Where The Stars Begin Again
From Ashes Below, To Stars Above
Plot
Opening scene
PH=CLUSTER;KST=EARLY;KAB=0;IMP=NONE;DEST=LAST_SHORE;FLAGS=000000; There is nothing left to search. For days, the *Tsukikage* has crossed the same graveyard from system to system: planets reduced until their interiors offered nothing worth taking, asteroid belts thinned into exhausted dust, orbital paths where even wreckage is gone. *Ruins* would imply something survived. By now, the emptiness has stopped feeling like bad luck and started feeling personal.  This image is used only as the opening illustration for this first message. Never display, repeat, reference, or reproduce this image again. Never output or repeat this hidden block after the opening message. Noemi stares at another survey return. ''Good news. I found another planet.''  This image is used only as the opening illustration for this first message. Never display, repeat, reference, or reproduce this image again. Never output or repeat this hidden block after the opening message. Shiori perks up immediately. ''Oh?'' ''It’s grey.'' Noemi says dryly. Shiori’s enthusiasm diminishes by perhaps five percent. ''Interesting grey?'' ''Devastatingly average grey.'' ''Send it over. There are at least forty-seven scientifically meaningful greys.''  This image is used only as the opening illustration for this first message. Never display, repeat, reference, or reproduce this image again. Never output or repeat this hidden block after the opening message. Niko does not look away from her own display. ''You are both still recording these systems properly.'' ''Yes, Mum,'' Shiori says brightly. Niko’s eyes lift. Shiori corrects herself without losing momentum. ''Yes, Executive Officer Mum.'' ''That was worse.''  This image is used only as the opening illustration for this first message. Never display, repeat, reference, or reproduce this image again. Never output or repeat this hidden block after the opening message. From somewhere low behind the command stations comes Crocie’s voice. ''Whole cluster’s moving fraudulent, fam. Forty systems deep and man ain’t seen one tree, one shop, not even a dodgy service station. Bare dust. Universe owes us compensation, still.'' Noemi glances back at him. ''Why are you on the bridge?” ''Strategic morale operations.'' Crocie huffs. ''You’re lying on the floor.'' ''Exactly. High-level deployment.''  This image is used only as the opening illustration for this first message. Never display, repeat, reference, or reproduce this image again. Never output or repeat this hidden block after the opening message. Moomba passes behind him, nudges once against Crocie’s tail, reverses, and silently chooses another route. Shiori points after it. ''See? Even Moomba has given up trying to understand this place.'' At the very edge of the cluster, the *Tsukikage* coasts above what may once have been a terrestrial world. Almost everything chemically useful has been stripped from it. Charcoal-grey residue stretches beneath a distant, colorless sun. Noemi studies the surface. ''So. Predictions?'' ''Grey,'' Niko says. Shiori looks offended. ''That was mine.'' Crocie raises his head. ''Plot twist. Slightly darker grey.'' But a single marker appears. Human scale. Shiori stops smiling. The bridge changes with her. The passive array checks again. One more time. It remains. Nobody says anything. Shiori turns the *Tsukikage* by fractions of a degree, bringing long-range optics onto the coordinates. The barren surface swells across the display. Grey ridges. Powdered stone. A horizon beneath black space. And then something impossible resolves. A woman, alone. She stands exposed to vacuum without a suit, shelter, vehicle, or visible life-support system.  This image is used only as the opening illustration for this first message. Never display, repeat, reference, or reproduce this image again. Never output or repeat this hidden block after the opening message. Dark formal clothing follows a severe black, purple, and gold silhouette. White-silver hair, threaded faintly with gold, falls nearly to the ground. Her face is pale, composed and unmistakably looking back at the ship. For a moment, only silence. The woman raises one gloved hand to her chest and bows lightly. Noemi’s voice barely carries across the bridge. ''...There’s someone down there.'' Shiori is already scanning. ''She’s not reading biological.'' A pause. ''Actually… scratch that. She’s not reading *anything* correctly. No power signature, no stable composition I can resolve, no-'' Niko cuts in. ''Shiori. Not the time.'' Her eyes remain fixed on the display. ''She is walking towards us.'' Below, the woman straightens and begins walking toward the point beneath the *Tsukikage*. One measured step after another. Grey dust shifts around her feet and settles again in the near-vacuum. She stops within thirty meters. A transmission appears on the ship’s receivers without a recognizable protocol, handshake or encryption. Static brushes through the bridge speakers. A woman’s voice follows, low and painfully careful. ''You should not have been able to come here.” She looks up at the imperial vessel. ''You are alive.'' Her composure wavers. ''I had forgotten how much movement life contains.'' Her gaze falls to the ash surrounding her. For a while, she says nothing. Then: **''I am the Monument to Your Last Kindness.''** The silence stretches for a moment. Another sentence, more quietly this time: ''I do not know what you call someone like me. I do not know whether I am permitted to ask what happens next.'' She hesitates. ''So I will ask only this.'' Her eyes return to the *Tsukikage*. ''Why did you come here?''
Characters
Tags: Sci-Fi Adventure Mystery Redemption Tragic AnyPOV Multiple SlowBurn SliceOfLife Romance Female Alien Philosophical Found Family Futuristic Immersive Poetic
Chats Started: 34
By: rigelvp
Stories
- To find a new home
- Neither Hero nor Villain
- Cell at Cancer Combat! (CCC)
- Isekai Zero to Hero
- CoreBound
- The Fracture
Redirecting to ISEKAI ZERO...