The scream hadn’t ended.
It echoed across the chamber like a warning ripped from another realm—raw, human, but wrong in its pitch. Too hollow. Too stretched. It came from beyond both massive doors, now yawning open on either side of the grand hall like the gates of some buried cathedral.

The crew froze. The air had shifted. Even the dust seemed reluctant to settle.

“What the hell was that?” Jarek whispered.

Dr. Veiss, who moments earlier had been smug behind his forcefield, now stood white-knuckled at his terminal, mouth slightly open, eyes darting between the two dark corridors.

“That... wasn’t me,” he said quietly. “That wasn't supposed to open.”

“What do you mean ‘wasn’t supposed to’?” Ramm barked. “You're the one with all the buttons!”

“I didn’t open them!” Veiss snapped. “Someone’s tampering from deeper in the network—or something is. We’re not alone anymore.”

A chill bled into the chamber. Lights dimmed, not from any power loss, but as if shadow itself were seeping through the cracks of the world. Veiss stepped back, his face paling.

Brinn took a step toward him. “What’s out there?”

Veiss didn’t answer.

And then they saw them.

From each side of the hall, like slow fog blooming into form, two shapes emerged. Humanoid, and yet not. Shimmering outlines of draped figures, transparent but flickering like dying firelight. They didn’t walk. They hovered, gliding a few inches above the floor—untethered to gravity or sanity.

They had no faces. No steps. No sound.

But every instinct screamed.

“What the hell are those things?” Jarek whispered.

Pepe hovered low, scanning furiously. “They don’t read. No heat. No mass. Not even motion markers. Like... ghosts.”

“I hate ghosts,” Ramm muttered. “And I’m not even religious.”

Brinn stepped protectively in front of Veiss, fire already blooming in his palms. “Everyone stay behind me. If they’re real, they’ll burn.”

But the phantoms didn’t seem to care.

The one on the left surged forward.

Not at Brinn.

At Veiss.

“No!” Veiss screamed, trying to scramble behind a console.

Too late.

The ghost reached him—and vanished into him.

Veiss convulsed violently, eyes rolling back. His mouth opened in a silent scream. A strange gray sheen began to ripple across his skin, as if something beneath the surface was trying to pull his life outward.

“Veiss!” Brinn shouted, rushing forward.

The second ghost turned toward the movement—and lunged.

It slammed into Brinn’s chest and vanished, just like the first.

Brinn choked, staggering. His flame flickered and extinguished.

“Brinn!” Jarek fired instinctively. The blast hit only air.

No effect.

Sai dashed forward, daggers flashing. He stabbed clean through Veiss’s side—

No blood. No resistance.

His blade passed through like mist.

“They’re not here,” Sai breathed. “They’re not physical unless they’re feeding.”

“What are they feeding on?” Ramm asked, frantic.

Sai looked up.

“Us.”

Brinn’s knees buckled. His eyes glazed. Flames flickered across his arms, uncontrolled, sputtering like dying candlelight. He groaned, falling to one knee, hand clutching his head.

Sai turned sharply, his focus narrowing.

There was only one option.

He inhaled sharply, pressed a palm to the floor—

And time slipped.

Reality snapped backward two, maybe three seconds. Veiss hadn’t yet been touched. The ghost still hovered inches from him.

Sai didn’t hesitate.

He shoved Brinn backward—and stepped directly into the ghost’s path.

“No!” Jarek yelled.

The creature collided with Sai.

And everything went silent.

Sai staggered once.

And then the world slid.

Images surged through his mind—memories he didn’t remember choosing. Childhood. A black room. Voices he never wanted to hear again. Faces. Screams. A battlefield soaked in shadow. The first time he killed.

The creature wasn't just taking memories.

It was sifting through them.

Draining his identity.

Sai collapsed to one knee, gasping. Shadows curled around him erratically, as if trying to fight back. But the ghost held tight, clawing deeper into his mind.

Then—

Fire.

A burst of molten heat exploded across the chamber. Brinn roared, the flames on his arms reigniting with fury.

“Get off him!”

He hurled a blast of fire directly at Sai’s body—not to harm him, but to burn the thing leeching onto him.

The ghost screeched.

Not aloud. But in their heads.

It tore backward from Sai, its form unraveling like smoke in wind. It shrieked again, twisting violently through the air, now visible and burning along its edges.

Jarek raised his blaster. “It can be hurt!”

“Fire!” Brinn shouted. “That’s what it fears!”

The other ghost—still on Veiss—let out a horrid moan.

Brinn didn’t hesitate.

He stepped forward and punched a flaming fist into the air above Veiss’s body.

The fire passed through—mostly. But the ghost shimmered. Twitched.

It didn't scream.

It turned.

And fled.

Straight through the ceiling, vanishing like steam.

The chamber went quiet.

Sai slumped, barely conscious. Brinn grabbed him, pulling him back.

Jarek knelt beside Veiss. The doctor was breathing—shallow, but alive. His hair had turned gray at the edges, and his skin looked older somehow. Like a part of him had been aged centuries in a moment.

Ramm collapsed onto the floor, shaking. “I... okay. That was bad. That was real bad.”

Pepe hovered, sparking faintly. “Warning: interdimensional soul parasites have been added to the threat index. Please avoid future ghost cuddles.”

Sai coughed once and opened his eyes.

“I’m fine,” he muttered.

“You’re not,” Jarek said flatly.

“No,” Sai agreed, voice hoarse. “But I’m here.”

Brinn looked at the dark corridors, still pulsing faintly with cold light.

“Whatever those things were... they weren’t meant to be here.”

“No,” Veiss said weakly, voice cracking. “They were sealed. Locked. I didn’t release them. I would never…”

He sat up slowly, looking around the ruined command room.

“They were security measures. Containment. And now they’re loose.”

Jarek’s eyes narrowed. “So someone else opened those doors.”

“Something,” Veiss corrected grimly.

Pepe hovered above the doctor. “And whatever it is… it doesn’t like us.”