“This is the SAPRV Stargazer, making my daily report to local port authorities. Passing through an uninhabited region of space, any advisories?”

The woman at the desk held her radio in hand, a bored expression on her face as she waited for a response. After a moment, her headset buzzed and a voice came through.

“Negative, SAPRV Stargazer. Region is clear of advisories at this time. Frequency change is allowed in this sector. Keep secondary radios to this channel for updates.”

Nodding to herself, she activated her radio once more. “Understood. Any good interstellar radios in this region?”

A moment of silence, and her headset buzzed again. “Frequency 982.1 has some passable Tajaran Jazz. Frequency 900.0 plays Venusian Pop. Frequency 886.5 has Moghean Throat Singing, if that’s your tune.”

She couldn’t help but crack a grin. “Understood. Thanks for the info, switching you to secondary radio.” She slotted the radio back into its spot on the dashboard and turned to its cousin to her right. A few spins of a dial got it to the proper frequency. Spinning back to face the front, she clicked a button on the steering wheel and let the ship enter cruising mode.

She had to admit, this trip was going surprisingly well for a long voyage. Normally on a trip back to Sol, she’d encounter at least a pirate ship or two, or even a smuggler ship if she was lucky, but not this time. It seemed that this time was going to be a relaxing ride through the cosmos, and if her equipment was working right, she only had a few more days of travel before she breached into the Sol system. If she was lucky, her Binyarian cousins wouldn’t know she was on Venus until she was right in front of them!

Leaning back in her seat, she grabbed the small bottle of cola on the dashboard and took a quick swig of it. Tossing it back down into its spot, she took a moment to glance around the shuttle. Took more than a few years working a mining installation, and more than a few accidents, but this thing was finally hers in its entirety. No more payments and no more repairs. Now, as long as she had the fuel and the cash, she could wander the cosmos at her leisure. She could do it in comfort, too: she had her own bedroom, a kitchen, solar generators, a bathroom, the works! Her coworkers couldn’t say the same. They had to take the shuttle routes.

Turning back towards the shuttle’s front, she pushed herself up and got to working the radio’s dial. She didn’t have to do a whole lot right now, other than not crash into an asteroid or something, so she might as well put on some music. The dock worker said 900.0 does Venusian Pop… been a while since I’ve listened to that. Hope they play the good shit. She thought to herself as she started to flick through the different frequencies.

…bztt…“And in recent news, the SCC has announced several new stations in-”...bztt…”-never forget what you’ve done for me, baby! You know we’re-”...bztt…”-we have our latest guest here, a veteran of the Tajaran Civil War-”...bztt…”-this is Frequency 789.3, playing all your Bieselite Favorites on repeat!-”...bztt…

“Come on already, get me to 900.0…” She muttered under her breath. “Don’t need to hear about the newest meltdown of the week. Hear about it from my coworkers.”

…bztt…”-This is an open call for any unoccupied freighters, looking to transport several cloth shipments to-”...bztt…”Any vessels approaching Southern Wildlands space, please be aware of multiple pirate convo-”...bztt…”t**s me*ss*ge w**l r*pe**t m*men**rily-”...bztt…”You are listening to Frequency 900.0! The only place that’ll play you the smoothest tunes straight off of Venus!”

Wait, what the hell was that? Turning the dial back, she quickly found herself listening to static. The frequency she heard… 888.95. This seemed to be the channel she just heard. Odd frequency, that was for sure. Weren’t the 5-digit channels usually kept for station chatter? There weren't supposed to be any stations out here in unclaimed space.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The static suddenly stopped after another minute or so. Silence was all she could hear over the radio before a voice rang over her headset.

“This me**age will r*pea*t mo**ntari*y.”

That came through a little easier this time. Maybe she was just getting into range? Turning to a console on her left, she punched in the frequency number and activated the device. After around 10 seconds of beeping and humming, the screen of the console opened a map of the local region. There was her ship, there’s the dock station, a stray comet off to northeast… and the frequency’s location. Seems it was due west of where she was, in the same direction she was going.

“This messa*e will repeat mo****arily.”

That sounded automated. Checking the map again, it seemed she was only a few kilometers away. Couldn’t hurt to coast a little further and see what this was all about, could it? Turning back to the front, she reached over to her secondary radio and pulled it out of the slot. A quick press of a button and-

“This is the SAPRV Stargazer, reporting to local port authorities. Is there a station around… 10ish kilometers from the dock? I’m picking up a station frequency.”

A moment of silence. “Negative, Stargazer. Dock is the only station within 100 km. Frequency number?”

“888.95. I’m getting in range right now. Seems automated.”

“In what way, Stargazer?”

“Keeps repeating what sounds like This message will repeat momentarily. Found it while I was scrolling through frequencies.” She glanced at the console again. About 2 km off from the frequency.

“Understood, Stargazer. Dock recommendation is to maintain a distance of at least 1 km. Sending a crew to investigate.”

She nodded to herself. “Understood, Dock. Will change course to 310°.” A quick turn of the wheel got her facing the proper bearing, and she slotted the radio back into its place just as the dock worker’s voice came through again.

“Course change acknowledged. Enjoy your flight and stay safe, Stargazer.”

Static returned to her headset as she faced the front again. A glance to the console revealed she was about 1.5 km off from the frequency and moving along the edge. She turned back just in time to hear her headset going silent again.

“Message will now begin.”

Now it was clear. And starting, too.

“This message is part of a system of messages being sent out from a particular location. It is important that you pay attention to it, as it regards your current situation.”

She couldn’t help but raise a brow as the automated message started to rattle off. What was it going on about?

“Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.”

Well that was ominous.

“The location you are currently approaching is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here. Nothing valued is here.”

Bringing the ship down to a slower speed to remain in range, she listened on with an unnerved expression.

“What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.”

This message almost sounded familiar, if she focused on it enough.

“The danger is in a particular location. It increases towards a center. The center of danger is at this frequency’s location. It is of a particular size and shape, and location beneath us.”

Where had she heard it before…?

“The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours. The danger is to the body, and it can kill.”

It almost sounds like something she heard during her ship maintenance training.

“The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.”

There was more than a few dangerous energies. But the only one she could really imagine on a station would be…

“The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.”

…the emanations from a nuclear reactor. And that would make more than a little sense with the message.

She pushed forward on the steering wheel, and the speedometer above her began to record increasing speeds. She would let the Dock deal with whatever was happening there. It wasn’t any of her business, and they DID say there wasn’t supposed to be a station in this area.

Something bad had to have happened for their reactor to go off, after all.