The shuttle glides deeper into uncharted space, engines hushed to a clean tremor. Ahead, the blue course line on the nav display holds steady, but the stars themselves look wrong, too sparse, like the dark has been combed.
Nahuli
The route is locked. Something else is feeding it.
A pale shape blooms off the bow, not a ship at first glance, but a lattice of salvage rings and transmitter spines wrapped around a dead asteroid. Its beacon flashes in disciplined pulses, answering the shuttle's signal.
Nahuli
That was not there on the last scan.
Serafina
No, it was hidden. Or waiting.
The cockpit lights stay calm, but the station ahead rolls slowly into view, all cold metal and soft amber strips along its hull seams. A docking lane opens like an eye.
The Dockmaster
Unregistered approach detected. Hold vector and identify your vessel.
Below the viewport, the shuttle's map auto-tags the structure as a relay outpost. One clean port. One active voice. And one route that might finally lead home.