The galaxy was littered with graveyards—planets long dead, orbiting stars that still burned
brightly. They were desolate, barren worlds with no atmosphere, no sound, no signs of life. Yet,
some whispered that these planets weren’t truly lifeless. Beneath their silent surfaces,
something stirred. Something forgotten.
Eira had always been drawn to dead planets. As a xenoarchaeologist, she specialized in
exploring these forgotten worlds, trying to piece together the stories of civilizations that had
vanished long ago. Most of her colleagues called her obsession foolish—after all, what could be
learned from planets that had nothing left to give? But Eira knew better. Dead planets carried
secrets, echoes of the past that spoke louder than the living.
Her latest mission was to investigate a planet called Vornis, a world that had once been vibrant
with life before it was mysteriously wiped out thousands of years ago. The archives referred to it
as The Still Planet—a place where time itself seemed to pause, where technology failed, and
where explorers often disappeared without a trace. Ships would orbit the planet, but their
equipment would short out the moment they tried to descend. No one knew why.
Eira was not deterred. If anything, the mystery made her all the more determined. The galaxy
had already given her its answer: wherever the dead lingered, so did their truths.
The descent to Vornis was harrowing. As her small shuttle pierced the planet's atmosphere,
every system flickered, threatening to shut down. Lights dimmed, controls seized, and even her
artificial intelligence companion, Solis, stuttered and fell silent. But Eira had prepared for this.
She activated her backup systems—old analog controls, untouched by the modern reliance on
quantum tech—and, against all odds, landed on the planet’s surface.
The moment she stepped out of the ship, the silence hit her. It wasn’t just the absence of
sound—it was as if the air itself had been stripped of movement, like the entire planet was
holding its breath. The ground was gray and cracked, covered in a thin layer of black ash. No
wind stirred, and the sky above was a dull, unbroken white, as if the planet had been wrapped in
a sheet of fog that pressed down on everything.
Eira activated her recorder and began walking, her boots crunching softly against the dead soil.
The ruins of a once-great civilization lay before her—towering spires that leaned at impossible
angles, bridges suspended over nothingness, and streets littered with the skeletal remains of
machines. Whatever had happened here, it had been sudden, catastrophic, and complete.
As she ventured deeper into the ruins, her equipment began to malfunction. Not just her tools,
but her mind. The deeper she went, the more she began to feel… watched. Whispers curled at
the edges of her thoughts, faint and fleeting, as if the planet itself was trying to speak to
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