The signal shouldn't have existed.
Captain Elise Rohn leaned forward in her seat, jaw clenched as the Demiurge's long-range scanner displayed a tightwave burst bouncing across nullspace—its frequency jagged, corrupted by age, but unmistakably human.
SIGNAL TYPE: DISTRESSENCRYPTION: OBSOLETE – EARTH FEDERATION SIGMA-TIERORIGIN COORDINATES: UNCHARTEDTIME ACTIVE: 142 YEARS
"That's impossible," muttered Loro Vega from the engineering console. "That region's a black hole remnant. Nothing comes out of it. Not light. Not sound. Not this."
But the signal kept playing—a short loop of garbled audio. Just three seconds long.
"Thirteen... please... help... us—"
Then static.
Elise frowned. "Looping?"
"Every seventeen seconds," Loro replied. "Identical decay. No drift. Not natural."
The crew exchanged glances in the dim cockpit, bathed in the dull red glow of proximity alerts. Space outside the viewport was silent—empty, blacker than black. A wound in the galaxy.
The Scar.
A dead zone created by a collapsed neutron star nearly a century ago. According to every navigational chart, there was nothing there anymore.
No planets. No debris. No life.
And yet… someone had sent a call.
"I don't like this," said Dr. Mira Khaleel from the medbay intercom. "That encryption is two wars out of date. We're looking at something old. Pre-Collapse. Possibly pre-Split."
Elise stared out the window. A pinprick of light shimmered in the void. Not a star. A reflection?
No.
A ship.
"Ping it," she ordered.
Loro tapped the console. The scan returned almost instantly.
VESSEL IDENTIFIEDDesignation: UES PEREGRINEStatus: MISSING – PRESUMED DESTROYED (YEAR 3260)Crew Manifest: UNKNOWN
The name hit Elise like a slap. The Peregrine was one of the last Earth Federation science vessels lost during the Expansion War. It was supposed to have been destroyed in the first wave of starfire that sterilized this quadrant.
But there it was. Drifting. Silent. Broadcasting an ancient cry.
"It's not decayed," Loro said slowly. "No damage. No rotation. It's... parked."
"You're saying it's been just sitting there?" Mira's voice sharpened.
"I'm saying... it's waiting."
They approached carefully, the Demiurge's engines humming low as they aligned with the Peregrine's docking port. The ship's outer hull shimmered faintly, coated in micro-ice and dust, but otherwise untouched by time.
No signs of impact. No scars. No heat bleed.
Just perfection.
"Docking sequence initiated," Loro announced.
Elise glanced at the signal feed again. The same three-second loop played.
"Thirteen... please... help... us—"
Then static.
It sounded different this time. Sharper. As if someone had moved closer to the mic.
The ship locked into place. The airlock hissed.
Elise stood up, adjusting her plasma sidearm. "We're going in. Helm on. Bodycams rolling. No assumptions."
"Copy that," Mira said, stepping into the airlock with her medkit.
Loro followed, reluctantly.
The Peregrine's interior was dark.
Then, with a whisper of static, the lights blinked on.
Every surface gleamed. Clean floors. Charged consoles. No dust. No mold. It smelled faintly of sterilizer.
"Power's still active," Loro whispered. "Reactor's humming like it started yesterday."
"No life signs?" Elise asked.
He shook his head. "Nothing."
Footsteps echoed. The corridors were too quiet.
Then they reached the central hub.
Dozens of doors. Labels still etched clearly: Bridge, Medbay, Cryo, AI Core.
Mira moved toward the medbay, stopping just short of the door. Her fingers hovered over the panel.
A sudden noise echoed.
Knock.
Three slow raps.
From inside the sealed medbay.
Everyone froze.
"...Did anyone else hear that?" Mira asked.
"Yes," Elise whispered.
Then her bodycam flickered.
Just for a second.
And on the screen, behind Mira…a figure stood watching from the end of the hall.