Kai didn’t have time to react before he collided with the humanoid figure. Instinctively, he raised his arms, bracing for impact—but it never came.

  Instead, his body sank into what had once been a person.

  His hand passed straight through the spacesuit’s chest, dissolving it like fine powder. His arm kept going, phasing through the crumbling remains of the suit. His face pressed against the visor, and for a horrifying second, he was staring into the hollow, dust-filled helmet of the long-dead crewmember—before he went right through them.

  Eliana, following just behind, had stopped in time to witness the entire scene unfold.

  Her stomach churned. She was suddenly very grateful she hadn’t eaten much before the spacewalk.

  Kai had cut through the remains like a blade slicing through still air, breaking apart what had once been a human being. Half of the corpse remained, frozen in place, the inside of their body visible like a grotesque cross-section on display in a museum.

  She wanted to scream. Wanted to cover her mouth and pretend she hadn’t just seen that.

  This was not what she expected to be dealing with when she woke up this morning.

  Kai burned his thrusters hard, stopping himself mid-drift. The fragmented remains continued forward, floating aimlessly until they splattered against the far wall, leaving faint, dusty imprints.

  He took a deep breath.

  If it weren’t for the nanites in his system dampening his fear response, he probably would have lost his mind right then and there.

  "Don’t look at it," Kai said, voice calm but firm. He didn’t want Eliana to see any more than she already had.

  Eliana turned her head sharply, shutting her eyes. "Too late. I already saw it. I wouldn’t be surprised if I have nightmares tonight."

  Kai sighed, shaking off the fine particles that clung to his suit. Fortunately, nothing stuck. He made a mental note to never bump into anything on this ship again.

  But more than that, the encounter left him thinking.

  There was only one explanation for something like this—a failed FTL jump.

  This was the reason most ships in the galaxy preferred STL (slower-than-light) travel, even though FTL was significantly faster. The dangers of breaking the light-speed barrier were well-known.

  During a jump, a ship and everything inside it were accelerated beyond the limits of physics. Strange things happened during that process—things no one fully understood. The discomfort first-timers like Derniere experienced was a small example of that.

  If something went wrong during the jump then there was no recovering from it. And what they had just encountered… was what remained of a ship and its crew when FTL travel failed.

  There was nothing else to see, nothing but more horror Kai would rather avoid. There was also nothing they could do to help. The ship was beyond saving, and whatever had happened here had already sealed its fate.

  "Let’s not stay here any longer," Kai said, turning to leave.

  But Eliana wasn’t there.

  His heart pounded. She had been right behind him, hadn’t she? He spun around, expecting to see her just a step away, but the corridor was empty. His breath quickened as he peered around the corner leading to the cargo bay, but she wasn’t there either.

  “Eliana?” he called out, his voice echoing unnervingly through the hollow corridors. Silence greeted him in return.

  Then, something even more unsettling caught his attention. The cargo bay’s lights were on.

  Kai knew for a fact that the ship had no power when they boarded. Every system had been dead. Yet, now, the bay was bathed in a dim artificial glow, flickering slightly as if struggling to stay lit.

  Before he could process this anomaly, he heard a voice behind him. A man’s voice.

  Kai turned sharply, and he wasn't prepared as a man walked straight through him.

  His first instinct was to recoil, but something was even more wrong—Kai could still feel his body, yet it wasn’t solid anymore. His form had become translucent, like a flickering projection. He lifted his hand, trying to touch the wall beside him, but his fingers passed through it like mist.

  A chill ran down his spine. Had he stumbled into some kind of anomaly?

  Then, he heard another voice.

  "Move all the unwanted cargo to the back," an angry, deep voice commanded.

  "But we’re already carrying too little! If we dump more, security will get suspicious and find out about the contraband," a second voice argued.

  "And if you don’t, we’ll all be dead before we even make it back into the bubble," the first voice snapped.

  Kai turned his head toward the source of the argument. He spotted two men standing near the cargo ramp, completely unaware of his presence. Unlike him, they were solid.

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  The taller man, thin and sharp-featured, radiated an air of authority. He had the hardened look of someone who had seen too much, done too much, and had no patience for debate. The other, dressed in finer clothing and had all the clues of a merchant.

  Kai's sharp gaze caught it instantly. The merchant’s right hand was gripping something behind his back.

  The tall man, clearly the captain, exhaled heavily, rubbing his temple. “I’m the captain of this ship, and the only way we move is by reducing weight. Otherwise, we risk getting stuck here.”

  The merchant hesitated but then nodded. “Alright, alright.”

  The captain didn’t wait for further argument. He turned on his heel and started toward the exit.

  That was when Kai noticed the third person in the room.

  Near the entrance to the cargo bay, half-hidden in the shadows, a young man peered around the corner, his eyes wide with fear. He was younger than the others, barely out of his teens, and his resemblance to the captain was unmistakable.

  A sinking realization hit him. He knew what was about to happen. He wanted to shout, to warn them, but his voice was lost in whatever spectral state he had been trapped in.

  As the captain walked away, the merchant’s lips curled into a cold grin.

  The gun appeared from behind his back in a swift motion.

  "The only thing going out that ramp is you," the merchant said, his voice void of hesitation.

  The gun fired.

  A bright flash filled the cargo bay, followed by the deafening crack of a gunshot. The sound slammed against the metal walls, rebounding in sharp, metallic echoes.

  The captain of the ship collapsed to the ground, his body crumpling in a pool of his own blood. The young man who had been watching screamed in terror and ran towards his father, another gunshot rang out. The young man clutched his chest, unable to move another step, and fell to the ground.

  Kai watched in silence, unable to do anything but observe the gruesome scene unfold. It was like a film he had already seen, the ending spoiled before the story had even played out.

  The merchant laughed to himself as he casually walked away. Minutes later, he returned, now fully suited up in a space suit.

  He approached the massive ramp and slammed his fist on the button labeled open. The hydraulic system whined and creaked as the ramp slowly descended, revealing the void of space beyond.

  With cruel efficiency, the merchant dragged the captain’s body toward the edge of the ramp and, with a swift kick, sent the man’s lifeless form tumbling into space. The body floated away, cast off into the void like unwanted cargo.

  Then, the merchant turned to the young man’s body, slinging it over his shoulder with a grunt. He tossed the youth out with the same careless motions, watching the body float into the emptiness before pressing the button again to close the ramp.

  The sound of the ramp sealing echoed through the ship, and the merchant chuckled softly to himself. He walked toward the front of the ship, making his way to the cockpit.

  Kai followed, still unable to intervene.

  The merchant entered the cramped cockpit, which seemed more like a makeshift living room than a place to command a ship. The space was cluttered with various personal items, bags, and remnants of a life that seemed completely out of place on a ship.

  The man shoved some of the objects aside, his bulky suit struggling to maneuver through the tight quarters. Finally, he gave up trying to sit in the pilot seat and instead used the console while standing, leaning over it awkwardly.

  Kai watched from behind, silently observing every movement. The merchant began inputting coordinates, programming the ship for a jump.

  An error alert flashed on the console: Warning: Jump will be risky due to insufficient fuel. The merchant ignored the warning, his grin widening as he pressed the jump button without hesitation.

  The countdown began.

  2... 1...

  Kai could feel the tension in the air as the ship prepared for the jump. Outside, the quantum residue began to form, swirling in front of the viewport. But something was wrong.

  The cloud of quantum particles was sparse, thinner than usual. There wasn’t nearly enough residue forming to initiate a proper jump.

  And then—the ship’s nose began to stretch.

  At first, it was subtle—just a slight elongation, like something was pulling it apart from the front. But it quickly became more pronounced, the hull expanding, warping as if it were made of rubber. The ship’s once-steady structure twisted and distorted.

  The merchant’s grin faltered as he realized the error. He stumbled backward, panic flashing in his eyes.

  "Warning! Hull breach detected," the ship’s alarm blared overhead.

  Kai watched as the merchant ran, desperate to escape the inevitable, but there was nowhere left to go.

  The ship was already collapsing in on itself, the failed FTL jump unraveling it at the molecular level. He slammed into the cargo bay doors, pounding against them with frantic fists, but they remained locked—an automated failsafe to preserve oxygen in case of a hull breach.

  The irony was cruel; in trying to keep the ship intact, the system had sealed the only living soul outside.

  The merchant screamed, begging for mercy, his voice rising in frantic, incoherent pleas. He slammed his fists against the cold metal, turning back every few seconds to watch as the creeping, unnatural force tore through the ship.

  Kai stood frozen, unable to do anything but observe. The stretching distortion had reached the middle of the ship now. The walls bent, the floor twisted, and everything was coming undone.

  The merchant pressed himself flat against the wall, trying to make himself as small as possible, as if that could save him. It didn’t. The anomaly caught up to him. Kai turned away, unwilling to watch as the man was torn apart by forces beyond human comprehension. He didn’t need to see it to know what had happened.

  And then it hit him. The figure he had run into when he first entered the ship—it had been the merchant. The dead ship had held onto his suffering, twisting time and space until it became a warning that only Kai could witness.

  “Kai? Kai!”

  Eliana’s voice jolted him back to reality. His breath came fast and shallow as he snapped out of the trance. He was no longer in the wreckage. Eliana was gripping his shoulder, shaking him gently.

  They were outside now, floating through space, their thrusters carrying them back toward the Black Swan. His head felt heavy, his thoughts muddled as if he had just emerged from a dream.

  “I’m here,” he managed, his voice hoarse. He engaged his thruster and adjusted his trajectory, feeling Eliana’s arm wrap around him for support. Together, they reached the airlock.

  Eliana's expression filled with concern. “What the hell happened to you?” she asked, her eyes searching his face.

  Kai exhaled slowly, running a hand through his hair, still trying to shake the feeling of being somewhere else.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I ran into the guy, and then I just stopped. It was like I was pulled into something. I couldn’t speak, couldn't do anything. I just had to watch everything happen. I saw it all. That whole ship was trapped in limbo.”

  Eliana frowned, her brows knitting together in thought. “If the ship and everything inside it were stuck in limbo… then how the hell did we receive the distress signal?”

  The question hung between them, chilling in its implications. Kai turned to look back at the viewport, his stomach twisting. The wreckage still hung in the void, stretched beyond recognition.

  He felt a sudden sharp ache in his skull, and instinctively, he shut one of his eyes, trying to ease the discomfort.

  Then the ship flashed.

  A pulse of light flickered over its warped frame, a distortion, almost like a glitch in the universe itself.

  Kai stiffened. Eliana saw it too, her breath hitching as she turned her full attention to the anomaly. Then, it flashed again. And again. The intervals were erratic, like a dying star in its final moment.

  “Is it about to…” Eliana started, her voice barely above a whisper.

  Kai clenched his fists, his throat dry. “I think it is.”

  They both watched in silence as the ship flickered one final time—then, in an instant, it was gone.