The engines started quietly. Too quietly. It was as if the ship didn't want to draw attention to itself, even in the void. The planet's dust settled slowly, and the surface appeared lifeless once more. It looked as if nothing had ever happened here.
Kael stood at the main screen, looking at the map. Not the usual one. The one only he could see. Points of tension glowed faintly, scattered across the galaxy like wounds that had not yet begun to bleed.
Zara watched him closely. She wasn't joking. That in itself was disturbing.
"Tell me one thing," she said finally. "If you see something you don't tell us right away, I'll feel it."
Kael nodded. "You have that right."
Rex leaned against the wall at the bridge exit. "Okay. We're in an empty zone. No pursuit. No signals. The perfect moment for everything to go to hell."
As if on cue, the sensors beeped briefly. Lira immediately went to the panel. "It's not an attack. It's an impulse. Very weak."
Taro looked at the data. "But precise. Someone marked our position."
Zara snorted. "So someone was watching after all."
Kael closed his eyes. The point on the map glowed brighter. One of the fragments. Close. Too close to be a coincidence.
"Not just watching," he said. "He's leading us."
Lira looked at him sharply. "Who?"
Kael opened his eyes. "I don't know yet. But it's not a memory. It's someone alive."
There was silence. The kind that meant trouble greater than usual.
Rex straightened. "So someone knows what happened at the gate. Or at least knows that something happened."
"Yes."
Zara smiled crookedly. "Then we stop running."
Kael looked at her.
"We change course," she added. "If someone is leading us, let them be surprised."
Taro was already fiddling with the navigation. "I can break the course into three random jumps. We'll disappear from the maps for a few hours."
Kael hesitated. For a second. Then he shook his head.
"No. We're flying straight ahead."
Everyone looked at him at once.
"We're flying where it leads," he continued calmly. "If it's a trap, it will be sooner or later anyway. And if not…"
"Then we'll get answers," Lira finished.
Zara checked her magazines. "Well, at least we have some clarity."
The ship entered the jump. This time, it was normal. Dirty. Human.
Kael felt the echo reacting inside him. The point on the map pulsed faster and faster. Whatever was calling them was impatient. And very confident.
The jump threw them violently out of hyperspace. There was no smooth transition or stabilization. For a split second, the bridge was bathed in white light, and then everything returned to normal.
The sensors began to howl almost immediately. Lira was already at the console. Her hands moved quickly, nervously. The screens flooded with data.
"We're in a binary system."
Rex moved closer. "Close to the stars?"
"Too close."
Two stars appeared on the main screen, orbiting each other in a slow, deadly dance. Between them hung a station. Old. Huge. Barely holding together.
Zara whistled softly. "Who in their right mind builds something between two stars?"
Taro glanced at the energy signatures. "Someone who didn't plan on living long."
Kael looked at the station and felt a distinct pressure in his head. The point on his internal map glowed brightly. It was here. The fragment.
"It's the source of the pulse."
Zara turned abruptly. "So it's not a ship. Not a fleet. A place."
"Yes."
Rex checked his weapon. "Someone is sitting there, waiting."
Lira enlarged the image. The station's hull was jagged, as if torn from the inside. Docking rings missing. Lights uneven. Some sections completely dead.
"It's not a military base," she said. "Some kind of sanctuary. Or a prison."
Zara smiled wryly. "We always end up with the latter."
The ship approached slowly. Automatic systems did not protest. On the contrary, they seemed familiar with this course.
Kael placed his hand on the console. The echo inside him reacted more strongly. It did not warn him. It called to him.
"If we go down there," Lira said, "we don't know if the station will let us leave."
Rex looked at Kael. "That's the commander's decision."
Kael didn't answer immediately. He listened to the feeling inside. There was no fear. Only curiosity and the weight of responsibility.
"We're going down."
Zara put on her helmet without a word. The docking went surprisingly smoothly. As if the port had been ready for a long time. When the airlock opened, they were hit by the smell of old metal and ozone.
The corridor was wide. Walls bore traces of repairs carried out dozens of times. Someone had lived here. For a long time.
Taro glanced at the sensors. "The energy is stable. Someone is powering this place from the inside."
Zara moved first. Their footsteps echoed hollowly. "I don't like this. Too quiet. Too clean."
The further they went, the stronger the feeling of being watched became. Not by cameras. By something deeper.
Kael stopped suddenly. The door in front of them slid open by itself. Behind it was a round room. In the center floated an object resembling a fragment of an artifact, but larger. Distorted. As if someone had tried to force it to act against its nature.
Next to it stood a figure. A man. Elderly. In a long nanofiber coat. Eyes tired but sharp.
"Finally," he said calmly. "I was afraid you wouldn't understand the invitation."
Zara immediately raised her weapon. Rex did the same. Kael felt the echo tremble within him.
"Who are you?"
The man smiled slightly. "Someone who has been making sure, for a very long time, that the galaxy doesn't burn out too quickly." He looked straight at Kael. "And now it seems I have a successor."
Kael felt tension in his body. The echo of the artifact pulsed stronger than ever. The man in the cloak was not an enemy. But he was not a friend either.
"It seems you have many questions," he said calmly. "And a few answers you must discover for yourselves."
Zara snorted. "So you're not going to say anything, huh?"
"No." The man raised his hands in a neutral gesture. "I can't. I can't interfere with decisions. I can only guide, point."
Rex growled. "So someone's been screwing us over for millennia, and we're supposed to guess?"
"It's not messing with us," he replied calmly. "It's watching us. There's a difference."
Kael felt the echo of the artifact pulsing inside him, as if it wanted to speak—not with words, but with thoughts.
Lira looked at the artifact. Its surface glowed with a soft blue light, swirling like mist.
"It doesn't look like it wants to cooperate," she said.
"It's not designed to cooperate," Kael replied. "It's programmed to respond to intentions."
Zara rolled her eyes. "So we're all screwed if my intentions are bad."
"It depends," Kael said. "Not bad, not good. Just… my intentions."
The man in the coat nodded. "Exactly. Echo responds to decisions, not morality. To pure choices and consequences."
Taro moved closer to the artifact. "If it's used wrong…"
"…there will be no turning back," Kael finished, knowing exactly what he meant.
Zara raised her rifle. "That means we could lose everything with every move."
"Or gain everything," Kael said. "Decisions shape reality."
Rex snorted. "Great. Now I feel even more responsible."
The man in the cloak approached the artifact. He touched it gently, and the light pulsed more strongly.
"You must enter it, Kael. But not alone. The others must support you. Without them, the echo will ignore your intentions."
Kael looked at his crew. Zara raised an eyebrow, Rex held his weapon at the ready, and Lira and Taro watched every move.
"I am ready," he said finally. The artifact responded. The light pulsed in time with his heartbeat. The echo within stirred. It did not threaten. It did not encourage. It waited.
The man in the cloak stepped back. "Now you begin in earnest."
Zara sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but… we stick together, right?"
Kael nodded. "As always."
Rex snorted. "Worst idea ever, as usual."
The artifact's light filled the entire room. The pulses seemed to match their thoughts, their emotions. Kael felt the echo within synchronize.
Time suddenly sped up. There was no movement, yet everything moved. He could feel the decisions they had to make, the possible scenarios. Every impulse, every option in the galaxy was within reach of his thoughts.
"This is just the beginning," the man said. "The point of no return has already begun."
Kael closed his eyes, knowing that when he opened them, nothing would be the same.