The bridge lights flickered in warning. Outside, the stars looked wrong — twisted reflections of the ships now moving without command.
Rei was the first to say what they were all thinking. "They're not responding to us anymore."
Maya's throat tightened. "They're responding to her."
Vector's gaze stayed locked on the viewport. The Ghost Fleet — once perfectly aligned to Maya's pulse — now split into two halves. One still orbiting her signal, faint blue; the other shifting into formation under Asha's distant command, glowing white and gold.
"Half a fleet," Vector muttered. "Half a chance."
Rei slammed his hand against the console. "We should've expected this. Asha wasn't trying to destroy you — she was syncing you. Testing how much of the Archive she could pull."
Maya turned toward him, her voice flat. "And she succeeded."
Silence.
Then — static.
The comm crackled once, twice… and then a voice bled through.
"…Maya…?"
Her heart froze. "Kiran?"
Vector moved closer, wary. "Could be a trick."
"It's me. I—I don't know where I am. Everything's noise. Light. But I can see the ships. They're alive, Maya. They're… arguing."
Her breath hitched. "Arguing?"
"Two signals. Two masters. The Archive's splitting — it's never meant to serve both. If this keeps going, it'll tear itself apart… and me with it."
The signal wavered, then strengthened. The blue glyphs along the hull brightened, pulsing in time with his voice. For a heartbeat, the Ghost Fleet looked alive again — hers again.
Then a new voice joined his, cold and certain.
"You can't hold both sides, Maya."
Asha.
"Either surrender the Archive's half you command, or it will consume him completely. Choose balance, or lose him."
Kiran's voice came again, fractured and small.
"Don't… choose me."
She closed her eyes, shaking her head. "No. I can't—"
"You must."
The two voices overlapped, Archive static building between them, the air trembling with conflicting code. Rei screamed as his console sparked. Vector shouted something she couldn't hear.
And then — silence.
The view outside shifted. Half the Ghost Fleet folded into hyperspace, vanishing into the dark. The rest stayed — quiet, blue, loyal.
Maya's chest felt hollow.
Rei whispered, "She chose."
Vector looked at her — not with anger, but something worse. Pity. "You chose him."
Maya didn't answer.
Because deep inside, beneath the silence of space, she could still hear Kiran whisper. Weak, but alive.
"You shouldn't have."
🔥 Next chapter: The Silent Half. The missing ships begin transmitting on their own… and the whispers of the lost fleet start calling her name.