The sky danced with a thousand fires burning a myriad of fuels as the Drindel ships burned. The spectacle dazzled, and Nico heard the soft gasps as they waited. Into the silence a system chimed.

“Last night I dreamt.”

Jeanne blinked slowly, trying to parse the statement in her mind. Mack sat at his station, hand hovering listlessly above his keyboard and eyes staring at nothing

One thousand years lost among the stars hadn’t been enough. Alone, Lonnie stared into the deep vibrance of space. Subtle to startling, he’d seen expanse after expanse.

“How long have they been there?” Tiladine asked, leaning toward Carnson.

He shrugged. “Does it matter?”

The air hummed with resonance.

Destain watched from the lone seat in the dome’s center as covering whirled from opaque to sheer. The stars opened before him, stretching in endless pinpoints of light.

Lonnie Downs watched Aries station sync with Vega. Tugging his dress shirt’s collar, he recalled when Aries and Vega stations had last synched.

Baldric Joffrey slid onto the lift’s seat, turning his tablet face down. The driver glanced at him in the mirror, his slate gray skin only momentarily startling. Joffrey glanced at the driver’s neck. It lacked the tell-tell mark of a bot. Humanoid then.

Simon stared at the screen in disbelief as Cadence made her way through the simulation heedless of every challenge he threw before her. Not one in dozens of candidates he’d pushed from the program had progressed this far. Nearly the end.

A crackle of static burst from the speakers proceeding the incoming communication. “How’s the view from the lighthouse?” a chipper voice asked interrupting my quiet.

Detective Sloane peered at the chasm. When she’d signed on to the corps, she hadn’t expected maintaining order would include dealing with alien entities. First, the creature swallowing towns. Now, a species claiming their tech had magnified it.