Dr. Elara Myles receives a classified message from the Interstellar Research Directorate: a rhythmic signal has been detected from the lost planet Andara. She joins the crew of the Osprey, a sleek scientific vessel, and departs for a system long thought to be dead. The mission is officially exploration—but Elara suspects deeper motives, especially since the signal mirrors patterns found in old human neural implants… like the one her sister used before disappearing.
Dr. Elara Myles stood alone in the observation dome of the Cassiopeia Research Station, watching the slow rotation of the stars beyond the glass. The silence was comforting—until her comm implant buzzed with a triple-tone she hadn’t heard in years. Classified. Priority One.
“Dr. Myles,” came a clipped voice from the Interstellar Research Directorate. You are being reassigned. Full details en route.”
Elara’s heart skipped. Andara? That system had been marked destroyed in the First Galactic War—centuries ago, nothing but radiation and debris. Why now?
Within hours, she was aboard the Osprey, a high-tech vessel built more for speed and stealth than comfort. The crew was small, tight-lipped. Too polished for a standard science run.
She was greeted by Commander Rian Solen, ex-Navy, all edge and no warmth. “Welcome aboard, Doctor. Hope you packed for ghosts.”
Elara said nothing. Her mind was already spinning—especially after seeing the initial telemetry. The signal pulsing from Andara wasn’t random. It repeated in a looping pattern. A pattern she’d seen once before, nearly two decades ago, in the neural implant logs of her sister, Lira… just days before she vanished without a trace.
The Osprey slipped into foldspace, and Elara stared at the data in her quarters, over and over. A piece of her past—dead and buried—was suddenly very much alive.
And she intended to find out why.
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