Before the Sky Changed
Space had always seemed distant to humanity.
Even in this era — an era of hyperdrives, orbital cities, and stations beyond the Moon — most people looked upward only out of curiosity. For them, the stars were merely a backdrop. Beautiful, cold, and unrelated to everyday life.
Only a few felt differently.
They did not look at the sky—
they stared into it.
Somewhere far away, beyond the boundaries of human maps, in a region of space that belonged to no civilization, an object drifted. It emitted no signals, reflected no light, and obeyed none of the familiar laws of motion.
It was dead.
And that was precisely why it went unnoticed at first.
When an automated research station entered the contact zone, its systems detected no threats. There were no explosions. No flashes. No errors.
One by one, its cameras simply went dark.
The last transmitted fragment of data lasted less than a second:
a distorted image, as if reality itself had trembled…
and a brief pulse, sent into the void.
That pulse was not a signal.
It was a response.
On Earth, that same day, billions of people continued their lives, unaware that the countdown had already begun.
Heaven forged the stars.
A mortal chose to bear them.
If you enjoyed the prologue, please add the book to your Library. It really helps the story grow.