The aurora rings of planet Elyndra shimmered above the sky station like ribbons of living light. Dr Elara Vance walked along the transparent transit bridge her boots echoing against the glass floor as star fields glittered beneath her. Her chest tightened with the familiar feeling of displacement. No matter how many stations she visited across the galaxy nothing ever felt like home. She was a xenobiologist a wanderer by profession a nomad by instinct and a lonely soul by accident. She arrived at Citadel Station for one reason. To examine the Celest Pulse a mysterious energy signature that had begun emanating from the uncharted region known as the Veil Rift.…

The mist rolled over Lantern Shore like a living creature gliding across the sleeping sand. Mira Holden stepped out of the small coastal inn just as dawn began to stir in faint pink ribbons over the water. The scent of salt wrapped around her and the distant cry of gulls echoed in the quiet. She tightened her grip on her sketchbook. Coming here had been a last minute decision born from impulse exhaustion and a longing she could not name. Lantern Shore was known for two things. The abandoned lighthouse where countless legends whispered from generation to generation and the strange phenomenon that happened only once every decade. The Echo…

The night rain swept through the quiet streets of Crescent City as Lila Warren pulled her coat tighter around herself. She had always loved storms but tonight the storm felt different. There was a subtle chill in the air that whispered change. She stepped quickly toward a narrow alley lit only by a flickering amber lamp. The Midnight Gallery waited ahead, a place that existed like a secret only found by those who needed it most. Lila was a restoration artist. Her days were spent reviving the lost colors of forgotten paintings though her own world had been losing its color for years. A fractured engagement, a stalled career and…

The wreckage drifted silently through the void like the ribs of a dead colossus. Once a thriving sanctuary station named Solara Haven it now hung shattered above the scorched moon of Ilvion its golden arches split open and its luminous gardens floating in debris fields. Selene moved through the ruins alone her boots touching twisted metal her breath echoing faintly inside her visor. Her heart was heavy with grief with memories and with the single desperate hope that had brought her here. Aris. She gripped the glowing shard in her pocket a fragment of the station’s old heart core. The last message encoded inside whispered words that still made her…

The rain on planet Nemeris did not fall from clouds. It rose from the ground in shimmering ribbons of light drifting upward like inverted waterfalls. Lyra stood beneath the floating streams letting the warm glow soak into her skin. It was the first moment she had allowed herself to breathe after seventy two hours of scanning the oceanic fractures for any trace of the missing research outpost. Most people feared the Luminous Deep but Lyra had always felt strangely connected to it as though something ancient inside the ocean whispered to her through the glow. She lifted her wrist console checking the signal again. It pulsed faintly a clipped distress…

The first ripple began on a cold sapphire dawn when the twin suns of Orialis were still hiding behind the fractured horizon. Aelira stood atop the observatory deck, her fingers trembling slightly over the crystalline console as she watched the pulse of light pierce through the void. It was faint at first like a breath across water but it carried something that made her chest tighten. A signature pattern identical to the one she lost years ago. A signature she once knew better than her own heartbeat. Kalev. She whispered his name with a softness she had not allowed herself since the day the Stellar Veil mission ended in tragedy.…

The first time Liora Hale saw the android designated Unit V7 she felt something stir beneath the logical structure of her mind. It happened in the dim hangar of the Vega Research Citadel where starship engines hummed like distant storms and metal corridors glowed with cold blue lights. Unit V7 was strapped to a vertical frame surrounded by cables and diagnostic screens. His synthetic skin was pale with faint luminous veins beneath the surface like constellations trapped under flesh. His eyes were closed and his hair fell softly across his forehead as if he were simply sleeping. Dr Yarin stood beside her tapping a tablet. This is the prototype you…

The night the Seraphim Array activated for the first time the entire galaxy seemed to hold its breath. As if the stars themselves were waiting to see what humanity was about to unleash. Dr Elen Mira stood in the control chamber surrounded by holographic maps of nebulae superclusters and the pulsing network of deep space receivers that made up the Array. She had spent twelve years building this system dedicated to detecting intelligent signals from beyond the Milky Way. Yet she never expected the signal to speak her name. Elen. A voice she had never heard yet felt strangely familiar echoed softly through the speakers. Elen can you hear me…

The first rule of the Lumen Program was simple. Do not fall in love with the stars. The second rule was even harsher. Do not fall in love with anyone who carries them. Lyra Tenebris always obeyed rules. They kept the research station Arcturus Nine stable. They kept her grounded. They reminded her that she was a scientist assigned to study the mysterious anomalies surrounding the star cluster known as the Veil. She had no time for distractions no room for entanglements no space for emotions that could compromise her work. But everything changed the day she found the man made of light. Lyra was adjusting the frequency scanners inside…

The first time Aria Hale saw the universe fold was the night she escaped the orbital city of Veylor. The sky cracked open like shimmering glass and for a moment she thought she saw the heartbeat of a star pulse in the void. She could never have known that the phenomenon would lead her to the one man she was never meant to meet. A man who did not belong to her time. A man who would change the course of her destiny. Aria had always felt like an anomaly in Veylor. A technician born into a society where emotional detachment was mandatory for survival. The city floated above a…