The Black Hole Graveyard was not silent. It was screaming.
It was a region of space where gravity had gone necrotic. Dozens of small singularities punctured the fabric of reality like ulcers in a stomach lining, dragging light and matter into oblivion.
Vitalis halted at the edge of the sector. Even a Star-Entity dared not swim closer. The tidal forces here could rip the flesh off its bones.
"Gravity well density is critical," The Queen reported, her avatar struggling to maintain resolution against the magnetic interference. "Time dilation is in effect. For every hour we spend here, a day passes in the normal universe."
"We need to be quick then," Zin said, staring at the main viewscreen.
In the center of the graveyard spun a massive accretion disk—a swirling river of glowing dust and broken ships orbiting a central black hole.
And there, pulsing rhythmically on the edge of the Event Horizon, was a signal.
Map Piece #3.
"It's stuck," Gorge squinted at the screen. "It's caught in the drain."
"It's not just stuck," Zin analyzed the data. "That Singularity... it's not natural. Look at the radiation signature."
He magnified the image.
The Black Hole wasn't just a void. Around its rim, massive, translucent tentacles made of distorted gravity and dark matter whipped through the vacuum.
It was a Macro-Phage. A white blood cell of the universe that had mutated, collapsed in on itself, and become an insatiable hunger. It was eating the garbage of the sector.
"So," Elara swallowed hard. "We have to steal a piece of candy from the mouth of a monster that eats stars?"
"We don't steal," Zin corrected, moving to the equipment locker. "We perform an Endoscopy."
Zin brought up a schematic.
"We can't fly a ship in. The engines will fail. We need a tether."
He pointed to the Umbilical Cable—a massive, reinforced organic tube used by Vitalis for feeding.
"We attach the cable to a Drop-Pod. Vitalis stays safe outside the gravity well. We descend into the throat, grab the object, and Vitalis pulls us out."
"Like fishing," Gorge grunted.
"Like a throat swab," Zin adjusted his glasses. "But if the cable snaps... we get digested by infinity."
[The Descent]
The Drop-Pod, attached to the thick, fleshy cable, lowered slowly into the dark.
Zin, Elara, and Gorge were strapped into gravity-dampening chairs.
Outside the window, the universe bent.
Stars smeared into long streaks of light. Colors shifted from blue to red. The sound of the hull creaking was deafening.
"Depth: 20,000 kilometers from the Horizon," The Queen's voice crackled over the comms, distorted and slow. "Heart... rate... rising..."
"We are entering the throat," Zin said, checking the sensor scope.
They passed through the accretion disk.
It was a junkyard. Millions of tons of debris—Aseptic ships, dead biological beasts, failed experiments—swirled around them in a chaotic dance.
"There!" Elara pointed.
Floating amidst the wreckage, caught in a tangle of gravity-vines, was the Third Map Piece. It was encased in a prism of black glass.
"Gorge, deploy the claw," Zin ordered.
The pod extended a mechanical arm. It reached out for the prism.
They were so close.
Just ten meters.
Suddenly, the darkness moved.
From the black void below, a shadow detached itself. It wasn't a ship. It was a Void Eel.
A creature that had evolved to live on the edge of a black hole. It had no eyes, only a mouth filled with rows of needle-teeth made of condensed diamond.
SCREEECH.
The Eel rammed the pod.
The impact spun them wild. The Umbilical Cable groaned under the tension.
"We have parasites!" Gorge yelled, fighting the controls.
Three more Eels emerged from the dark, attracted by the heat of the pod. They began to chew on the Umbilical Cable.
"If they cut the cord, we fall in," Zin said calmly. "Elara, light."
"Light?"
"They live in total darkness," Zin explained. "They hunt by gravity sensing. Blind them."
Elara unbuckled her harness. She floated to the front of the pod, placing her hands on the glass.
She channeled the energy of Vitalis through the cable.
She didn't create a beam. She created a Flashbang.
FLASH.
A burst of supernova-brightness exploded from the pod.
In the eternal night of the black hole, it was blinding.
The Void Eels shrieked, their sensitive skin burning. They recoiled, diving back into the deep dark.
"Now, Gorge! Grab it!"
Gorge slammed the control stick. The mechanical claw snapped shut around the Black Prism.
"Got it!"
"Vitalis! Retract! Retract!" Zin shouted into the comms.
Far above, outside the danger zone, the Star-Whale heaved. The massive muscles of the cable flexed.
The pod was yanked backward.
Gravity fought them. The Black Hole didn't want to give up its meal. The G-force pressed Zin into his seat until his vision blurred.
His ribs creaked. His blood felt like lead.
But they were rising.
Blue shift returned. The stars stopped streaking.
They burst out of the accretion disk, gasping for air.
[Vitalis Med-Bay - 1 Hour Later]
Zin stood over the three pieces of the map.
They were arranged on a table:
The Bone-Chip (from the Dead God).
The Data-Crystal (from Sol).
The Black Prism (from the Graveyard).
He slotted them together.
They clicked, fusing into a single, glowing pyramid.
A star-map projected into the air.
It showed the galaxy. And on the outer rim, in a region of space marked as "Uncharted," a single point pulsed with pure white light.
Target: The Nursery.
"It's real," Elara whispered, looking at the hologram. "A place where the stars are born."
"And a place where the Aseptic League plans to end them," Zin added grimly.
"Queen," Zin looked up. "How far?"
"At maximum warp," The Queen calculated. "Three days. But Zin... the sensors are picking up a massive energy spike behind us."
Zin looked at the long-range scanners.
The Aseptic League wasn't sending a fleet this time.
They were sending The Nullifier.
It was a ship the size of a moon. A perfect sphere of Vantablack. It didn't reflect light; it absorbed it.
It was the flagship of the High Council.
"They are done playing games," Zin said, taking off his glasses to clean them one last time. "They are bringing the bleach."
He turned to his crew.
"We have a three-day head start. If we beat them to the Nursery, we save the future. If they beat us... the universe goes sterile."
Zin put his glasses back on.
"Engage the engines. Let's go meet the children."