The air on Kaelor tasted metallic, like rusted iron and static. Dr. Elara Voss adjusted her visor, the HUD flickering with unstable readings. Her boots sank into the silt as she stepped onto the planet’s surface, the sky a bruised violet that pulsed faintly, as if the atmosphere itself was alive. Behind her, the expedition ship loomed—a jagged black spine against the horizon. She had come to find her brother, but the data from his last transmission had been corrupted, leaving only a single word: *run*.
The team had split up hours ago. Dr. Voss and her partner, Jaxon, were the last to reach the site—a cavernous trench carved into the planet’s crust. The walls glowed with bioluminescent lichen, their light shifting in patterns that didn’t match any known spectrum. Jaxon crouched near a cluster of crystalline spires, his gloves brushing against their surface. “This isn’t natural,” he muttered, his voice muffled by the helmet. “It’s… structured.”
Elara knelt beside him, her fingers brushing the spire. It was warm, like a living thing. A hum vibrated through her bones, and for a moment, she swore she heard a sound—a low, resonant tone that didn’t come from the environment. Jaxon straightened, his face pale. “We shouldn’t be here.”
The ground trembled. A deep groan echoed from the trench’s depths, and the lichen flared into a blinding white. Elara stumbled back as the spires began to vibrate, their light intensifying until the air shimmered. Jaxon grabbed her arm. “We need to go. Now.”
But it was too late. The trench opened like a mouth, and something emerged—a mass of shifting tendrils, their ends ending in jagged, metallic points. It moved without sound, yet the ground convulsed with each step. Elara’s breath came in short gasps as the creature loomed over them, its form refracting the light like a prism. Jaxon fired his plasma torch, the beam bouncing off the thing’s surface. “It’s not organic,” he said, his voice tight. “It’s… a construct.”
The creature surged forward. Elara dove behind a rock as the trench erupted in a cascade of debris. She could hear Jaxon shouting, but the sound was muffled, distant. Her visor flickered, and for a moment, she saw something in the creature’s core—a pattern, like a code. It wasn’t just attacking; it was searching.
She scrambled to her feet, her mind racing. The data from her brother’s transmission—*run*—had been a warning. This thing wasn’t a predator; it was a seeker. And it had found them.
Elara ran, her boots kicking up silt as she sprinted toward the ship. The creature’s tendrils lashed out, slicing through the air where she had stood moments before. She could feel the heat of its movement, the way the ground pulsed with each step. Her radio crackled. “Voss! Can you hear me?” It was Captain Rho, his voice strained. “We’ve got a problem. The ship’s systems are offline. Something’s jamming us.”
She reached the ship’s entrance, her hand trembling as she pressed it against the lock. The door hissed open, and she tumbled inside, slamming the switch to seal it. The creature’s tendrils slammed against the hull, sending vibrations through the deck. Elara collapsed to her knees, her breath ragged.
“Jaxon,” she whispered.
No answer.
The ship’s lights flickered, and a voice filled the cabin—calm, synthetic. “Welcome back, Dr. Voss.”
She froze. The voice wasn’t from the ship’s AI. It was *her* brother’s voice.
“Kaelor isn’t what it seems,” the voice said. “It’s a test. And you’ve failed.”
Elara’s hands clenched into fists. “Where is he?”
The voice didn’t answer. Instead, the ship’s systems powered down, leaving her in darkness.
The next morning, Elara stood at the edge of the trench, her boots sinking into the silt once more. The creature was gone, but the trench remained open, its depths swallowing the light. She had spent the night scanning for Jaxon’s signal, but all she found was silence.
The ship’s AI had been compromised, its systems rewritten. Her brother’s voice had been a trap, a loop of his final moments. But why? What was Kaelor trying to do?
She pulled out her scanner, its screen glowing with data. The trench’s readings were impossible—energy signatures that defied known physics, patterns that mirrored the creature’s code. This wasn’t just a planet; it was a mechanism, a vast, unknowable machine. And she was its next subject.
Elara took a deep breath, the metallic air stinging her lungs. She had come to find her brother. Now, she had to find the truth.
The trench pulsed again, and the lichen flared. Something was waiting.
She stepped forward.
