Kai had more questions than answers: Why was the spaceship buried so deep inside the planet? Did the mining company know about this? How had the two attackers know about it? There was so much he didn’t know, and the only way to find out was to go inside.
He grabbed the handle and tested it. To his surprise, it still moved. Encouraged, Kai pushed down, but the door remained stuck. The ship had likely been without power for centuries. Undeterred, he tried sliding the door open manually. It was a struggle—a long time of neglect had left the mechanism rusted shut.
Kai powered on his cutter and carefully made a small hole in the door's edge. He saved a small peice of the door as a sample. Then Jamming his fingers into the gap, he engaged his suit’s powered assistance to force the door open. With a screech of protesting metal, he managed to push it halfway, creating a narrow opening just large enough to squeeze through.
The interior was pitch black, the ship's systems long dead. Unlike the sleek, functional designs of modern ships, this one was cluttered with archaic machinery and scattered equipment. Everything about it screamed obsolescence. Kai stepped carefully, his helmet light sweeping the space as he ventured further in.
Past the machinery, he found another door—smaller and circular, clearly part of an airlock. He turned the hatch, and to his surprise, it opened with minimal resistance.
Lifting his leg cautiously, Kai entered the space beyond. It was as dark as the rest of the ship, the only light coming from his helmet. The corridor he stepped into was cylindrical, its walls, ceiling, and even floor covered with screens, buttons, and panels. Some displays were underfoot, making little sense to Kai at first.
“This design... it’s unlike anything I’ve seen,” he muttered, confused by the odd placement.
Kai paused in the corridor, uncertain where to go next. Suddenly, a faint light blinked in the corner of his vision. He froze, heart pounding, and waited. The light flashed again, coming from a panel beside a door further down the corridor.
He approached slowly, each step deliberate. The outdated displays creaked under his weight, but he ignored the noise, focused solely on the light. Reaching the door, he gripped the latch and pulled. The door opened with a metallic groan, and a humanoid figure collapsed onto the floor, startling him.
It was a body, clad in an unfamiliar spacesuit—bulky and heavy. Kai strained to drag the corpse out of the doorway. Inspecting it, he noticed a faded insignia on the upper arm: a flag of white and red stripes with tiny stars on a blue square.
Kai squinted. “Fifty stars... could that mean fifty colonized systems?”
He quickly dismissed the thought. Whatever this flag represented, it was nothing he recognized—not from the Federation, the Empire, or even pirates. The purposeful design hinted at an organized and powerful faction, yet one completely unknown to him.
Setting aside the mystery of the flag, Kai turned his attention to the room beyond the door. A faint blue glow illuminated the space, drawing his gaze. It was unlike the rest of the ship—devoid of clutter or machinery. At the far end stood a glass container, its contents floating in some kind of liquid.
Kai stepped inside, his eyes fixed on the glowing vial. As he approached, his foot hit something. Looking down, he saw a small notebook. Picking it up, he flipped through the pages. It was a diary, fortunately written in English.
The entries detailed routine tasks performed by the crew, but the more Kai read, the more unsettling it became. The ship and its crew were from a time long past. There were no artificial gravity systems, explaining the controls on the floor. Each chapter ended with the same signature: Lieutenant Colonel Smith, USSF.
“USSF…” Kai muttered. “What does that mean?”
He skimmed through the entries until he reached the last one. The words sent a chill down his spine:
One of its scouts found us. We had no choice but to land and bury the signal. I hope the decoy we launched will buy us time. May God bless humanity and keep it hidden from the horror. I’ve secured the vial and rerouted all power to sustain it for at least a thousand years. I’m sorry I had to cut power to everything else. The crew understands. We said our goodbyes and donned our suits. They’ll keep us alive for a little while longer. If anyone finds this, protect the vial at all costs. It’s humanity’s last hope.
—Lt. Col. Smith, USSF
Kai’s gaze shifted to the container. He opened the lid and carefully removed the glowing vial. It appeared to hold nothing more than clear liquid.
“What’s so special about this?” he wondered aloud, disappointed. He was about to place it in his backpack when he noticed the vial was empty.
Stunned, Kai inspected it. The liquid had simply vanished. There were no leaks, and the ground beneath him was dry. His confusion deepened as a faint glimmer on his shoulder caught his eye.
The liquid was there, shimmering in the blue glow. He reached to touch it, but it evaded his hand, moving upward—toward his helmet.
Panic set in as Kai realized the liquid was alive. It had intelligence, and it was trying to get inside his suit. He swatted at it, but it slipped past his fingers. In seconds, it disappeared from view.
Then he felt it. A cold, wet sensation seeped through the drinking port, crawling over his face. It slithered into his nose and mouth despite his attempts to keep them shut. The liquid invaded his body, its moved with intention that scared him.
Kai fell to his knees, clutching his helmet. Pain exploded in his head, spreading to every inch of his body. It felt as if countless tiny creatures were consuming him from the inside out. He crawled out of the ship and back into the tunnel.
Darkness overtook him as he collapsed onto the cold tunnel floor, his last thought a fleeting regret: Not only had he not found the riches he hoped for, he was now going to die from a mysterious slime he couldn't even fight back. What a shity day this had been.
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Kai couldn’t see. He thought this was unconsciousness—yet how could he still think if that were true? His entire body felt as though countless tiny needles were piercing him at a cellular level. Each stab unleashed a wave of searing pain, sending desperate signals to his overwhelmed brain. He could feel the agony crawling up and down his body, but he was paralyzed, unable to move even an inch to escape it.
The torment began with his skin, burning as if it were aflame. Then it moved deeper, attacking his muscles and organs. Each wave of pain felt like the peak of human endurance, yet the onslaught continued. When the creature invaded his bones, it was worse than anything he’d thought possible. The sharp, stabbing agony fractured his very sense of self until his mind was utterly broken, reduced to raw, instinctive suffering.
Just when he thought he could endure no more, the thing finally shifted. He felt it moving upward, shooting into his brain. This time, he truly passed out. But in his unconsciousness, he was not spared. Instead, he was submerged in visions—terrifying and incomprehensible.
Kai saw a darkened sky swarming with hundreds of shadowy dots. Explosions rained down from above, obliterating a city in fire and ash. He saw people screaming, running desperately for safety, only to be caught by the blasts and reduced to molten forms of nothingness. He felt as though he were one of them, he ran and tripped and got up running again, only to realize he was no longer on the ground but floating in a void.
The void was vast, stretching beyond understanding. He saw lights scattered across the darkness—stars, brilliant incubators of life. Then, one by one, the stars began to dim. First one, then another, then dozens more. He didn’t know what could cause such a thing, but he understood the horror of it. Without a sun, life in those systems would perish.
Then he saw it: a shape moving across the black expanse of space, soo massive it eclipsed the light of entire stars. Its sheer size defied comprehension, and the dread it inspired was primal, absolute. Kai knew—this was what Smith and his crew had fled from. The thing was more than a force of destruction; it was a harbinger of extinction.
Kai wanted to scream, to block out the visions, but it was impossible. The liquid had hijacked his mind, transmitting images directly into his neurons. Even with his eyes shut, he could not escape.
The stars disappeared completely, leaving him in suffocating darkness. Then, slowly, he became aware of his own breathing. It was shallow and ragged, but it was real. He opened his eyes and found himself back in the tunnel.
The first thing he saw was the lifeless face of the man whose helmet he had taken to survive. The glassy, vacant stare burned into Kai’s soul. He felt sick—his stomach churned violently, and he thought he might vomit. A wave of despair overtook him.
He wanted to tear the helmet from his head, to accept the same fate the man had suffered. Anything to escape the weight of the visions, the knowledge of what he had seen, and the overwhelming guilt gnawing at him.
So that’s exactly what he did. Kai twisted his helmet off and took a deep breath, fully expecting it to be his last. He welcomed the idea of eternal peace. But what he found was... breathable air. It felt no different from the air he had breathed inside the helmet.
Two streaks of tears ran down his face. He couldn’t even take his own life.
Kai stood up, wiped his face, and began walking back. The journey to the elevator was a blur of steps and shadows. When he arrived, the lift doors opened just as a miner stepped out. The man froze, his body tense as he took in the sight of Kai—bareheaded in the toxic air of the mine.
The miner’s eyes widened in disbelief. He opened his mouth to say something, but Kai’s cold, hollow stare stopped him. Something about the look in Kai’s eyes chilled him to the core. Without a word, the miner stepped aside and hurried into the tunnels, disappearing into the darkness.
The elevator ride up gave Kai time to think. His head still throbbed, but his body felt strangely light, almost weightless, even in the bulky mining suit. Something inside him had changed. He could breathe the toxic air of the mine without consequence. His movements were freer, more fluid, as though the liquid had rewritten the way his body functioned.
But most of all, he thought about the vision. The destruction of stars. The massive, incomprehensible being that swallowed the light of entire systems. How could something so catastrophic exist without anyone knowing? Why weren’t the Empire or the Federation preparing for it? The implications were staggering, but he had no answers. Only questions.
When the elevator reached the top floor, the doors opened, and Kai stepped into the locker room. Immediately, he sensed the change in the air. The miners, who had been chatting moments ago, fell silent as soon as they saw him. All eyes turned toward him. The room grew eerily quiet.
Kai ignored the stares and moved to his locker. He began removing his armor and suit, peeling them off with mechanical precision. Normally, the locker room would be filled with laughter, dirty jokes, and heated debates about politics. But now, there was nothing but silence. The miners watched him, their faces a mix of confusion and unease.
As Kai changed into his daily clothes, he noticed something odd about his body. His muscles looked more defined, his skin smoother and tougher, almost unnaturally so. Veins stood out more prominently, but they pulsed with a faint, bluish light, as though something foreign coursed through them. His movements felt stronger, more precise, like his body had been fine-tuned beyond human limits. Even the small cut on his cheek, made by the shattered visor, was already healing, the skin knitting itself back together.
As Kai placed his suit back into the locker and plugged it into the charging station, the realization hit him: the suit’s power had completely drained. Without power, the suit wouldn’t have provided the assistance needed for movement. Every step he’d taken back to the elevator had been entirely his own.
This wasn’t just unusual—it was impossible. Only the strongest could move in an unpowered mining suit, those whose strength even the Empire’s Royal guard would envy. He looked around the room, and the other miners quickly averted their gazes, pretending not to notice him.
Kai closed his locker door with a sharp clang, then turned and walked toward the entrance. He had nothing valuable to sell from his trip, no crystals or minerals—only the knowledge of the spacecraft’s location. He wasn't even sure if the mining company will be interested in something like that.
When he reached the gate, the same guard greeted him. The man’s eyes widened in shock as he took in Kai’s appearance.
“Kai? What happened to you?” the guard asked, his voice tinged with concern.
Kai shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“You’d better take a look at yourself.” The guard grabbed Kai by the arm and led him to a small room off to the side. Inside was a simple washroom with a sink and a mirror mounted above it.
Kai leaned forward, staring at his reflection. The sight made his stomach drop. His hair was no longer the dark color he had known his whole life—it was white, not silver or gray, but pure white, like the hull of the buried ship. His eyes had a faint blue glow, mirroring the light now coursing through his veins. He touched his face, he felt like he was living inside someone else's body. No, he felt as if someone else was living inside him.
Dumbfounded, Kai stood there until the guard broke the silence. “You’d better be careful next time you go down there—and get yourself checked out by a doctor,” the guard said, gesturing toward the outside door.
Kai nodded silently, stepping out into the sunlight. The sky above Drakmoor was tinted yellow by the sun, a vast, cloudless expanse. A whole night had passed since he had entered the mine. He paused, breathing in the open air, but it didn’t feel the same as before.
Instead of heading straight home, Kai decided he needed something to calm his nerves. Too much had happened in the mine, and the weight of it all pressed heavily on him. He turned and began walking toward the nearest town, seeking a drink to drown the bad taste of the experience.