The moment Orion's hand touched Seraxis' crystalline projection, the world vanished.
Not faded—Not dimmed—Vanished.
Every atom of the ship dissolved into shimmering dust, the floor beneath him evaporated, and he plummeted—not through space, but through memory.
Except the memories weren't his.
At least… not yet.
Inside the Link
There was no light.No darkness.Only a vast, fluid expanse of shifting fractals—the unconscious mind of an entire civilization.
Seraxis' voice echoed faintly through the swirling patterns.
"Do not resist. Our memories flow differently from yours."
The fractals expanded—becoming crystalline forests, floating cities, spiraling nebulae formed from pure information.
Orion staggered, overwhelmed.
"I… I'm standing inside your memory?"
"Inside all of ours," Seraxis said."We are a collective. Our experiences are interwoven."
Images charged at him—
A crystalline homeworld with towers made of refracted starlight
Children of solidified photons running across glowing bridges
A council of luminous beings shaping reality with harmonic resonance
A sky split open by a dark wave of nothingness
A universe bleeding into silence
Orion gasped and dropped to one knee.
"It's too much—"His voice cracked.
Seraxis' presence steadied him like a gentle hand.
"Your mind is not built for collective recall. I will guide you."
The fractals folded inward, narrowing into a single spiraling tunnel—the core memory Seraxis wanted him to see.
A memory that held the key.
The Collapse
The tunnel opened.
And Orion stood on Seraxis' homeworld.
But not the shining one he first glimpsed—this one was ravaged.
The sky pulsed with fractures.Mountains twisted into spirals.Water floated upward in shimmering cubes.The laws of physics cried out in agony.
Panicked crystalline citizens ran through the streets, their bodies glitching from instability.
A deep vibration shook the world—a hum Orion felt in his bones.
The Unmaking.
A dark boundary tore across the horizon, erasing everything it touched.Not burning.Not breaking.
Removing.
Leaving nothing behind.Not even dust.
Orion's breath caught.
"This… this is what you fled?"
Seraxis' voice trembled.
"This is what awaits your universe."
The dark wave grew larger, unraveling structures, bending space like liquid.
A towering crystalline citadel collapsed—not falling—simply ceasing to be.
Orion clenched his fists, throat tight.
"What started it? What caused this?"
The world dissolved again, rewinding back through memory.
Not random.
Purposeful.
Seraxis showed him the answer—
A laboratory deep beneath their homeworld.Scientists gathered around a glowing sphere of energy, suspended inside a containment matrix.
The energy twisted, flickered, and then—
Split open.
A dimensional rupture.A tear too unstable to exist.
The scientists panicked.
Too late.
Orion felt cold dread coil in his chest.
"This is just like Archive Zero…"
"Yes," Seraxis replied."We tried to study time. To understand it. To touch it."
The rupture expanded violently—
And for a fraction of a fraction of a second, Orion saw it.
A shape inside the tear.
A void with edges.A pattern that should not exist.A symbol—
∞
Orion stumbled back.
"The same symbol… the same signature."
Seraxis' body flickered.
"The Unmaking is not a force. It is a reaction.""A chain effect triggered by a mistake repeated across universes."
The memory shattered—and a new one formed.
A council chamber.Scientists pleading.A vote to evacuate.A desperate attempt to seal the breach.
"Our greatest minds died trying to contain it," Seraxis whispered."But the pattern had already spread."
The view changed again—
Fleets of crystalline ships launching into the void.Worlds collapsing behind them.A final command:
SEARCH FOR THE SOURCE.SEARCH THE FIRST SIGNAL.
Orion trembled.
"This… this was all set in motion before we even saw the tear."
"It began with Archive Zero," Seraxis said."Across all universes."
The fractal world began collapsing around them.
Seraxis' voice grew faint.
"You now understand. The key to stopping the Unmaking is not fighting it."
The tunnel shook violently.
"It is preventing its birth."
The fractals imploded—and Orion felt himself being ripped back to reality.
Astra-9 — Reality
Orion collapsed onto the deck, gasping as the bridge snapped back into existence around him.
Lyra rushed to his side.
"Orion! Talk to me—are you okay?"
He coughed, eyes wide with terror.
"I saw it," he whispered."I saw how it begins.""I know what Archive Zero did.""I know why the Unmaking follows us."
Rhea leaned forward."And?"
Orion looked up, trembling.
"It isn't trying to destroy us."
The room went dead silent.
"It's trying to erase a mistake."His voice broke."A mistake we're about to repeat."
The countdown ticked on.
09:23:33:05