Chapter 21: The Voice
The ship Alpha-9 drifted in the endless darkness of space, its systems operating at their limits, emitting a low hum akin to a dying breath. The screens in the command module flickered, displaying chaotic data that no one bothered to decipher anymore. Lia sat in the pilot's chair, her fingers frozen over the console. The last signal they had intercepted three hours ago still echoed in her mind-a voice, distorted by static, repeating the same phrase: "You are not alone. Come to us."
"It can't be true," Theo muttered, standing by the observation window. His reflection in the glass looked haggard, his eyes bloodshot from sleeplessness. "We're in a sector that isn't on any map. There should be nothing here but void."
"Then explain the signal," Lia snapped, not taking her eyes off the screen. "It's not just noise. It was a voice. Human... or something very close to it."
Ren, sitting in the corner of the module, silently repaired his prosthetic arm, but his movements were too sharp, betraying his tension. He didn't join the argument, but Lia knew he was listening to every word. After the incident on the asteroid, where they lost Kir, Ren had grown even more withdrawn, but his intuition had saved them more than once.
"I checked the logs," he finally said, not looking up. "The signal is coming from coordinates three light-hours away. But there are no stars, no planets there. Just... an anomaly. Something our scanners can't identify."
Lia turned to him, her heart beating faster.
"An anomaly? You mean a black hole?"
"Not quite," Ren tossed aside his tool and looked at her. "It's more like... a tear. As if space itself is... broken."
Theo snorted, but there was unease in his voice.
"Broken? Are you a theoretical physicist now? That's nonsense, Ren. If there's something out there, it's-"
Exclusive here: https://www.patreon.com/c/verabyss