled through the speakers. The sound repeated, but not cleanly. It bent in on itself, changed pitch, returned half a second late, like a voice trapped inside its own echo. "That isn’t a distress call," she murmured. "It’s structured. Someone is trying to say something."
Chiara looked through the porthole. Aurora’s lights glimmered across Vesper XI’s scarred panels, and the station seemed to stare back, motionless and cold. Ice particles drifted between them like shattered glass. "Then why now?" she asked. "And why here?"
The docking clamps engaged with a dull thud that echoed through the ship. None of them spoke as they crossed into the station’s airlock. The corridor beyond was dim, the walls veined with frost, every footstep sounding too loud in the hollow dark. Then the dead terminal at the far end flickered awake, one panel after another, as if the station had been waiting for them to arrive.
A line appeared on the screen in stark white letters: HAVE YOU ARRIVED?
Before anyone could move, the speakers crackled, and a distorted whisper slid through the chamber, carrying a name each of them knew all too well.