The corridor opened into blackness.
Not the stale dark of the ship's belly, but a vast expanse that stretched beyond sight. The broken hull split into open void, and for a moment Maya thought they had stumbled into nothingness itself.
Then the lights flickered.
Not lights — glyphs. Dozens, then hundreds, glowing faintly across colossal silhouettes drifting in the void. Hulls pitted by centuries of silence, cannons dormant, wings folded like the bones of titans. A fleet. An army.
Vector's breath caught. "Gods…" His voice trailed into silence. Even he couldn't mask his awe.
Rei's fingers tightened on the railing, his eyes fever-bright. "The Ghost Fleet. I read fragments… but I never believed…"
Maya pressed closer to the viewport. The Archive pulsed in her blood, the same rhythm as the dormant glyphs etched into those ships. They weren't dead. They were sleeping.
Her veins lit faintly, and the fleet answered. The nearest ship's glyphs shimmered brighter, a hum rippling through the silence like a sigh.
Vector stepped in front of her instantly. "Don't. Don't you dare."
"They're Echo's," Maya whispered, her throat tight. "They were built to fight the Architects. If we wake them—"
"You'll burn yourself out," Vector snapped. "Look at you, Maya. You can barely stand. And you think you can command that?"
Rei's voice cut in, sharp and reverent. "She can. They're waiting for her. Don't you feel it? They won't answer anyone else."
Maya's hands shook. The Archive pushed against her ribs, eager, insistent. The Ghost Fleet thrummed in her blood like a chorus begging for a conductor.
And then, beneath the hum, another voice bled through.
"…Maya…"
Her breath hitched. Kiran.
The voice wasn't in her head this time. It came through the fleet itself, every glyph pulsing in unison with the syllables. His outline flickered across the hull of the largest vessel, a ghost etched in light.
"Maya," his voice said again, broken and layered with static. "Don't… wake them."
Her heart stuttered. Vector grabbed her wrist, pulling her back from the viewport. "It's a trap. You hear me? They've got him wired into this graveyard. It's bait."
Rei shook his head, eyes wide. "No. It's not bait. It's a key. Kiran's part of the system now. Through him, we can control the fleet."
Maya's chest clenched. The ships pulsed again, brighter this time, their glyphs aligning like stars. The Archive's whisper hissed through her veins:
"Anchor detected. Command authorization: pending."
She had only to reach. Only to say the word.
Vector's grip tightened on her wrist. "Maya. Don't."
Rei stepped closer, urgency burning in his voice. "Maya. Do it. He's still in there — with the fleet, with you. If you wake them, you might save him too."
Her pulse hammered. The void outside glowed, waiting. The Archive pressed harder, Kiran's ghost whispered don't, Rei begged do it.
And the Ghost Fleet stirred.
🔥 Next chapter: Siege. The Architects make their move, and Maya must decide if she'll burn herself to wake the Ghost Fleet.