Oryn's boots echoed against the metallic floor of the ship as he descended into the archive vaults. Each sector held echoes of civilizations long wiped from history—but the real treasure was deeper: the Mnemonic Core, where forbidden star-memories were sealed.
The ghost voice had shaken him. Not just because it spoke—many old AIs mumbled to themselves—but because it remembered his name. And because it referenced the system Neren-Delta, which had collapsed into non-existence fifty cycles ago.
That should have been impossible.
He keyed into the Core using a retinal code only three people in the Accord had access to—two of them were dead. The chamber opened like a breathing lung, lights slowly illuminating rows of black crystal slabs humming with encoded memory.
His hands trembled as he inserted a shard.
Images flooded his mind: a colossal living star, speaking through solar flares. A planet orbiting it with cities built on gravity rivers. And in the center of it all—a memory field untainted by collapse.
Oryn staggered back, sweating.
This was no glitch.
A star had become sentient. And it wanted him.