Chapter 6: Return Trip

As soon as Lyra took a single step into their ship, the Solstice, there was a blinding flash of light—so intense, so all-consuming that it burned away every sense of reality. Her breath hitched as her vision was swallowed by the brilliance, her body growing weak, as if something had reached into her very core and drained her of everything—her strength, her energy, even the steady rhythm of her thoughts. Her knees buckled. The last thing she remembered was the overwhelming silence that followed, a stillness that pressed against her mind like the weight of an entire void.

Then—nothing.

Time passed in fragments, slipping away seamlessly. There were moments—whispers, fleeting impressions that weren't quite memories. The sensation of movement, the hum of machinery, voices just out of reach. A deep, rhythmic pulse, almost like a heartbeat but mechanical, artificial. A drifting sensation, like floating just beneath the surface of water, weightless and tethered all at once.

Then came awareness—slow at first, creeping in like the first traces of dawn breaking through the dark.

Lyra's eyes fluttered open.

Blurry lights overhead. A sterile scent. The faint, mechanical hum of life-support monitors. A cool sensation against her skin, like metal pressing gently against her temple. It took a moment for the room to solidify in her vision, for reality to stop shifting at the edges.

She was in the Medical Bay.

She let out a slow, shuddering breath, the weight of her body sinking into the cot beneath her. Every muscle ached, her limbs sluggish and unresponsive. Her mind felt slow, her thoughts unraveling as she tried to piece together what had happened.

"Ugh... what happened… where exactly... huh?" Her own voice sounded foreign to her, rough, strained, barely more than a whisper.

A soft beep from the bedside console signaled her movement, triggering an automated scan. A moment later, a second noise—footsteps. Rapid, purposeful.

Then a voice—sharp with relief.

"You're awake."

Lyra turned her head with effort, her gaze landing on Kaelen standing by the doorway, arms crossed, concern etched into his normally unreadable features. Behind him, Rhea and Eron stood just outside the med bay, their expressions tense.

Kaelen stepped closer, eyeing her as if making sure she wasn't about to vanish again. "How do you feel?"

Lyra groaned, attempting to push herself upright, but the moment she tried, her body rebelled. A wave of dizziness crashed over her, forcing her to lie back down. "Like I got hit by a plasma cannon."

Rhea hesitated before stepping forward, her bioluminescent glow subdued. "You were unconscious for over fourteen hours. We weren't sure if you'd wake up."

Fourteen hours? Lyra's heart lurched. Had they left the station? What had happened after the light?

Eron, standing near the med console, crossed his arms. "We ran every scan we could. You weren't injured, no neural damage, no signs of external interference. But…" He hesitated before glancing at the readout. "Your energy levels—physically and mentally—dropped to dangerous levels. Like something siphoned you dry."

Lyra's fingers clenched the sheets beneath her. "The light."

Kaelen gave a curt nod. "Yeah. The moment you stepped onto the Solstice, that light just—flared. Blinded us all. By the time it faded, you were down, completely unresponsive."

Lyra closed her eyes briefly, trying to recall anything past that moment. The light had been so strong, so all-consuming. But it hadn't just been brightness. There had been something within it.

A presence.

Rhea shifted uncomfortably. "I don't think it was just light."

Eron narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Rhea hesitated, glancing at Lyra before speaking. "When it happened, I felt something. Just for a second. A… voice. A presence. But it wasn't speaking words. It was—listening."

A cold sensation settled in Lyra's stomach. The entity. The thing from the station. Had it followed them?

Kaelen let out a slow breath, running a hand through his hair. "So what, it marked her? It left something behind?"

Lyra swallowed, focusing on the feeling deep in her chest—the strange emptiness, like something had been taken from her, or worse—altered. "I don't know," she admitted. "But I don't think this is over."

Silence hung between them, heavy with unspoken fears. The Solstice hummed softly around them, a reminder that they had escaped—but from what? And for how long?

Then, as if to answer her question, the overhead lights flickered.

A small thing.

Barely noticeable.

But Lyra knew better than to believe in coincidences anymore.

She forced herself to sit up despite the lingering weakness in her limbs. The sterile white glow of the medical bay felt oppressive now, too artificial, too still. She knew the Solstice like the back of her hand, and yet something about the ship's hum, the rhythm of its systems, felt... off.

Kaelen noticed her shift in posture and stepped closer. "Easy. You just got your strength back."

Lyra exhaled sharply, rubbing her temples. "I don't feel like I got anything back." She turned to Eron. "Tell me you at least got us away from that nightmare."

Eron nodded. "Yeah, we're out of the system. Set a course for the Accord headquarters, but we kept a low profile in case anything—" he hesitated, "—decided to follow."

Rhea crossed her arms, her usual glow dimmer than before. "Something already has."

They all turned to her. She stood near the wall, fingertips lightly grazing the cold metal as if she were listening to the ship itself. Her expression was unreadable, but Lyra knew that look well—it was the same one Rhea had when she sensed something moving in the Mindstream, something no one else could see.

"It left a trace," Rhea murmured. "Not fully here, not fully gone. But we didn't escape it. We just moved with it."

Lyra swallowed hard, her fingers tightening around the blanket still draped over her lap. "What does that mean?"

Rhea turned to face her, eyes glowing faintly in the dim light. "It means that whatever was on that station… we brought it with us."

A heavy silence fell over the room. The distant hum of the ship's systems felt louder now, almost suffocating.

Kaelen exhaled, shaking his head. "If that's true, we need to find it and deal with it before we reach the Accord. Last thing we need is this thing spreading."

Eron nodded. "We can run a full diagnostic. Check for anomalies in the ship's systems, energy fluctuations—"

"You won't find it in the systems," Rhea interrupted. Her gaze was fixed on the far wall, her expression distant. "It's in the spaces between. The places where no light reaches."

Lyra didn't like the sound of that. "Then we start searching. Every inch of the Solstice if we have to. We're not letting this thing turn our ship into another derelict."

Kaelen unsheathed his blade, rolling his shoulders. "I'll start with the lower decks. Eron, you check the engineering bay."

Rhea gave Lyra a long look. "And you?"

Lyra swung her legs off the cot, ignoring the exhaustion in her limbs. "I'm going to figure out exactly what it wants."

No one argued.

They all knew, deep down, that this was just the beginning.