Kael didn't blink.
The robed figure before him shimmered like a mirage, yet every pulse from its glowing veins radiated undeniable presence. Its voice carried weight—not in volume, but in certainty. The kind that made every word feel inevitable.
> "You are the last Voyager."
Kael raised his plasma pistol, fingers tightening on the grip. "Who are you? What is this place?"
The figure didn't move. The chamber around them hummed with low, ancient energy. Machines older than history lined the walls, some still active, others dormant. The design language was alien—no human symmetry, no understandable geometry—yet Kael's mind could almost grasp it.
"I am the Echo of Arrival," the figure said. "A Chronite memory. A message, waiting to awaken. You activated me when your ship crossed the temporal boundary."
"This is a recording?"
"Something more. Something less." It tilted its head. "The Chronites left echoes of their wisdom for the one who would come. The Voyager."
Kael lowered his weapon slightly. "You keep saying that word—Voyager. What does it mean? Why me?"
The Echo stepped aside and motioned toward a panel on the far wall. As Kael approached, symbols danced across its surface—symbols that rearranged themselves into Terran Standard as he drew near.
> CHRONOS ANCHOR POINT 001: DESIGNATED VESSEL DETECTED
VOYAGER GENETIC MARKER: VERIFIED
ACCESS GRANTED
Kael's heart dropped into his stomach.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
---
Ziri's voice crackled weakly through the com-link. "Kael... systems rebooting... anomaly... watch yourself..."
Kael leaned into the console, ignoring the nausea spinning behind his eyes. "What the hell is this place?"
The Echo responded without turning. "This is a Vault. One of many. Anchored between moments, hidden in folds of failed futures. The Chronites left them scattered across the spiral of time."
Kael frowned. "The spiral of time?"
"Time is not a line. It is a storm." The Echo turned its hollow eyes toward him. "And you were born in the eye."
---
Back on Earth, alarms blared in the Chrono Council chambers.
> Subject Drayven has breached the Outer Sink. Temporal coordinates unknown. Tracking scrambled. Authority override recommended: LEVEL OMEGA.
Councilor Mirell stared at the frozen map projection—Kael's last recorded position flickering, fading, then gone. She slammed a palm on the table.
"He's gone off the rails," she said.
"Worse," muttered the Director of Chrono Defense. "He's activated something old. Something we buried."
---
In the Vault, Kael pressed his palm to the console. A low chime sounded, and the wall dissolved—revealing a suspended orb of flickering white fire. Within it, glimpses of other worlds, broken time, ruined Earths, star systems that never formed.
A hologram spun to life.
> VOYAGER INITIATIVE – PHASE ONE: ACCEPTED
Your timeline has been fractured beyond repair. Reconstructive traversal required.
Mission: Locate and recover the Five Temporal Anchors.
Kael blinked. "Temporal... anchors?"
"Locks," the Echo said. "Holding fragments of the true timeline in place. Without them, your reality collapses—slowly, painfully."
Kael looked into the sphere. It showed his face, then his father's—then static.
"Why me?" he asked again, voice lower now. "Why not someone smarter, more... prepared?"
The Echo stepped closer, light pulsing. "Because the spiral doesn't choose the best. It chooses the one who must go."
---
Ziri's core finally stabilized, and her voice returned, clear but trembling. "Kael... you're inside a Chronite structure. This is impossible. They went extinct before human civilization began."
"I don't think they're gone," Kael whispered. "I think they're watching."
---
The console lit up again.
> First Anchor located: Coordinates destabilized. Anchor drifting across Event Horizon.
Warning: Timeline collapse within 18 cycles.
Kael swore. "What's the cycle conversion?"
Ziri answered. "Approximately seventy-two hours."
He stepped back, breath catching in his chest. "I have three days?"
"No," said the Echo. "You have this moment."
---
Outside, the Vault began to hum violently. The sky trembled. One of the twin moons cracked down the center like a fractured egg, spilling beams of light into space.
Ziri screamed again.
"Chrono-gravity destabilizing!" she shouted. "The planet's sinking into a Foldstream! It's being erased!"
Kael turned to the Echo. "If I leave, will I ever find this place again?"
The Echo's face split—whether a smile or something else, he couldn't tell.
> "You won't need to. The Spiral brings back what is unfinished."
Then it vanished.
---
Kael sprinted through the collapsing chamber, vaulting over broken fragments of alien tech. The Epoch Serpent was still upright, trembling, its hull flickering in and out of phase.
He dove into the pilot cradle, sweat soaking his collar.
"Ziri! Initiate emergency Fold!"
"Destination?"
"Doesn't matter! Anywhere but here!"
The ship's coils roared.
Chrono-light burst from the Vault's remains, chasing the ship like a spectral tide. Kael's vision blurred as the Epoch Serpent punched through the dimension wall.
For a moment, he saw his reflection on the cracked glass of the viewport.
But it wasn't him.
It was another version—older, harder, eyes filled with fire.
Then it was gone.
---
The ship dropped out of fold into darkness.
No stars. No coordinates. No motion.
Kael looked around.
"Ziri… where are we?"
Ziri answered, voice quiet. "We're outside the stream. Between timelines. A dead zone."
Silence.
Then a pulse.
Not from Ziri.
From somewhere... deeper.
Kael turned.
And found himself not alone.
Another figure stood in the ship.
But this one wore his face.
"Hello," the second Kael said. "We don't have much time."