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Chapter 1
Captain Lira Jensen sat at the helm of the Nebula's Edge, her fingers gliding over the control panel with practiced ease. The hum of the ship's engines reverberated through her bones, a constant reminder that she was far from home—and perhaps, far from sanity. The year was 2139, but in the deep void of space, time was a fleeting thing. A lost concept.
"Captain, we're approaching the edge of the Singularity," came the voice of Lieutenant Reyes, his tone uncharacteristically tense.
Lira glanced over at the young officer. He was staring at the console, his knuckles white as they gripped the armrests. She couldn't blame him. Even the most seasoned spacefarers had a hard time facing the unknown—especially when that unknown was a cosmic anomaly capable of unraveling the very fabric of reality itself.
She exhaled slowly, her fingers dancing over a set of glowing keys, pulling up the data on the Singularity. The digital map projected a swirling, incomprehensible mass of energy in the far reaches of the galaxy, its gravitational pull so intense that even light bent around it, unable to escape.
The Singularity wasn't supposed to be here. The Federation had mapped out this region of space a hundred years ago, and it was deemed "safe" for exploration. But something had changed. Reports from the distant colony of Harrow Station had stopped coming in over a month ago, and any ships sent to investigate had vanished without a trace.
"Coordinates locked," Lira said, her voice cold. "Brace for impact."
The ship's systems began to hum with increasing intensity, the gravity well of the Singularity tugging at the Nebula's Edge as it moved closer. A warning flashed across the HUD: "Gravitational disturbance in 30 seconds."
Lira tightened her grip on the controls. Every instinct told her to turn back, but there was no going back now. Harrow Station's message was clear: We've discovered something. We're not alone here. The Singularity is... awake. And if there was one thing she had learned in her years as a captain, it was that curiosity always killed the cat—but that didn't mean she wasn't going to find out what was happening.
"All hands, prepare for phase shift," she ordered, her voice steady despite the growing tension in her chest.
Just as the ship's hull began to groan under the immense pressure, an alert blared through the comms. "Captain, we're receiving a signal—unidentified source, encrypted."
Lira's heart skipped a beat. A signal? At the edge of the Singularity? That couldn't be possible. Nothing could survive that close, let alone transmit a message.
"Patch it through," she commanded.
The screen flickered for a moment, then a series of distorted, broken images appeared on the display. The voice that followed was almost imperceptible, muffled by static, but the words were clear.
"This is… Harrow Station… emergency… don't—"
Then the transmission cut off abruptly.
Lira's breath hitched. Harrow Station was still alive—at least, someone there was. But what was that message? And why had it been so distorted?
"Lieutenant, full speed ahead!" Lira ordered, her voice now sharp with urgency.
The Nebula's Edge surged forward, breaking through the outer layers of the Singularity's pull. The stars ahead of them twisted, contorted, and disappeared into a vortex of color and light. The ship trembled violently as it entered the event horizon.
For a fleeting moment, Lira saw everything—and nothing—at once. Fragments of memories, images from a thousand different timelines, flashed before her eyes. She saw herself, older, standing in a room filled with shimmering data streams. A voice echoed in her mind, whispering words she could almost understand: The Singularity is not a point in space. It is a doorway.
Before she could process what she had seen, the world around her shattered into nothingness.
The ship plunged deeper into the unknown, and the Nebula's Edge was no longer in the galaxy they had known.
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