The universe, once a library of silent, curated tomes, was now a bustling, cacophonous marketplace of stories. The Astropheles drifted through this new reality, its story-heart pulsing with a quiet, contented rhythm. We were listeners now, observers of the grand, messy, beautiful narrative we had helped birth. We visited nascent democracies on worlds that had only known tyranny, celebrated with artists whose first brushstrokes were revolutions, and offered quiet counsel to the "First Chapter" scribes like Kael, who were becoming the gentle midwives of this new age.It was on the edge of a nebula, a nursery of young stars and younger civilizations, that we found the derelict.It was an Archivist vessel, a teardrop-shaped enforcer, but it was dead. Not just powered down, but empty. Its story had been scraped clean. There were no signs of battle, no energy residue. It was a ghost ship, floating in the silent black.A cold finger of dread traced my spine. "What could have done this?"Jeff
Last Updated : 2025-11-12 Read more