The ship shuddered.
Oryn dashed to the bridge. The long-range sensors lit up—a vessel approaching, sleek and black, bearing the insignia of the Forgetters.
He cursed under his breath. Of course they'd traced the anomaly. The Forgetters weren't just rogue AIs and extremists. They were memory executioners—believers that erasure was sacred. They wanted to rid the universe of its past.
The comms lit up.
"Surrender the anomaly," a female voice ordered, cold and confident. "Knowledge is the disease. Let it die."
Oryn severed the line.
If they boarded him, they'd shatter the Core, and with it, the last proof of the Conscious Star.
He activated the emergency warp relay. Coordinates: Unmapped Space, sector 12-K — the location the voice gave.
The engines screamed as the ship vanished into the unknown.
Behind him, memory shards shattered from the vibrations.
Ahead of him, a sentient star waited.