Astra-9's situation room trembled as the holographic projection of the Refracted Star rippled and collapsed back into its dormant state. Orion remained frozen, staring at the fading image, his mind racing with everything Seraxis had revealed.
Archive Zero wasn't dead.
The Refracted Star was failing.
The Unmaking wasn't destruction—it was correction.
And the countdown marched on.
Rhea broke the silence first.
"Vale. Explain what you meant. What's still inside Archive Zero?"
Vale's eyes flickered with something unreadable.
"Temporal residue."
Lyra frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Kessler answered instead—voice cold, sharp.
"It means the experiment didn't just tear a hole in time—it left behind echoes. Copies of events. Copies of people. Shadows of possible futures and pasts."
Solven added softly:
"Experiments on the Refracted Star created overlapping timelines. Some collapsed. Some merged. Some… got stuck."
Orion felt a cold pressure on his chest.
"You mean… there are fragments of other timelines inside the facility?"
Vale nodded.
"Pieces of time that never should've existed. Some are harmless echoes."
He paused.
"Some are not."
The room tensed.
Lyra took a shaky breath.
"Like… people?"
Vale's tone darkened.
"Like versions of people who shouldn't exist anymore. Copies of consciousness that were erased by the timeline but still linger."
Orion felt his stomach twist.
"You're saying Archive Zero might have… versions of me?"
A beat.
"Of all of us?"
Vale didn't answer with words.
He simply stared at Orion.
And that silence was the answer.
A Sudden Pulse
Without warning, an alarm blared.
TEMPORAL DISTORTION DETECTED — ORIGIN: ASTRA-9 ENGINE CORE
TIME-STATE INSTABILITY: RISING
UNKNOWN ANOMALY ENTERING SHIP
Rhea spun toward the engineering deck.
"Orion. Lyra. With me. Vale, Kessler—lock down the signal pathways. Rowan, Solven—contain the distortion."
The ship's lights flickered—
then elongated—
stretching like taffy.
Lyra grabbed onto Orion's arm as the deck warped beneath them.
Orion steadied her.
"It's happening again. The AI whispering was just the beginning."
They sprinted down the corridor—
But halfway to the engine core, they stopped dead.
Because the hallway ahead of them was… shifting.
Literally shifting.
The bulkheads bent in and out of existence, flickering between Astra-9's modern metallic walls and—
A different ship.
An older ship.
One Orion recognized.
"No," he whispered.
Lyra's voice trembled.
"That… that looks like—"
"Astra-3," Orion finished.
"Destroyed eight years ago."
They watched in horror as a ghostly figure flickered into being at the far end of the corridor.
A man in an older Fleet uniform.
Hair disheveled.
Face streaked with soot.
He limped forward—
and Orion felt his heart stop.
Because the man was him.
A version of him.
Eight years younger.
Moments before Astra-3 exploded.
Lyra grabbed Orion's wrist so tightly he winced.
"That can't be real."
"It's not," Orion whispered.
"It's a temporal echo. A residue. Something pulled straight from another timeline."
Vale's voice crackled over the comm.
"Do not interact with the echo. Do. Not. Touch. It."
But the echo Orion didn't hear him.
It looked up—eyes hollow, voice strained.
"If you can see this… it's too late."
Orion froze.
Lyra shook her head violently.
"No—he's just a memory—this isn't real—"
The echo continued walking toward them.
"The breach… it's everywhere… I couldn't close it…"
Orion stepped back.
The echo stepped forward.
"We're all already dead."
Lyra's grip tightened.
"Orion, move!"
But he couldn't.
Because the echo wasn't looking at him anymore.
It was looking past him—at something behind them.
Orion turned slowly…
The walls behind them warped.
Buckled.
Then tore open—
Not physically—
but temporally.
A swirling mass of violet and black energy spilled into the corridor.
Screeching.
Collapsing.
Searching.
Vale's voice snapped through the comm:
"RUN."
Lyra grabbed Orion's wrist—
—but the echo Orion suddenly turned toward them and spoke in his exact voice:
"It's coming for you."
And then the corridor collapsed.
Time fractured—
splitting into shards—
showing fleeting flashes of other moments:
Orion as a child
Lyra at academy graduation
Rhea commanding her first ship
The Refracted Star shattering
The Unmaking devouring universes
Archive Zero's doors opening
Orion felt his consciousness dimming—
—but Lyra's voice pierced the storm.
"ORION—FOCUS!"
He grabbed her hand and ran.
The temporal vortex shrieked behind them—
hungry, alive, wrong.
They sprinted through distortions that bent reality like rubber bands, each step threatening to throw them into a different past.
Finally—
They burst into the engine core chamber and slammed the emergency seal.
The distortion slammed into the door behind them, cracking its surface.
Silence.
Breathing hard, Orion collapsed onto the rail.
Rhea stormed in moments later.
"What happened?!"
Orion looked up slowly.
"We're out of time," he whispered.
Lyra nodded, eyes wide with fear.
"The Unmaking's fragments aren't waiting anymore."
Vale entered last, dark eyes narrowing.
"The countdown isn't the only timer we have."
He pointed at Orion.
"The next time a temporal echo appears, it won't be a specter."
A beat.
"It'll be a doorway."
Orion felt cold dread crawl along his spine.
Lyra whispered:
"And something will be coming through."
The countdown ticked again:
09:23:08:11