The hallway erupted before Kael could react.
Gunfire flashed in stuttering bursts, painting the walls white and orange. Rhea fired first, faster than thought, her stance steady, jaw clenched.
The pale figures didn't flinch.
One moved too smooth, too quiet slipping forward like gravity didn't apply. Rhea aimed again, but Kael grabbed her collar and pulled her back just in time.
A blade of bone extended from the creature's arm, slicing through the air where her neck had been.
"Fall back!" Kael shouted.
They ran.
The ship trembled under their boots. Emergency lights strobed, washing everything in blood-red pulses. The corridor felt alive, like it was breathing with them or waiting for them to stop.
Behind them, footsteps echoed.
Slow,Unhurried,Confident.
The kind of steps belonging to someone who knew exactly how the chase would end.
Kael didn't look back.
They reached a junction and skidded to a stop. Smoke poured from a vent. A fire alarm wailed, useless and desperate.
Rhea leaned against the wall, breathing hard. "They're not human anymore."
Kael wiped blood not his off his cheek. "They're not supposed to be alive at all."
Rhea studied him. "How did you know her name?"
He didn't answer.
He couldn't.
Kael pushed off the wall and kept moving. Rhea followed without pressing further.
The more they ran, the more wrong the ship felt.
Doors hung open when they should've been sealed. Gravity fluctuated, making Kael feel weightless, then crushingly heavy. Holographic displays glitch-flickered with broken data.
The Astral Warden was dying, and it knew it.
They reached the central lift. Kael slammed the panel.
Nothing happened.
Rhea cursed under her breath. "They've taken system control."
Of course they had. That ship that impossible bone-white vessel wasn't just attacking.
It was replacing.
Kael stepped back, raised his rifle, and shot the lift doors.
Sparks burst, metal dented, but the steel didn't open.
Rhea arched a brow. "And now we're announcing our location."
Kael didn't smile. "They already know where we are."
Before she could argue, a voice drifted down the corridor.
Soft,Childlike,Wrong.
"Kael…"
Rhea lifted her gun instantly.
Kael froze.
He didn't want to turn around.
Not again.
But he did.
Lysa stood at the far end of the hallway. Alone. Head tilted slightly, like she was studying him the way scientists studied dying animals.
"Why are you running?" she asked.
Kael tightened his grip on the rifle. "You're invading my ship."
Her eyes darkened. "It was never yours."
Rhea aimed for the forehead. "One more step, and I shoot."
Lysa blinked as if confused. "You think bullets will matter?"
Then she smiled.
Kael remembered that smile from before everything went wrong. Before Titan-6 burned. Before the screaming. Before the silence.
He hated that memory more than anything.
Rhea fired.
The bullet hit Lysa's skull and fell to the floor.
No blood. No wound. No reaction.
Just a soft, disappointed sigh.
Kael's stomach dropped.
Rhea whispered, "What did they turn her into?"
Kael didn't answer. He couldn't speak around the ice in his throat.
Lysa took one slow step forward.
"Kael… come home."
Rhea grabbed his arm. "We need to move. Now."
He nodded and ran.
They sprinted through another corridor, turned left, then right, navigating by instinct. Kael had walked these halls a thousand times. He could guide the ship blindfolded.
But now, everything looked unfamiliar.
The lights dimmed,Then died.
Total darkness swallowed them.
Rhea inhaled sharply. "Don't stop."
Kael didn't.
They ran blind, relying on memory and adrenaline. Their footsteps echoed louder in the silence. Too loud.
Too exposed.
Then a sound.
Not footsteps,Breathing,Right behind them.
Rhea flicked on her emergency wrist light. A weak, trembling beam lit the hallway.
Nothing there.
Kael's pulse didn't slow.
The breath hadn't stopped.
"Captain," Rhea whispered, voice cracking. "Where is that coming from?"
The light flickered.
Then failed.
Darkness again.
Kael steadied his voice. "We're close to engineering. We regain power, we regain control."
Rhea nodded, even though she knew he couldn't see it. "Lead the way."
They moved slower now, listening, sensing, waiting.
The ship groaned long and low, like metal mourning.
Kael whispered, "Stay quiet."
Rhea didn't respond she couldn't.
Ahead of them, a faint glow appeared. Not artificial light. Not fire.
Something organic.
Soft white.
Pulsing.
Heart-like.
They approached slowly.
The glow belonged to a mass of vein-covered tissue spreading across the wall like fungus. It twitched. Moved. Grew.
Rhea gagged. "What is that?"
Kael stepped closer, horrified. "They're rewriting the ship."
Not invading.
Assimilating.
Transforming steel into bone.
Suddenly, the tissue opened like a breathing lung.
A single eye stared out,Black,Empty,Alive.
Rhea screamed and fired. The tissue burst, dark fluid splattering across the floor. The glow vanished.
Kael grabbed her wrist. "Save your ammo. We don't know how many more"
A voice cut him off.
Not Lysa's.
Not human.
A chorus.
"Kael Mercer belongs to us."
Kael's blood froze.
Rhea raised her weapon. "We need a new plan."
"No," Kael said, stepping back. "We need answers."
"From her?" Rhea snapped. "She wants you dead."
Kael shook his head. "No. If they wanted me dead, I'd already be gone."
Silence.
Heavy. Crushing.
Rhea stared at him. "Then what do they want?"
Kael finally said it aloud.
"Me."
The hallway behind them lit up bright, white, blinding.
Lysa appeared in the center of it.
Not walking.
Floating.
Her voice echoed everywhere.
"You don't get to choose anymore, Kael."
Rhea grabbed his arm. "Run!"
They did.
Because for the first time, Kael understood the truth.
This wasn't about Titan-6.
This wasn't about survival.
This was personal.
And the universe had just decided Kael Mercer's fate.