The Lingering Presence

Sergeant Lena Hanson’s boots made no sound on the metallic deck plating. It was a quiet she had grown accustomed to on the Stardust, but here, within the colossal, derelict alien vessel, the silence felt… active. It pressed in, a tangible weight against her eardrums. She ran a gloved hand along a sweeping, obsidian-like curve of the alien wall, its surface impossibly smooth, absorbing the beam of her helmet lamp. Commander Li had ordered a sweep of the secondary engineering bay, a cavernous space filled with what looked like dormant, crystalline conduits and humming, inscrutable machinery.

“Anything, Lena?” Captain Rostova’s voice crackled through Lena’s comms, a familiar anchor in this sea of the unknown.

“Just… more of the same, Captain,” Lena replied, her voice low. She paused, tilting her head. “Actually, no. Something’s… different.”