"LEXA, status report!" Kael Veyran’s voice rang out over the din of alarms blaring through the cockpit of his small exploration vessel. Red warning lights flickered, reflecting off the polished steel walls of the cramped ship.

"Well, Captain, if you must know," LEXA’s voice replied, her tone dripping with sarcasm, "the shields are failing, the hull is at 43% integrity, and oh, there’s a very high chance we’re about to be turned into cosmic dust."

Kael gritted his teeth, his enhanced hands gripping the control sticks tightly. “Solutions. I need solutions, not commentary.”

"Here’s one: next time, don’t fly directly into an uncharted energy anomaly just because it looks ‘interesting.’"

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“Noted,” Kael muttered through clenched teeth. His biometrically enhanced eye flickered as it scanned the swirling maelstrom ahead—a chaotic spiral of blue and white energy twisting like an angry storm in space. It was beautiful, hypnotic even, but also violently unstable.

"Probability of survival: seventeen percent," LEXA offered cheerfully.

“Seventeen?!” Kael barked. “You could’ve led with that!”

"You didn’t ask."

The anomaly suddenly pulsed, and Kael’s ship was caught in its grasp. His body jolted against the restraints as the vessel lurched forward. The controls became sluggish, the screens flickered, and the ship’s shields disintegrated like paper in a storm.

"Brace for impact, Captain," LEXA said, her tone uncharacteristically serious this time.

Kael barely had time to reach for the emergency eject command before everything turned white.