Chapter 1 – The Signal
The void was never silent.
Beneath the hum of Echo-1’s life support systems, beyond the reinforced glass of the observation deck, space whispered in frequencies too ancient for human ears. Solar winds slithered past forgotten worlds, radiation from dying stars drummed faint, ghostly pulses through the abyss. The universe had a rhythm, a language written in waves and whispers.
Commander Elise Voss had spent her life listening. Decoding. Searching for meaning in the void.
But this… this wasn’t a whisper.
She leaned forward, gloved fingers gripping the cold metal of the console. On the screen, a waveform pulsed steady. Rhythmic. Deliberate.
A signal.
Three days ago, it had appeared.
From a sector where nothing should exist. No planets. No stations. No life. Just the uncharted dark.
Elise’s breath stayed controlled, but a cold, instinctual part of her knew this wasn’t just an anomaly.
This was a message.
And whoever or whatever had sent it was waiting.
Behind her, Noah Carter worked the display, his fingers moving in precise motions, isolating and enhancing the signal. The glow of the screen reflected off his glasses, his expression tightening.
“This frequency…” he murmured. “It’s unnatural. No known celestial event produces this pattern.”
Ren Arata stood near the viewport, his arms folded, sharp eyes flicking from the display to Elise. His voice was steady, but edged with caution.
“Could be interference. Some rogue transmission bouncing back at us.”
Noah exhaled sharply, shaking his head.
“No. It’s structured. Too structured. Too…” He hesitated.
Elise caught the shift in his tone. “Too what?”
Noah swallowed. “Too… aware.”
Elise’s stomach tensed. A ridiculous thought. Signals weren’t aware. Signals weren’t alive.
But something in the way the frequency moved, the way it subtly adjusted itself, as if listening… learning… responding…
It felt like breathing.
The vastness of space no longer felt distant. It felt close. Heavy. Watching.
“We respond,” Elise said.
Ren’s jaw tightened. “That could be a mistake.”
Elise allowed herself a faint, dry smirk. “Everything out here is a mistake waiting to happen.”
The silence stretched between them.
Then, without breaking her gaze from the console, Elise keyed in the transmission.
One single pulse. Sent back into the dark.
The ship held its breath.
The hum of Echo-1’s systems became deafening in the stillness. A countdown of silence.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Nothing.
Then...
The signal changed.
Not a delayed echo. Not a simple return ping.
A reaction.
The waveform spiked violently, its pattern unraveling, twisting into something new something faster. As if it had been waiting for them.
A cold wave crawled up Elise’s spine.
Then...
Outside the viewport.
The stars moved.
Not a trick of the eye. Not a system glitch.
The stars shifted.
Like something vast had passed between them.
Like the universe itself had noticed.
Elise’s pulse slammed once against her ribs.
The void was never silent.
And now, it was listening.
Tease Echo:
The message was never meant to be found.
Now, something knows they’re here.
And it’s already watching.
Now, something knows they’re here.
And it’s already watching.
