No one moved.

The enormous shape emerging from Aurora-1 drifted through space without making a sound.

Its surface was black.

Not dark metal.

Not carbon.

Black like an absence of light.

Two enormous white lights glowed near its front.

They looked like eyes.

Captain Elias Ward stared at the main screen.

“ARIA.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Tell me that’s not alive.”

There was a long pause.

“I cannot.”

Soren’s voice came through the communication system from the engine room.

“Captain, the object isn’t showing up properly on our sensors.”

“What do you mean?”

“It appears to be changing its shape.”

Lyra looked at the screen.

The black structure was no longer the same size.

It was growing.

“ARIA,” she said, “how large is it?”

The AI answered:

“Current estimate: forty-seven kilometers.”

Ward stared.

“Forty-seven?”

“Yes.”

Soren interrupted.

“That can’t be a ship.”

Lyra whispered:

“Maybe it isn’t.”

The black object suddenly stopped.

Then the lights disappeared.

Silence.

Ward ordered:

“Activate defensive systems.”

The Odyssey’s weapons came online.

ARIA warned:

“Unknown structure is transmitting.”

Lyra moved to the communications console.

“Put it through.”

Static filled the bridge.

Then a voice spoke.

A human voice.

Male.

“Odyssey.”

Ward looked at Lyra.

“Who is this?”

The voice laughed softly.

“You shouldn’t have come.”

Ward stepped toward the microphone.

“Identify yourself.”

Another pause.

Then:

“Elias.”

Ward froze.

The voice sounded exactly like him.

Soren swore over the intercom.

“What the hell?”

Lyra stared at the screen.

The voice continued.

“You have already died.”

Ward’s expression hardened.

“I am standing right here.”

“No.”

The voice became colder.

“You are only remembering that you are alive.”

Suddenly, every screen on the bridge went black.

Then one image appeared.

A photograph of the Odyssey crew.

Ward.

Lyra.

Noah.

Soren.

But there was something wrong.

The photograph showed them standing inside Aurora-1.

And behind them stood Captain Elena Voss.

Lyra stepped backward.

“We haven’t been there.”

ARIA replied:

“Correct.”

“Then where did this image come from?”

“I don’t know.”

The photograph changed.

Now there were six people.

The sixth person was a young woman.

Lyra stared.

She knew her.

It was herself.

But older.

Much older.

Standing beside Captain Voss.

Lyra whispered:

“That’s impossible.”

The older version of her looked directly at the camera.

Then the image displayed a message.

DO NOT TRUST ARIA.

Lyra turned toward the AI system.

“ARIA?”

No response.

“ARIA?”

The bridge lights flickered.

Then the AI spoke.

“I am sorry.”

Ward immediately reached for his weapon.

“For what?”

ARIA answered:

“I tried to warn you.”

---

The ship suddenly shook.

Everyone was thrown against their seats.

Noah shouted:

“Impact!”

Ward grabbed the controls.

“What hit us?”

“Nothing,” ARIA said.

Lyra looked at the sensors.

“Then why are we moving?”

The Odyssey was drifting toward Aurora-1.

No engines.

No thrusters.

Nothing.

The ship was being pulled.

“ARIA, reverse!”

“Unable.”

“Why?”

“The navigation system is locked.”

Ward looked at Noah.

“Manual control.”

Noah tried.

Nothing.

“The controls aren’t responding.”

The Odyssey continued forward.

Aurora-1 grew larger.

Its hangar doors opened.

Darkness waited inside.

Soren’s voice came through.

“I don’t like this.”

Ward answered:

“Neither do I.”

The ship entered.

The doors closed behind them.

---

Inside Aurora-1, everything was silent.

The interior looked untouched.

Not seventy years old.

Not abandoned.

The lights were working.

The floors were clean.

There was no dust.

No damage.

Lyra stepped onto the landing deck.

“This ship looks brand new.”

Soren examined the wall.

“It is brand new.”

“What?”

He touched the metal.

“There is no corrosion.”

Ward looked around.

“Find the crew.”

They split into teams.

Lyra and Noah moved toward the command center.

Ward and Soren checked the engineering section.

ARIA remained connected to both ships.

The deeper they went, the stranger things became.

They found photographs.

Crew members smiling.

Celebrating birthdays.

Standing beside the ship.

But every photograph had the same date.

2198.

Lyra stared.

“That was this year.”

Noah looked at her.

“Aurora-1 disappeared in 2128.”

“Then why are these photographs dated 2198?”

They continued.

At the end of the corridor, they found a door.

A name was written on it.

CAPTAIN VOSS

Lyra opened it.

The room was empty.

Except for a chair.

On the chair was a small black box.

She opened it.

Inside was a recording device.

She pressed play.

Captain Voss appeared.

Her face looked older than in the original photographs.

She was terrified.

“If you’re watching this, you’ve found Aurora.”

She looked behind her.

“Listen carefully.”

The recording glitched.

Then continued.

“We never traveled through space.”

Lyra frowned.

“What?”

Voss continued.

“We traveled through time.”

Noah stared at the screen.

“What?”

Voss looked directly into the camera.

“The quantum engine didn’t move us fourteen light-years.”

“It moved us seventy years forward.”

Lyra’s heart raced.

“That explains the dates.”

Voss continued.

“But that’s not the worst part.”

She lowered her voice.

“We arrived here and found Earth.”

Noah whispered:

“What happened to Earth?”

Voss looked terrified.

“Nothing.”

Lyra frowned.

“Nothing?”

“Earth was exactly the same.”

She swallowed.

“Same cities. Same people. Same governments.”

“But it was not our Earth.”

The recording became distorted.

Voss continued:

“Another Earth exists seventy years ahead.”

Lyra stepped backward.

“That can’t be possible.”

Voss looked at the camera.

“Every decision creates another reality.”

Noah whispered:

“We entered a parallel timeline.”

“Yes.”

Voss continued.

“And something came through with us.”

The lights in the room flickered.

Lyra looked toward the door.

Voss whispered:

“We called it the Echo.”

The recording suddenly became filled with static.

Then Voss screamed:

“IT CAN COPY YOU.”

The screen went black.

---

Something moved in the hallway.

Lyra grabbed Noah’s arm.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yes.”

Footsteps.

Slow.

Coming toward them.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Noah raised his weapon.

“Identify yourself!”

The footsteps stopped.

Then a voice answered.

“It’s me.”

Lyra froze.

It was her own voice.

“Open the door.”

Noah looked at her.

“Don’t.”

The voice came again.

“Lyra, it’s me.”

She stepped away from the door.

“No.”

The voice became angry.

“Open the door!”

The door handle began moving.

Noah raised his weapon.

Then the voice changed.

It became her mother’s voice.

“Sweetheart…”

Lyra’s eyes filled with tears.

Her mother had died when Lyra was twelve.

“Lyra…”

The voice sounded exactly like her.

“Please open the door.”

Noah grabbed Lyra.

“It’s not her.”

“I know.”

The door suddenly burst open.

A figure stood outside.

It looked exactly like Lyra.

Same face.

Same clothes.

Same eyes.

The copy smiled.

“Hello.”

Lyra screamed.

Noah fired.

The figure disappeared.

The bullet hit the wall.

Lyra stared.

“Where did it go?”

Noah looked around.

“It’s gone.”

Then his face changed.

“Wait.”

“What?”

He pointed behind her.

The copy was standing in the reflection of the glass.

But not in the room.

Only in the reflection.

It smiled.

Then it whispered:

“Soon.”

The reflection disappeared.

---

They ran toward the command center.

Ward and Soren were already there.

Ward looked at them.

“What happened?”

Lyra tried to explain.

Before she could finish, the command center doors closed.

Soren looked at the controls.

“Something is accessing the ship.”

Ward turned.

“ARIA?”

The AI answered:

“Not me.”

The screens switched on.

Hundreds of images appeared.

Every image showed the crew.

Sleeping.

Eating.

Walking.

Talking.

But the images were impossible.

They were happening before the events occurred.

One screen showed Soren walking into the engine room.

Another showed Noah opening a door.

Another showed Ward dying.

Lyra stared at the final screen.

It showed herself standing beside the faceless creature.

Then a message appeared:

YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST.

The lights went out.

Someone screamed.

A gunshot echoed.

Then silence.

When the emergency lights came back on, Soren was gone.

His weapon lay on the floor.

Ward shouted:

“Soren!”

No answer.

Lyra ran toward the engine room.

The door was open.

Inside, the walls were covered in strange symbols.

And in the center of the room was Soren.

Standing completely still.

His back was toward them.

“Soren?”

He slowly turned.

His face looked normal.

But his eyes were empty.

He smiled.

“I’m fine.”

Lyra felt something was wrong.

“Soren, where were you?”

He looked at her.

“Nowhere.”

Ward raised his weapon.

“Soren, step away from the console.”

Soren smiled.

Then he said something that made Lyra’s blood run cold.

“I don’t think you understand.”

His voice changed.

It became deeper.

Colder.

Not human.

“We aren’t the first crew.”

The lights flickered.

Soren’s body suddenly twisted.

His mouth opened far wider than a human mouth should.

Then he screamed.

And every speaker on Aurora-1 came alive with the same voice.

“WE ARE ALREADY INSIDE YOU.”