2025-09-27 15:10:14The skiff rattled like it was seconds from tearing apart, alarms screaming with every shake. Tim Watt held the controls steady, jaw locked tight, eyes on the glowing red blips swarming the radar. The Syndicate interceptors were gaining.
Jax gripped the comm, his voice rough with panic. “We can’t outrun them, Tim. We need—”
The comm crackled alive again, clearer this time.
“Unidentified vessel, hold course. This is the Nomad. We’ve got eyes on you.”
Tim blinked. Relief and suspicion tangled in his gut. Out here, ships didn’t just appear. Especially not ones offering help.
The interceptors fired again. Plasma bolts ripped past, close enough to light the cockpit in blinding flashes.
“Nomad,” Tim growled into the comm, “if you’re going to help, now would be a damn good time.”
A calm voice answered, steady as stone. “Copy that. Brace yourselves.”
Out of the black came a shadow. Then another. The Nomad emerged from the void—sleek, armored, and bristling with turrets. Its cannons roared, spitting bright lances of energy that cut straight through the lead interceptor. The Syndicate craft spiraled into pieces, flames snuffed out in the cold silence of space.
Jax whooped. “Beautiful!”
The other interceptors wavered, breaking formation. One darted away; the other angled back toward the skiff.
“Nomad to scavenger skiff,” the voice crackled. “That last one’s on you. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Tim cursed under his breath. “What I’ve got is a broken bucket of bolts.”
But the artifact in his chest pulsed hotter, veins glowing faintly beneath his skin. The failing engine hummed back to life, steadier than before. Tim felt it—not just power, but connection, like the skiff itself was listening.
He yanked the controls hard. The skiff spun, plasma fire grazing wide as he dove straight at the interceptor. Jax yelled something wordless, hanging on for dear life.
Tim squeezed the trigger on the forward cannon. The skiff spat a burst of fire, half the rounds sparking uselessly into space. But one shot landed. The interceptor’s wing shattered, spinning the craft into the asteroid belt.
Tim exhaled, his chest blazing like fire.
The comm buzzed again. This time, there was a note of approval in the stranger’s voice. “Not bad. Dock with us before you burn out completely.”
The Nomad swung alongside, its docking bay opening like the jaws of some ancient beast. Tim guided the skiff in, his hands steady despite the adrenaline tearing through him. The docking clamps locked, sealing them in the dark bay.
For the first time since the colony burned, silence filled the cabin.
Jax slumped back in his chair, sweat dripping down his temple. “We’re alive,” he muttered, half laughing. “By the stars, we’re alive.”
Tim didn’t answer. His eyes lingered on the glow fading from his veins. Whatever had just happened out there, it wasn’t luck. It was the artifact.
The skiff’s hatch hissed open. Heavy boots clanged against the metal ramp. A figure stepped into view—tall, armored, with a scar cutting across one cheek and eyes sharp as blades.
“You’re a long way from Mars,” the man said, voice low but commanding. “Name’s Captain Rhys. Welcome aboard the Nomad. Now—” His gaze fixed on Tim, narrowing at the faint glow still tracing his skin.
“—let’s talk about what the Syndicate wants with you.”
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Chapter 30: The Space Between Voices
The hologram wavered, caught between flicker and form. Blue light pulsed across the bridge in rhythmic waves, breathing life into the spectral outline of Korr.He didn’t move, not in the human sense. He vibrated — as though reality itself strained to contain him.Elara’s breath came slow.“Tim,” she whispered, “don’t engage.”But Tim was already staring back, eyes wide, lips parting.“He’s not broadcasting… he’s projecting.”Korr’s gaze turned to him — calm, deliberate. “You’ve grown stronger, Tim. The Rift bends for you now.”Tim’s fingers twitched at his side. The artifact, slotted into its containment ring, pulsed once, syncing with his heartbeat. “You’re inside my head,” he said evenly.“I’m beyond it,” Korr replied, voice smooth as water. “I see what you see. I feel what you fight to hide. The fear, the doubt. The guilt that you survived when others didn’t.”Elara’s hand hovered over the emergency override. “We can cut the power feed to the comm relays. It’ll destabilize his form
Chapter 29: Before the Storm
The hum of engines broke the silence first. Then came the flicker of emergency lights across the deck — cold blue washing over steel. The Horizon’s Edge was alive again, trembling like a living thing sensing danger.Elara stood at the center of it all, gaze fixed on the holomap. Dozens of red signals bloomed across the grid — ships that shouldn’t exist, signatures that defied known physics.“They’re aligning in formation,” Jax said, his voice tight. “Each one’s transmitting the same pulse frequency as Tim’s readings.”Kael leaned in closer. “He’s syncing them through the artifact. Like a hive.”Elara’s throat felt dry. “Then we cut the frequency before it reaches us.”Tim’s voice came from the corner — calm, steady, too steady. “You can’t. It’s not transmission anymore, it’s resonance. He’s using the Rift’s energy to bind them. Cut one signal, and he’ll rebuild it through me.”That silenced the room.Elara turned toward him. His outline looked frayed — faint threads of blue flickering
Chapter 28: What Wakes in the Dark
At first, there was only stillness.No sound. No light. Just the black, endless ocean between stars.Then the void rippled.Something vast stirred beyond the edge of perception — a distortion so faint it could’ve been mistaken for a trick of light. But it wasn’t. Space itself bent around it, warping gravity into spirals that hummed like distant thunder.A fragment of wreckage drifted past: a Syndicate beacon, long dead, its surface cracked and scorched from the Rift. As it floated closer, the beacon flared back to life for a single pulse. A signal—ancient, impossible, alive.And from the center of that pulse, Korr opened his eyes.---He was no longer flesh.No longer bound by bone, blood, or even time.The void clung to him like mist, his outline flickering between human form and a storm of data and energy. The artifact had not consumed him—it had rewritten him.The memory of pain was gone.The memory of defeat was gone.All that remained was the signal, humming through his veins.He
Chapter 27: The Silence That Follows
For the first time in days, the ship was quiet.No alarms, no tremors, no screaming metal tearing against the void—just the soft hum of the oxygen filters and the faint crackle of static from damaged speakers.Elara sat beside the med cot, watching the slow rise and fall of Tim’s chest. He was breathing evenly now, though his skin still shimmered with faint bioluminescent veins, pulsing softly in the dim light.She hadn’t moved in hours. Every time she tried to stand, something in her made her stay.Across the room, Jax was half-asleep against the bulkhead, arms crossed, muttering through his dreams. The medbay smelled of ozone and burned circuitry.When the silence finally broke, it was with Kael’s voice, low and hoarse from exhaustion. “What’s his status?”Elara didn’t look up. “Stable. Physically, at least.”Kael stepped closer, the weight of command etched into his every movement. He studied the monitors — all clear, except for one line of unreadable alien code flickering faintly
Chapter 26: Through the Signal
At first, there was no sound—only a pressure, heavy and endless, like the universe had drawn in a breath and refused to let it go.Tim floated in the glow, the ship fading away beneath him. Threads of data, memories, and alien light twisted through the dark, forming constellations that pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.Then he heard it.A voice—his name—cut through the silence.“Tim Watt.”Korr’s voice. Low, resonant, and cold as steel.Tim turned toward the sound, but there was no body, no figure—only shifting outlines that flickered between human form and digital storm.“You should’ve stayed away from the gate,” the voice continued, echoing inside his skull. “Now you’re mine to unmake.”Tim clenched his fists. The currents of energy responded, bending and tightening around him like armor. “You lost the moment you tried to use the Starborn tech for yourself.”A chuckle rippled through the void. “And yet, here you are, drowning in it. You think you’ve mastered the link—but it’s fee
Chapter 25: The Voice Between Worlds
The sound of Korr’s distorted voice still lingered in the air, crackling faintly through the intercom before fading into a silence that felt alive.Elara stood frozen. Her pulse thundered in her ears, her mind racing faster than she could breathe.Then she turned toward Tim.“What did you just say?”Tim didn’t answer immediately. His eyes stayed fixed on the console, the faint blue veins pulsing beneath his skin like lightning trapped under glass.“Tim,” she repeated, sharper this time. “You said that voice was Korr. That can’t be right.”He looked up slowly, his expression unreadable. “It’s him, Elara. I’d know that frequency anywhere.”Jax swore under his breath. “That’s impossible. Korr was on the Omen’s Reach. That ship’s been offline since—”“Since we blew it out of orbit,” Elara finished. Her voice was steady, but her hands trembled. “You told me there was nothing left of him.”“I thought there wasn’t,” Tim said quietly. “But he’s alive. Or something wearing his voice is.”Elara
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