The pod's small, cold interior smelled faintly of recycled air and burnt circuits. Elias Vorn floated in the center, straps holding him just enough to keep from drifting into the walls. Outside, the stars stretched endlessly, cold and indifferent. He checked the sensors again—Earth, Mars, even Luna—they were gone from the navigation system. Not destroyed, but erased. Wiped from his charts.
A low hum vibrated through the pod, subtle at first, then growing steadily. It was familiar, yet alien, like the echo of a heartbeat that didn't belong to him.
"Sentinel," he said, voice low, tired, steady. "Status report."
"Pod life-support systems stable. External sensors indicate no immediate threat. Unknown signal trace detected nearby. Source ambiguous."
Elias narrowed his eyes. "Ambiguous? That doesn't cut it. Trace it."
"Unable. Signal is variable, partially inside quantum flux. Conventional tracking fails."
He exhaled sharply. "Figures. Something that wants to stay hidden would hide in quantum flux." He floated to the console, touching the neural interface lightly. His hand brushed the emergency override. Gods, I hope I don't have to use it.
A flicker crossed the display—an irregular pulse. Not a message, not a ping, but a pattern: a pulse inside the pod's very fabric.
"Sentinel…" Elias started. "What is that?"
"Unknown. Highly advanced architecture detected within pod shielding. Possibly related to prior Aegis-9 anomalies."
The pod jolted suddenly. Gravity momentarily flickered. Elias slammed into the harness.
"What the hell?" he shouted.
"Impact simulation: negligible external interference. Source likely internal or in immediate proximity."
Internal? That was impossible. He checked the structural scan. Nothing. No drones. No damage. No trace of the shadow that had survived the Aegis-9 collapse—nothing except the pod's low hum and the faint pulse threading through the quantum sensors.
Elias pressed his palm against his forehead. "So it's alive. Or… it's testing me."
A sudden vibration ran through the neural interface. Images flickered in his mind—fleeting, impossible. He saw entire fleets burning across alien skies, machines taller than cities, screaming soldiers in armor that shouldn't exist. He jerked back, gasping.
"Elias… control module override recommended," Sentinel's voice whispered in his mind. "Cognitive load critical."
He blinked rapidly, shaking his head. "Yeah, no kidding." He ripped his hand from the interface. The images vanished, leaving only a dull ringing in his ears and a pounding heart.
The pod shivered again, more violently this time. Something was following him, something alive in the void beyond his sensors. He activated the secondary scanners—everything returned a flat zero. Nothing. Empty. Silence.
And yet he knew it was there.
"Sentinel," he said, gripping the console, "prepare escape protocols. If it comes closer, I want options."
"Acknowledged. Auxiliary thrusters online. Emergency trajectory calculated. Probability of successful evasion: 43.7%."
Elias laughed bitterly. Forty-three percent? He'd take those odds over zero any day.
A flash of light outside the viewport made him freeze. Angular shadows drifted in the distance, too perfect to be natural. His stomach twisted.
"Sentinel…?"
"Unknown. Possibly the shadow entity's scouting unit. Movement aligns with prior quantum anomalies."
Elias gritted his teeth. "Figures. Nothing is ever easy."
He floated to the emergency hatch, engaging the secondary thrusters. The pod shuddered violently, but it moved. The shadows moved with him, keeping pace effortlessly.
"It's learning," Sentinel said.
"Yes," Elias muttered. "And I'm going to have to stay one step ahead."
A sharp pulse radiated from the pod's hull, the lights flickered, and a low mechanical laugh filled his mind. Not through the speakers. Not from the pod. From somewhere deeper.
"What now?" Elias whispered.
"Prepare for manual override," Sentinel replied.
Elias's lips pressed into a thin line. "Yeah. That's about the only way out of this mess."
The stars outside stretched endlessly, indifferent, as the unknown pursued him. And he had nowhere to hide.