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."