The stars were beautiful tonight.
Kaelen Myles leaned back in the pilot's chair of the Vera Dawn, his small freighter humming softly around him. Outside the wide viewports, the endless sea of space stretched like a velvet canvas, studded with millions of glittering points.
One more run, he told himself. Just one.
At twenty-seven, Kaelen had spent most of his life running cargo between distant colonies, scraping together enough credits for a future he wasn't sure he even wanted anymore. His hands moved easily across the controls, setting the autopilot toward the mining station at Callix Prime — the last stop before he planned to retire.
Maybe he'd open a café on one of the green worlds. Serve coffee instead of dodging asteroid fields. A simple life.
He smiled at the thought — until the console flickered.
A soft beep echoed through the cockpit.
Incoming transmission.
Kaelen frowned. No one should be sending signals out here. The flight path was isolated, a cold stretch of space between systems.
He tapped the console.
The message was old, warped by time and radiation. Static hissed through the speakers, then a broken voice:
"...Please... help us... trapped... coordinates attached..."
Kaelen hesitated. Rules were clear — abandoned signals were to be reported, not investigated. Too many pilots had disappeared chasing phantom calls.
But something in the voice pulled at him.
He zoomed in on the attached coordinates. The location wasn't even on his nav charts. Just empty space.
His thumb hovered over the ignore button. Then, with a sigh, he redirected the ship.
"Just a quick look," he muttered. "Then home."
The stars shifted as the Vera Dawn changed course, slipping into a deep black region where no stars seemed to shine.
As he neared the source of the signal, Kaelen's instruments started to act strangely — readings flickering, gravity sensors pulsing. The ship's lights dimmed for a moment, then brightened.
"What in the skies..." he whispered.
Ahead, space seemed to ripple like water. A swirling blue tear had formed in the darkness, spinning slowly, pulling light and dust toward it.
A rift.
No, the Rift — the one whispered about in frightened conversations at spaceports, a tear between realities.
Kaelen's heart hammered in his chest. He yanked at the controls, trying to pull away — but it was too late.
The Vera Dawn shuddered violently. The stars vanished into a smear of blue and black, and the ship was dragged forward, faster than he could react.
A single thought echoed in his mind as the Rift swallowed him whole:
This was supposed to be my last flight...