The Originless Anomaly

The first report came from Sector 12, deep in the Crystalline Wastes where reality grew thin and the laws of physics became mere suggestions. Captain Vera Ashworth had been leading a routine patrol when her team encountered something that shouldn't have existed—a girl, no more than eight years old, sitting alone in the middle of a zone where the atmospheric pressure should have crushed any unprotected human in seconds.

She wasn't just surviving. She was thriving.

"Command, we have a situation," Ashworth's voice crackled through the communication array, carrying the kind of controlled bewilderment that came from encountering something that challenged every assumption about the nature of existence. "I'm looking at a child who's existing outside every environmental protocol we've established. The scanners can't get a reading on her. It's like she's not really here."