Ghosts of Tomorrow

Chapter 29 – Ghosts of Tomorrow

The silence after the vault door closed was deafening. I held the glowing crystal core in my hand, and it pulsed like a heartbeat—slow and steady. Beside me, Mira stared at the dormant screens around us, each one flickering softly, as if waiting for something.

"Are we supposed to plug this into the ship?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"No," I replied, squinting at the tiny engraving etched into the base of the core. "There's a port beneath the terminal. Hidden. It's keyed to my DNA."

Mira gave me a skeptical look. "Of course it is. You ex-imperials really went all out with the drama."

I didn't argue. She was right. The entire place reeked of imperial paranoia—everything sealed, buried, protected by layers of encryption and blood. I inserted the core into the hidden slot, and the entire chamber lit up like a rising sun. Holograms flared to life—maps, star systems, erased colony names, forbidden coordinates.

"This is insane…" Mira whispered, walking through a rotating star chart. "It's like the Empire kept a backup of everything they destroyed."

"Not kept," I said. "Buried. Hidden from even their own people. This vault wasn't just a failsafe. It was a secret shame."

Data flowed around us—clips of battles long erased, footage of rebel strongholds, civil uprisings that never made it into the records. My face appeared in some of them—stoic, commanding, cold.

"I don't recognize that man," I admitted.

"But you were him," Mira said gently.

"I was trained to be him," I corrected.

Mira touched my arm. "You chose to leave. That matters."

I wanted to believe her. But standing there, watching the truth unspool around me, it was hard not to feel like a puppet waking up after the strings were cut.

Suddenly, an alert blinked at the far side of the room. A red light. Incoming transmission.

Mira rushed over, fingers dancing on the interface. "It's encrypted, but it's bouncing off deep-space relays. It was triggered by the core."

"Can you trace it?"

She paused. "It's coming from… the Eclipsion."

I felt my stomach drop.

The Eclipsion was the Empire's lost dreadnought. A city-sized warship that vanished a decade ago with all hands aboard. It was a myth. A ghost story used to scare defectors.

And now it was calling to us.

"Kael," Mira said, looking at me. "They know the vault's been opened."

"I thought this place was off-grid."

"Yeah. So did they. That means they're coming."

I nodded, the weight of it all crashing down on me. "Then we need to get out. Now."

We made our way back through the icy path, the crystal safely locked in a case Mira rigged to self-destruct if tampered with. As we reached the ship, a low rumble filled the air.

I turned toward the sky.

A black shadow was descending. Not a ship. A drop pod.

"Move!" I shouted, pulling Mira into the cockpit. She jumped into the pilot seat, and I fired up the engines.

Behind us, the pod crashed into the snow, steam and light spilling from its seams. A figure emerged—tall, armored, carrying a pulse spear.

I recognized the armor.

"He was one of my commanders," I said. "From Project Requiem."

"And that is… bad?" Mira asked.

"Very."

The engines screamed to life, and we lifted just as the figure launched a charge. It slammed into our rear thrusters, sending sparks across the console.

"We're hit!" Mira yelled.

"Divert power to front shields and climb hard!"

We spiraled upward, chased by another pod launching from the ridge. This one split midair, revealing two sleek fighters—imperial interceptors, fast and ruthless.

"I thought you said this place was forgotten!" Mira shouted over the alarms.

"I did!"

"Well, they must've remembered."

I took the co-pilot controls, flipping to manual. "Hang on."

We soared low across the icy terrain, dodging fire. The fighters circled like hawks, one landing a direct hit on our wing. The ship jolted, warning lights flashing.

Mira's knuckles were white on the controls. "We can't outrun them, Kael!"

"We're not going to."

I hit the auxiliary bay release.

"What are you doing?" Mira asked, eyes wide.

I grabbed the case with the data core and rushed to the escape pod. "Buying us time."

"You're ejecting?"

"No. We are. Meet me in Pod 2. Remote launch in sixty seconds."

She didn't argue. I think she saw it in my eyes—I wasn't asking.

I launched the empty decoy pod first, loaded with a beacon and the ship's signature. The fighters immediately locked onto it, chasing it like sharks.

Thirty seconds later, Mira joined me, breathless.

"You better have a plan," she said.

"I do."

"What is it?"

"Don't die."

The pod launched, the viewports shaking as we rocketed toward a frozen ravine. I activated the cloaking net just as we skimmed the surface. The ship exploded behind us—a decoy rigged with every volatile cell we had left.

The fighters circled, confused, then turned back toward the ridge.

"They think we're dead," Mira whispered.

"For now."

We lay in the silence of the pod, the core between us glowing faintly.

"Kael?"

"Yeah?"

"What's on that ship they're trying so hard to keep us from?"

I didn't know.

But we were going to find out.