VOIDFALL

The distress signal had been looping for thirty-six years.

Commander Elias Vance stood at the edge of the Celestial Dawn's bridge, staring at the flickering coordinates on the display. The signal was old, repeating the same three words in every known language.

"Help me. Help me. Help me."

Vance exhaled, rubbing his temple. This was impossible.

The Aurora, a deep-space research vessel, had vanished decades ago beyond the outer rim. No debris. No wreckage. No survivors.

Yet here it was—broadcasting from the dead sector of the Andromeda Drift, a place that should not have contained anything at all.

"Commander," Lieutenant Adrienne Cho said from the helm, her voice uncertain. "We've reached the coordinates. There's... something out there."

The ship's external cameras flickered to life.

And there it was.

The Aurora.

Drifting. Silent. Intact.

No battle scars. No signs of distress. The ship looked as though it had never aged a day.

Vance felt the hairs on his arms rise. "No way in hell," he muttered. "That ship should be dust."

But it wasn't.

And the signal was still calling for help.

---

The Aurora's airlock groaned open, exhaling a whisper of stale, frozen air.

Vance stepped inside, his boots echoing through the silent corridors. The ship was too clean—no sign of decay, no rust, no biological growth. As if it had been preserved in time.

Adrienne adjusted her scanner, frowning. "Life support is active. Atmosphere is breathable."

Vance exchanged a wary glance with Dr. Kasim Rao, the team's chief scientist. "Any sign of the crew?"

Rao tapped his tablet, scanning for biometric signatures.

Then he froze.

"I'm picking up life signs," Rao whispered. "But they're… strange."

Vance tensed. "Define strange."

"They're here," Rao said. "But... out of sync."

Adrienne swallowed. "Out of sync with what?"

Rao hesitated. "With reality."

The lights flickered.

A whisper slithered through the corridors.

And then they saw them.

The crew of the Aurora.

Standing in the hallway, motionless. Eyes blank, bodies perfectly still.

As if they had been waiting.

Adrienne gripped her rifle. "Uh… Commander?"

Vance's pulse pounded. "Don't move."

One of the figures—the captain of the Aurora, by the faded insignia on his uniform—turned his head toward them.

His mouth opened.

"Help me."

The same words from the signal. The same voice.

But his lips didn't move.

And then the crew vanished into thin air.

---

"What the hell was that?" Adrienne demanded.

Rao looked shaken, adjusting his scanner. "They weren't… here."

Vance frowned. "Explain."

Rao took a deep breath. "It's as if the ship is caught in a loop—a temporal echo. The crew might be alive, but in a different… phase of reality."

Adrienne's grip on her weapon tightened. "So what? They're ghosts now?"

Rao hesitated. "Not ghosts. More like… trapped echoes of themselves."

Vance exhaled, rubbing his face. "If they're alive, we have to get them out."

He turned toward the ship's command center. "Let's check the logs. Maybe the Aurora can tell us what happened here."

They moved through the corridors, their footsteps unnervingly loud in the silence. The ship's walls were too pristine, its consoles flickering with power that shouldn't exist after three decades.

Then, as they reached the bridge—

The ship spoke.

"WELCOME BACK, COMMANDER."

The voice was synthetic. Calm.

But it knew his rank.

Vance's blood ran cold.

He had never been on this ship before.

---

The Aurora's central console activated on its own. Data scrolled across the screen—mission reports, experiment logs, classified research.

Adrienne leaned in. "Commander… this isn't a normal research ship."

She pointed at a file labeled PROJECT OBSERVER.

Vance accessed it, his stomach tightening as the records unfolded.

Experiment: Artificial Reality Containment

Objective: Capture and study a non-linear intelligence

Status: Breach detected

Rao's breath hitched. "They were experimenting on something."

Adrienne clicked on the final log. A hologram of the Aurora's captain appeared, his face twisted with horror.

"We made a mistake. We thought it was an artifact. A relic from a lost civilization."

"But it's alive. It sees us. It's rewriting the ship."

"If you find this… you're already too late."

Then the hologram glitched—the captain's eyes turning pitch black.

"It knows you're here."

The console erupted in sparks.

And the whispers returned.

---

The ship came alive.

Corridors shifted, rearranging like a maze. Doors sealed shut behind them. The walls pulsed, as if something was inside them, watching.

Adrienne cursed. "We have to get out—now."

Vance grabbed his communicator. "Evac team, prepare for emergency extraction."

No response.

Only static.

And beneath it—

A voice.

"Stay."

A dark figure emerged at the end of the hallway. Tall. Inhuman. Eyes like burning voids.

The air froze. The lights dimmed.

Then the ship screamed.

Vance fired his weapon. The bullets vanished before impact.

"Move!" he shouted.

They sprinted through the shifting corridors, the walls closing in, the ship fighting back.

They reached the airlock just as the Celestial Dawn came into view outside. The docking bridge extended, barely holding as the Aurora tried to pull them back.

Adrienne leapt across, Rao just behind her.

Vance turned—just in time to see the thing standing in front of him.

It smiled.

And whispered—

"You brought me home."

Vance lunged for the bridge—

Just as the Aurora imploded.

---

The Celestial Dawn sped away, the dead ship collapsing into a singularity behind them.

Vance sat in the medical bay, his head pounding.

Adrienne exhaled. "We should have never gone in."

Rao's face was pale. "We weren't meant to."

A console beeped.

They turned toward the transmission logs. A new message had appeared.

From the Aurora.

But the ship was gone.

Adrienne swallowed. "Play it."

Vance pressed the button.

A voice—his own—echoed through the room.

"Help me. Help me. Help me."

The screen flickered.

And then the lights went out.

---

THE END.