The Last Transmission

The stars outside the viewport of the Astraeus glimmered coldly, a distant, uncaring audience to the unfolding drama. Commander Lena Armitage tightened her grip on the armrest of her captain’s chair, her eyes locked on the holographic display that flickered with static.

“Commander, we’re receiving a signal,” Ensign Malik reported from his station, his voice laced with tension.

Lena nodded. “Put it through.”

The bridge fell silent as the crackling sound of an incoming transmission filled the room. The distorted image of a man appeared on the screen, his face gaunt and eyes wide with terror. He wore the insignia of the Orion, a deep-space research vessel that had gone missing six months ago.

“This is Dr. Elias Kincaid, Chief Science Officer of the Orion,” the man’s voice was shaky, barely above a whisper. “We… we found something. Something we weren’t supposed to.”

Lena leaned forward, her heart pounding. The Orion had vanished near the edge of known space, in an uncharted region that was rumored to harbor strange phenomena. “Dr. Kincaid, this is Commander Armitage of the Astraeus. What happened to your crew? What did you find?”

Kincaid’s eyes darted around, as if searching for something in the shadows behind him. “We picked up a signal—an ancient, repeating pattern. We traced it to a derelict structure, orbiting a dead planet. It was… it was alive, Commander. The structure… it’s not just a machine. It’s sentient. It knows we’re here.”

A chill ran down Lena’s spine. “What do you mean, alive? Are you saying it’s an AI?”

Kincaid shook his head, his voice rising in panic. “No! It’s more than that. It’s ancient—older than our species, older than our galaxy. It can manipulate space, time… and minds. It spoke to us, whispered into our thoughts, twisted our fears against us. The crew… they turned on each other. And now, it’s calling for more.”

“Calling for more?” Malik echoed, his voice trembling. “You mean, it wants us?”

“Yes,” Kincaid replied, his face pale. “We couldn’t resist it. I barely managed to send this message before… before it took them all. Commander, you have to leave. You have to get as far away from this place as you can. It’s already too late for me.”

Lena’s mind raced. Every instinct screamed at her to heed Kincaid’s warning, but she knew abandoning the search for the Orion wasn’t an option. “Dr. Kincaid, we need to understand what we’re dealing with. Can you give us coordinates? Anything that could help us locate you?”

Kincaid looked down, his expression hollow. “You don’t understand… it doesn’t matter where I am. It doesn’t matter where you are. It will find you, Commander. It’s already in your systems, in your thoughts. You… you shouldn’t have come here.”

Suddenly, the lights on the bridge dimmed, and the consoles flickered ominously. Lena’s stomach dropped as she realized the truth of his words.

“Cut the transmission!” she ordered, but Malik was already frantically working the controls.

“I can’t, Commander! It’s locked us out!” Malik shouted, his voice cracking.

Kincaid’s image on the screen began to glitch, his features warping into something unrecognizable, something monstrous. “You should have stayed away…” the voice on the transmission distorted, no longer just Kincaid’s, but a chorus of voices, malevolent and cold.

The ship shuddered, as if an invisible force had taken hold of it. Lena felt a pressure in her head, a whispering that grew louder with each passing second. She clutched her temples, trying to block out the sound, but it was relentless, seeping into her very thoughts.

“It’s here,” Lena gasped, her vision blurring as the entity’s presence grew stronger, feeding on their fear, their desperation.

“Commander, what do we do?” Malik cried out, his voice barely audible over the rising cacophony in their minds.

Lena forced herself to focus, to think clearly despite the overwhelming terror. “We have to shut it out. Cut power to the main systems, reroute everything to manual control. We need to isolate it before it takes full control!”

The crew scrambled to follow her orders, but the ship’s systems were already failing, consumed by the entity that had latched onto them.

The last thing Lena saw before darkness engulfed the bridge was the twisted, malevolent smile on what was left of Dr. Kincaid’s face. The transmission ended abruptly, the screen going black, leaving only the echo of the entity’s laughter ringing in her ears.

And then, silence.