Light swallowed them whole as they stepped into the sphere.
For a heartbeat, Kaelen felt as though he'd been disassembled into atoms and rebuilt again in the same breath. The air shifted—denser, colder, with an undertone of something ancient.
They emerged onto a new platform suspended in endless dark. Vast towers of crystalline material jutted upward, shimmering faintly as though lit from within. Between them drifted fragments of objects that looked disturbingly familiar—pieces of ships, alien and human alike, floating as if trapped in amber.
Lyra's hand hovered near her weapon, her eyes scanning every shadow. "This isn't just a station. It's a graveyard."
Kaelen's gaze locked onto a twisted hull fragment that bore human markings—the crest of a corporate exploration fleet, one that had vanished years ago. His breath hitched.
"They were here. The corporations found this place long before we did."
Lyra frowned, her voice low. "And they didn't make it out."
As they moved forward, the crystalline towers began to hum. The sound wasn't noise—it was a vibration that resonated in Kaelen's chest, in his skull. The glyphs along the towers flared, and suddenly the air was alive with echoes.
Voices.
Not alien—human.
Fragments of cries, commands, desperate pleas. Kaelen staggered, clutching his ears as the voices overlapped, a thousand deaths replaying in endless chorus.
Lyra grabbed his arm, shaking him. "Focus, Doctor! It's a recording, some kind of… psychic playback. Don't let it in."
Kaelen squeezed his eyes shut, forcing the noise back. When he opened them again, the echoes had faded—but one tower still glowed brighter than the rest. Its surface shifted, forming an archway.
The whisper returned, threading into their bones:
"Knowledge comes with cost. Step inside, and remember."
Lyra's grip on her blaster tightened. "I hate this place more with every step." But her eyes, despite her words, betrayed curiosity she couldn't shake.
Kaelen's heart thundered. His obsession screamed for him to go on. To see. To know.
They stepped through the archway.
Instantly, the world around them changed.
The dark chamber dissolved into a battlefield beneath an alien sky—red suns burning overhead, and thousands of soldiers clashing below. Ships tore through the atmosphere, raining fire. But none of it was real. Kaelen reached out and his hand passed through a soldier mid-scream, as though he were smoke.
A memory.
Lyra turned slowly, her face pale in the crimson light. "This isn't human history."
Kaelen's eyes widened. His voice was almost reverent. "No… it's theirs."
They stood in the middle of a war that had ended long before humanity ever touched the stars. The alien constructs that had tested them now fought as armies, their glowing blades slicing through grotesque enemies Kaelen couldn't comprehend—beasts with too many eyes, too many mouths, their very forms bending the air around them.
The ground shook as a massive shadow passed overhead. They both looked up—
And froze.
A titanic figure, clad in obsidian armor, stood at the center of the battlefield. Its presence dwarfed everything around it. The air trembled under its roar.
The glyphs flared across the vision, imprinting themselves into Kaelen's mind. He stumbled back, clutching his head as a single phrase carved itself into his thoughts:
"The First War. The Betrayal. The Price of Infinity."
Then, as quickly as it appeared, the vision shattered.
They were back in the crystalline chamber, gasping, shaken, the echoes still burning in their minds.
Lyra swallowed hard, her voice unsteady for the first time since Kaelen met her. "Tell me, Doctor… are you sure we should keep going?"
Kaelen stared at the archway ahead, burning with fear and obsession all at once.
"We don't have a choice."
And from somewhere in the dark, unseen, something stirred—watching. Waiting.
---
⚡ That's Chapter 8 — mysterious, heavy suspense, and the first glimpse of the ancient alien war that hints at why this construct exists.
👉 Do you want me to charge right into Chapter 9 (where the alien presence directly tests their bond for the first time), or should I sketch a mini-arc outline for Chapters 8–12 so you know how this "Sphere Trial Arc" will unfold?