The Belt was a graveyard of broken worlds Crushed moons drifted among shards of forgotten ships The Nomad’s End and the Vigilance moved side by side their hulls glowing faint blue from shield friction Kael sat at the controls chewing on a ration stick while Aiden studied the radar

Kael said You really think the Erebus Gate survived Aiden replied It survived something no one understood that means it still has power Kael shook his head You engineers never change always chasing the next explosion Nara’s voice came from the comm statistically he is correct probability of catastrophic explosion 82 percent Kael smirked See the machine agrees with me

Aiden ignored him eyes locked on the screen The signal pulsed faster guiding them deeper through the wreckage He adjusted thrusters weaving between frozen hulls and tumbling asteroids Each movement felt like threading a needle through a hurricane

They reached a region of silence where the radiation faded The stars looked wrong warped by invisible gravity Aiden whispered What is this place Nara replied Spatial distortion pocket cause unknown Kael muttered This is where I turn around Aiden said You turn around and you die out there We go through together

The distortion cleared revealing a massive ring structure spinning slowly amid the debris It stretched miles wide etched with faint blue runes half buried in asteroid dust Aiden felt the air leave his lungs That’s it That’s a fragment of the Erebus Gate

Kael’s hands froze on the throttle You’re kidding that thing should not exist It’s alive Aiden said Not yet

He activated external scanners The Gate responded like a living thing Energy readings spiking Nara warned Power surge internal core active Aiden shouted Pull us back Kael reversed thrusters The light flared white flooding the bridge The ships shook violently

When the glow faded they were still but everything outside had changed The debris was gone The stars rearranged unfamiliar constellations spinning in slow motion Kael whispered We moved Where the hell are we Nara processed for a long second Temporal displacement detected approximate jump forward sixty years

Aiden stared at the viewport speechless The Gate didn’t destroy them it moved them He felt the old guilt and awe twist together Maybe this was what the Erebus team found before they died Time itself bending

Kael slammed a fist on the console Sixty years You dragged me sixty years into the future Aiden said Calm down We might be the only ones left who can reach the Gate core now Nara added Sensors show faint energy from a structure nearby possibly a surviving fragment of Erebus Station Aiden’s eyes lit up That’s where we start

They navigated toward the faint signal through glowing dust clouds that shimmered like frozen fire The hull rattled under stray magnetic bursts The shape ahead emerged from the mist an enormous derelict station half swallowed by an asteroid its metal skin cracked and leaking blue light

Docking clamps engaged The airlock hissed open releasing stale air that smelled like rust and history Aiden stepped inside flashlight cutting through darkness Symbols lined the walls familiar from his nightmares Erebus insignia everywhere Kael followed weapon raised whispering This place feels dead Aiden replied Dead things still remember

They reached the main chamber A giant sphere hung suspended by broken cables energy arcs crawling along its surface The same technology that once powered the Gate Aiden moved closer fingers trembling This is it Nara projected beside him saying Energy field dormant but unstable If reactivated it could reopen the temporal fold

Kael shouted Wait we don’t even know what year we’re in Aiden didn’t answer He placed his hand on the console The sphere pulsed once blue light filling the chamber Then came a voice deep mechanical yet almost human repeating his name Aiden Cross welcome back

His heart froze The voice belonged to Director Marin his old commander dead for five years He looked up at the sphere realizing the truth The Gate didn’t just bend time it stored consciousness echoes of everyone who touched it

The lights flickered The station woke and for the first time since the collapse the Erebus Gate began to breathe again

Aiden whispered into the glow Then let’s finish what we started