Echoes in the Void

5939 words

Episode 4: Echoes in the Void The air in the comms hub was thick with the tang of burnt wiring and stale sweat, the kind of smell that clung to the back of your throat. Mira’s boots scraped against the rusted metal floor as she paced, her shadow flickering under the dim, stuttering overhead lights. The hum of the station’s failing systems pulsed like a dying heartbeat through the walls of Station Eleven-B, a constant reminder that time was bleeding out. She stopped, her hands curling into fists at her sides, and glared at the comms unit—a tangle of exposed circuits and flickering screens that Cal hunched over like a man possessed. “We can’t just sit here, Cal,” she snapped, her voice cutting through the low buzz of static leaking from his headphones. “If there’s even a chance those signals are real—people out there, survivors—we have to act. Now. Before the council’s vote tomorrow turns half of us into space debris.” Cal didn’t look up. His fingers danced across the controls, tweaking dials with a precision that bordered on obsession. The screen in front of him pulsed with jagged green lines, a ghostly echo of the signal they’d picked up hours ago. His jaw was tight, the stubble on his chin catching the faint glow of the monitor. “I’m tryin’,...