The stars around Rotham blurred as the skiff exited hyperspace. Before him stretched the Hollow Expanse—an abyssal region with no charted stars, no gravimetric readings, and no recorded visits.
Just a vast silence.
But in the silence, something moved.
He checked the signal again. It pulsed not in frequency—but in absence. A negative echo. Coordinates that should not exist were now painted across his nav-screen like ghost veins.
Selin's voice was low, almost reverent.
"This place isn't just uncharted… it was erased."
Suddenly, his interface flickered. A map emerged—hand-drawn, ancient, burned into the signal itself. It showed not worlds, but events. Not places, but memories that never were. Names scratched out. Symbols half-smeared by time.
At the center of the map: a mark labeled "Nexus Zero".
Rotham's brow furrowed.
"Nexus Zero. The first point. The original echo."
He set course.
As the skiff glided silently into the dark, a whisper touched the comms. A voice he hadn't heard since Adra-9.
"You ended the echo… but not the silence."
Rotham steadied his hand on the controls.
"Then let's see what silence is hiding."
The Hollow Expanse stirred.