Hyperspace was boring. Kael hadn't expected that. He thought it would be like riding a rollercoaster inside a kaleidoscope, but mostly, it was just a long, streaking tunnel of blue light that made his eyes hurt.
He sat on the floor of the bridge, the obsidian cube resting between his crossed legs.
"So," Elis said. Her hologram was currently sitting on the edge of the main console, swinging her pixelated legs. "According to my database, which hasn't been updated since the Fall of the First Republic, that thing is a Cosmic Seed."
Kael poked the cube. "It looks like a paperweight."
"A paperweight capable of rebooting a star," Elis corrected. "The Vorthax hunt Starborns because only you can activate these. To anyone else, it's a rock. To you, it's a admin key to the universe's backend code."
"IT IS A HEART," Ignis rumbled. The ship's voice was softer now, a low vibration in the floorboards. "THE HEART OF A WORLD THAT DIED SO WE COULD LIVE."
Kael looked up at the ceiling. "You talk about planets like they're people."
"EVERYTHING SINGS, LITTLE STARBORN. EVEN THE DUST."
"Okay, settle down, poetic furniture," Elis rolled her eyes. "We are approaching the drop point. Sector 9-Z. The Rogue Zone."
"Why do they call it the Rogue Zone?" Kael asked, standing up and shoving the cube back into his satchel.
"Because physics filed a restraining order against this sector and left," Elis said grimly. "Brace yourself. Dropping to real-space in 3... 2... 1..."
The blue tunnel shattered.
The Celestial Vanguard lurched back into normal space, but "normal" was the wrong word.
The viewscreen filled with a terrifying beauty. They were drifting at the edge of a nebula that looked like spilled ink and blood. Inside the swirling clouds, lightning struck in slow motion. Floating amidst the gas were planets that looked... broken. Cracked open like eggs, their molten cores frozen in mid-explosion.
"Warning," Elis chimed, her voice devoid of sass. "Chronometric radiation detected. High levels."
"Chronometric?" Kael asked.
"Time, Kael. This nebula is full of Time Storms. If we fly into a pocket of accelerated time, the ship could rust into dust in seconds. If we hit a reverse pocket, we could be un-made into raw ore."
Kael swallowed hard. "And we're flying into that?"
"The signal from your Cube points to the center of it," Elis said. "Specifically, to that rock over there."
She magnified the image. A planet, pale grey and shrouded in thick, unnatural clouds, hung alone in the void. It didn't spin. It sat perfectly still, as if pinned in place.
"I SENSE IT," Ignis growled. "AN OLD ENEMY. AND AN OLD FRIEND."
"Who?" Kael asked.
"SILENCE. WE ARE HUNTED."
As if on cue, the proximity alarm blared. But it wasn't the screech of the Vorthax radar. It was a low, mournful bell.
"I'm picking up a signature," Elis said, tapping furiously on her virtual keyboard. "It's not Vorthax. It's... Human? No. Older."
A ship emerged from the purple fog of the nebula. It was jagged, painted with skulls and chains, looking more like a flying dungeon than a starship.
"Scavengers," Elis hissed. "Chrono-Raiders. They loot these time-lost planets for ancient tech."
"Can we fight them?" Kael asked, gripping the console.
"Ignis is drained," Elis said. "That 'Dracarys' move used 90% of our reserves. We have shields, but no main cannon."
The Raider ship hailed them. A face appeared on the screen—a human, but his skin was grey, and one of his eyes had been replaced by a glowing cog.
"Well, well," the Raider Captain rasped. "A Heavy Cruiser? From the Golden Age? You're a long way from the museum."
"We're just passing through," Kael said, stepping in front of the camera. "We don't want trouble."
The Captain laughed. It was a dry, rasping sound. "Boy, you're flying a fortune. Power down your shields and prepare to be boarded. Or we'll age you until you're nothing but bones."
The Raider ship fired a beam. It wasn't a laser. It was a beam of grey light that hit the Celestial Vanguard's forward shield.
"Shield integrity dropping!" Elis yelled. "But it's not damage! The shield generator is... it's getting old! The emitter coils are degrading!"
"They're using a Time Beam?" Kael shouted. "That's cheating!"
"STARBORN," Ignis roared. "TAKE THE HELM. DO NOT USE THE EYES. USE THE BLOOD."
"What does that even mean?!" Kael panicked.
"CLOSE YOUR EYES. FEEL THE CURRENT."
Kael squeezed his eyes shut. He grabbed the steering yoke. He didn't look at the flashing red lights or the Raider ship looming closer. He reached out with his mind, feeling for that hum he had felt in the junk pile.
He felt the Raider ship. It felt cold, greedy. But he also felt the nebula. It wasn't chaos; it was a river. A turbulent, twisting river of time.
There. A current of fast-moving time, flowing like a jet stream right past them.
"Elis!" Kael shouted, his eyes still closed. "Drop the shields!"
"Are you insane? They'll peel us apart!"
"Do it! Redirect all power to the thrusters! Now!"
Elis hesitated for a millisecond, then sighed. "If we die, I'm haunting you."
The shields dropped. The grey beam hit the hull.
"RRRAGH!" Ignis groaned as his armor plating began to rust instantly.
Kael slammed the thrusters forward and banked hard to the left, diving straight into the purple storm clouds.
"He's flying us into the anomaly!" the Raider Captain shouted over the comms before the signal cut out. "Let him go! The storm will kill him!"
The Celestial Vanguard shook violently. Inside the bridge, Kael watched in horror as his own hands began to wrinkle, aging fifty years in a second, then smoothed back out to youth a second later.
"Stabilize us!" Kael screamed.
"I can't lock on to anything!" Elis cried. "The stars are moving too fast!"
"TRUST THE ANCHOR," Ignis bellowed.
Kael pulled the Cube from his bag. It was glowing so bright it hurt to look at. He slammed it onto the dashboard.
The Cube emitted a pulse. A bubble of blue light expanded around the ship. Immediately, the shaking stopped. Outside the window, the storm raged—stars were being born and dying in seconds—but inside the bubble, everything was calm.
"A Stasis Field," Elis breathed. "It created a local time bubble. We're safe."
Kael slumped over the console, panting. "We lost the Raiders."
"We did," Elis confirmed. "But look where we are."
They had punched through the storm. They were drifting directly above the grey, silent planet.
"Scan it," Kael said.
"Scanning..." Elis paused. "That's impossible."
"What?"
"I'm reading a distress signal," Elis said. "It's a standard Alliance Military code."
"The Alliance was destroyed five hundred years ago," Kael said.
"I know," Elis whispered. "But the signal is fresh. It's on a loop. And the ID tag..." She looked at Kael. "The ID tag belongs to General Valerius. The greatest warrior of the Old Era."
Kael looked at the grey planet. "The Time-Lost Warrior."
"HE WAITS," Ignis said. "BUT HE IS NOT ALONE DOWN THERE. SOMETHING ELSE WALKS THE SURFACE. SOMETHING COLD."
"Take us down," Kael said, standing up. He felt a pull, a destiny dragging him toward the surface. "If there's an ally down there, we need him."
"Landing sequence initiated," Elis said. "Welcome to the Graveyard of Kings, Kael. Try not to step on any ghosts."
The Celestial Vanguard dipped its nose and descended into the grey clouds, vanishing from the starlight.
End of Chapter 3