Echoes of Andromeda

The stars flickered like dying embers in the vast expanse of space. Lieutenant Mira Solis adjusted her helmet, her breath shallow as she floated within the derelict ship drifting near Andromeda-9. The vessel, Eclipse, had sent a distress signal before vanishing from radar two weeks ago. Now, Mira and her team were sent to investigate.

“Commander, I’m inside,” Mira reported, her voice steady despite the eerie silence around her.

“Copy that, Solis. Stay sharp,” replied Captain Rael from the Orion’s bridge.

The ship’s interior was a graveyard of flickering lights and shattered control panels. No signs of life. No bodies. Just the hum of the emergency systems running on what little power remained. Mira activated her helmet’s scanner—faint heat signatures pulsed from the bridge.

“There’s something here,” she murmured.

As she turned a corner, a shadow darted past the dim emergency light. Mira’s pulse spiked. She raised her plasma rifle.

“Identify yourself!” she commanded.

A soft, glitching voice responded, “Help… me…”

Mira hesitated. The voice was human, but something about it felt… off. She stepped forward cautiously, her rifle aimed at the source—a hunched figure in a tattered flight suit, its visor cracked, revealing a human face. Or at least, what had once been human.

The figure twitched, its movements unnatural. Glowing circuitry ran along its veins like a digital infection.

“Who are you?” Mira asked.

“I… was Captain Elias Rho… but it changed me…” His voice distorted, as if fighting between frequencies.

“It?”

“The Signal,” Elias rasped. “A message from Andromeda-9. We thought it was a distress call… but it was alive. It entered our systems… then our minds.” He gripped Mira’s wrist with unnatural strength. “It’s still here.”

Mira yanked her arm free. “Where’s the rest of your crew?”

Elias’ eyes flickered, glitching between terror and emptiness. “Absorbed. I fought it, but I won’t last… You must leave.”

The ship shuddered. A low, synthetic hum filled the corridors, like a thousand whispers coalescing into one. The lights pulsed in unison with Elias’ erratic breathing.

The Eclipse was waking up.

“Rael! I need immediate evac!” Mira sprinted back towards the airlock.

Static. Then—

“Mira! Get out now! The ship’s energy signature just spiked!”

Elias collapsed, his body convulsing as his form pixelated, breaking apart like a corrupted hologram.

“The Signal… spreads,” he whispered before disintegrating into data, his body dissolving into streams of light that merged with the ship’s walls.

The hum grew deafening. The Eclipse was no longer just a ship. It was a being.

Mira reached the airlock, her hands flying over the controls. The docking clamps refused to release. The ship wanted her to stay.

“Override—code 7716!” she shouted.

The clamps disengaged just as the walls around her began to shift, forming grotesque shapes, reaching for her.

She launched herself into space, seconds before the Orion’s tractor beam pulled her in.

As Mira collapsed onto the deck, she turned back. The Eclipse pulsed, its hull reshaping, forming something eerily human.

Then, it vanished into the void.

“The Signal is still out there,” Mira whispered.

And it was searching for another voice to answer.