The alien vessel hung silently in the vacuum, its surface absorbing all light as if space itself bent around its form. It neither hailed nor approached—merely observed, its ominous presence sending ripples through the electromagnetic spectrum.
Nam stood frozen, his eyes locked on the silhouette beyond the observation window.
"What are they waiting for?" Lan asked quietly.
"Us," Nam replied. "They're watching to see how we respond."
Behind them, Commander Jalil's voice crackled through the comm. "Sir, security teams are asking for orders. Should we prepare for a boarding scenario?"
Nam hesitated. "No weapons. Not yet. We make no hostile moves."
Lan raised an eyebrow. "You think they're peaceful?"
"I think they're advanced enough to destroy us if they wanted to. The fact that we're still breathing means they came here with purpose."
Just then, the shard pulsed again—this time, with a harmonic tone that resonated across the walls. It wasn't just light or energy. It was a frequency. A language.
Lan turned to the translation interface. Symbols cascaded across the screen—first chaotic, then stabilizing into recognizable linguistic patterns.
"It's trying to talk to them," she whispered. "The shard is a bridge."
Nam nodded. "Or a beacon."
As the interface decrypted the message, a sentence appeared:
"THE WINDOW IS OPEN. STEP FORWARD."
Nam looked at Lan. "I think they're inviting us aboard."
Lan's voice tightened. "That's insane. We have no idea what's inside that thing."
"We also have no idea what happens if we refuse."
Lan stared at the message. For a brief moment, doubt clouded her features. Then she straightened. "You're not going alone."
Nam gave a small smile. "Didn't expect to."
Moments later, suited in reinforced exo-environmental armor, the two stepped into the airlock, accompanied only by silence and their own rising heartbeats. The docking bay opened like the mouth of a dormant beast, and the shuttle detached from the station—drifting toward the dark leviathan beyond.
The moment their vessel crossed the perimeter of the alien ship, everything changed.
The inside wasn't metal or technology as they knew it—it was alive. Pulsing, breathing walls shifted around them. Gravity flickered. Time stretched. They were no longer just in another ship—they were in a different state of being.
Lan gripped the edge of her seat. "This isn't a ship. It's a sentient structure."
Nam whispered, "It's watching us."
A soft glow rose from the chamber ahead. As the walls parted, a figure emerged.
Humanoid. Towering. Its skin shimmered with constellations. Its eyes glowed with the same light as the shard. It spoke—not with words, but with thought.
"You have heard the call. You have answered. The fracture approaches. Will you stand?"
Nam's breath caught.
Lan replied, her voice trembling, "What fracture?"
The being stepped forward. "The universe is converging. What was sealed must be remembered. What was forgotten will rise."
Nam felt the weight of those words echo within his mind. "Why us?"
The being turned its gaze on him.
"Because your kind lit the beacon. And now, you are no longer alone."