The jump from hyperspace usually felt like falling. This time, it felt like surfacing.
Vitalis burst out of the warp tunnel, its massive fins trembling from the strain of the three-day sprint.
Zin stood on the bridge, gripping the rail.
"Sensors?" he barked.
"Clear," The Queen reported, her holographic form glowing with rare awe. "No Aseptic signatures. We beat them."
"Then look," Elara whispered. "Just look."
Zin looked up at the viewscreen. And for the first time in his life, the cynical, cold-hearted doctor forgot to analyze. He just stared.
The Nursery was not a planet. It was a Cosmic Coral Reef.
It was a nebula of impossible colors—vibrant pinks, deep cyans, and burning golds—stretched across light-years. But it wasn't unstructured gas. The dust had calcified into massive, branching structures that looked like coral antlers the size of solar systems.
Rivers of liquid starlight flowed between the branches.
And swimming through this reef were the Children.
Hundreds of them.
Baby Star-Entities. Some were the size of moons, others merely the size of continents. They played in the currents of the nebula. They chased comets like puppies chasing balls. They bumped into each other, glowing with soft, harmless flashes of heat.
It was a sanctuary. A place where the universe was still innocent.
"It's... teeming," Gorge said, pressing his ugly, armored face against the glass. "There's so much life."
"It is the immune system of the galaxy," Zin said softly. "This is where the antibodies are born."
Vitalis drifted closer, its engines humming a low, friendly note.
The baby entities noticed the newcomer. They weren't afraid. They were curious.
A small pod of "calves"—blue and sleek—swam up to Vitalis. They chirped, sending radio waves that sounded like laughter. They nuzzled against Vitalis's scarred flanks, cleaning off the space-barnacles.
"They think we are an elder," Elara smiled, tears streaming down her face. "They think we came to tell them stories."
"We came to give them a warning," Zin said, though he hated to ruin the moment. "Queen, scan the perimeter. Is there a Guardian?"
"Detecting a massive bio-signature at the center of the Reef," The Queen replied. "It is dormant. But it is... colossal."
Zin magnified the image.
In the center of the Reef, coiled around a dying white dwarf star, was the Matriarch.
She was an ancient Star-Whale, her skin covered in moss and small ecosystems. She was so old she had stopped moving eons ago, becoming part of the landscape. She was the grandmother watching over the crib.
"She's asleep," Zin noted. "We need to wake her. We need to organize a defense before the League arrives."
Suddenly, the lights on the bridge turned red.
A siren—sharp, synthetic, and terrifying—cut through the peaceful chirping of the calves.
PROXIMITY ALERT.
MASSIVE HYPERSPACE RUPTURE DETECTED.
The sky above the Reef tore open.
It wasn't a clean warp jump. It looked like someone had poured black ink onto a painting.
A shadow fell over the Nursery.
The Nullifier had arrived.
It was a sphere of absolute darkness, blotting out the nebula's light. It was silent. It was cold. It was the size of a moon.
And it didn't come alone.
Thousands of triangular Black Ships swarmed out of its hangar bays like locusts.
"They tracked our wake," Zin realized, his blood running cold.
A voice boomed across the entire system. It hijacked every radio frequency. It vibrated in the bones of every living thing.
"ATTENTION, BIOLOGICAL ERRORS."
The voice was flat. Emotionless. It was the voice of Null.
"THE GARDEN IS OVERGROWN. THE WEEDS ARE CHOKING THE SILENCE. COMMENCING TOTAL STERILIZATION."
The Nullifier opened a central port.
A green light began to gather. It wasn't a laser. It was a Bio-Solvent Cannon. A weapon designed to dissolve organic matter into dust.
The baby stars stopped playing. They huddled together, whimpering in the void. They didn't understand war.
"They are going to spray the nest," Gorge growled, loading his cannons.
Zin put his glasses back on. The awe was gone. The focus returned.
He wasn't a tourist anymore. He was the Chief Surgeon in a trauma ward.
"Elara, wake the Matriarch! Scream until she hears you!"
"Queen, deploy every Phage we have! Form a wall between the kids and that ship!"
"Gorge, target their fleet!"
Zin grabbed the helm controls of Vitalis.
"We aren't letting them bleach this reef," Zin snarled. "We are going to make this surgery very, very messy."