Kael Draven wasn't a hero.
He wasn't the type of person who got remembered. He wasn't the guy who made speeches or saved planets. He was the guy who fixed things. Broken pipes, busted bots, air vents that refused to do their job. Simple stuff. And it was good. He liked it that way. Life was quieter when things didn't break. No drama. No surprises.
That's how Kael liked it.
Or, that's how he used to like it.
Kael was outside the station, floating above the planet Argo-5. It was just another day on Juno Nest, the little space station nobody cared about, drifting on the edge of the Praton Galaxy. The stars were shining as usual, the hum of the station's power grid in the background, the station's hull beneath his boots. Quiet. Normal.
But then he saw it.
At first, it was small. A tiny speck against the endless blackness of space. He thought it was a bug on his visor. He rubbed it off, but it didn't go anywhere.
It was still there.
A dot.
Not a star. Not a satellite. It was darker than dark, like someone had cut a hole in the universe and left it hanging there, just for him to see. Kael stared at it for a moment. It didn't move. Didn't blink like a star would. It was just… still.
"Commander Ray, you seeing this?" Kael said, tapping his helmet. His voice sounded small against the quiet of space.
There was no answer.
"Commander?"
Nothing but static.
Kael frowned. This wasn't right. Maybe the comms were down? He couldn't think of another reason why no one was responding. The dot in the sky wasn't right. It wasn't natural. It felt wrong.
He turned back toward the hatch.
But it was open.
That shouldn't have happened. Not while someone was outside. The hatch was always sealed tight during external maintenance. Kael's heart skipped a beat. His gut told him that this was way more than a simple malfunction.
His legs started moving before he could think about it. Slowly at first, then faster, his boots clanging against the hull as he floated inside the station.
"Commander?" Kael called out as he floated through the open hatch. The corridor was darker than usual, and there was a strange stillness to the air. Like something was... off. The usual hum of the station's life support system was absent. It was just him now.
"Hello?" he called again, this time a little louder, the echo of his voice bouncing off the metal walls.
Nothing.
Kael frowned. It wasn't just quiet. It was too quiet. Something was wrong.
He made his way down the hall, the walls flickering like the lights were struggling to keep up. There were little cracks in the walls, small ones, but they shouldn't have been there. They weren't from wear and tear. It was like they had just appeared.
When he reached the command center, the door slid open. The main screen was on, and a message blinked on the display: INCOMING SIGNAL: SOBOS-11.
Kael froze. Sobo. That was where Juno, his best friend, lived. The girl who was always too smart for her own good. The girl who knew everything about everything and loved to remind him about it. The girl he'd grown up with. She was on Sobo, working on her research project there.
But this wasn't a normal message. It wasn't her usual cheerful, "Hey Kael, what's up?" message. No. Something was… wrong.
He tapped the screen.
Juno's face appeared, but it wasn't the usual friendly grin Kael was used to. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with fear, and her clothes were stained with something dark, something that didn't belong in the sterile, white halls of a research lab. Behind her, smoke curled up from some distant explosion. Kael's heart hammered in his chest.
"Kael, listen to me," Juno's voice came through, shaky, urgent. "We don't have much time. This… this isn't the first time. It's happening again."
"What are you talking about, Juno? What happened?" Kael's voice cracked slightly. His chest tightened.
"There's a black hole. But not the kind you're thinking," she said quickly, glancing over her shoulder. She was clearly trying to stay calm, but it wasn't working. "It's not natural. I don't know how to explain it, but it's feeding. It's consuming time, Kael. It's been looping. Every time we die, everything resets. Every time. This—this is the loop."
Kael stared at the screen, trying to make sense of her words. His mind couldn't wrap around what she was saying. "Juno, what do you mean 'loop'? What's happening?"
"I don't know how many times I've died already. I've lost count," Juno whispered, her voice trembling. "The black hole—every time it feeds, we go back. We restart. We try again. And it keeps happening. Over and over. Kael, this isn't just a black hole. It's something else. Something worse."
The screen flickered. The image of Juno started to distort, the connection breaking down into static.
Then, there was a loud BOOM. The station shook. Kael stumbled, his hand slamming into the wall to steady himself.
He didn't think. He just ran.
The lights flickered. Pipes burst with a hiss. The station seemed to be coming apart. Steam filled the air. Kael barely had time to process what was happening before another explosion sent him flying toward the escape pod bay.
But the floor cracked beneath him.
He scrambled, hands slipping on the floor, trying to reach the pod hatch, but—
White light.
Kael jolted awake, gasping for air, his heart pounding in his chest.
He was back in his bunk.
Everything was quiet. Still. The lights overhead flickered on, the power grid buzzing softly. His watch beeped, showing 06:00 | Cycle Start.
What the hell?
Kael sat up, his head spinning. It was supposed to be the morning. It was supposed to be just another boring day. But the memories, the images of Juno, the warning… it was all still there.
"No," he whispered, shaking his head. "No, this isn't happening again."
He jumped out of bed, disoriented, his mind racing. He'd been through this already. He'd seen this before.
The black dot.
He turned toward the window.
There it was.
The black dot. In the same place. Hanging there, unmoving.
"No… No!" Kael shouted, his heart racing. He could feel the sweat on his palms as he turned toward the hall.
That's when he heard it.
Footsteps.
He looked up.
And there she was.
Juno.
But it couldn't be her. She was dead. She was on Sobo.
Her hair floated around her face like she was weightless, her eyes glowing faintly with an eerie red hue.
"You're late," Juno said softly, her voice almost too calm.
Kael's chest tightened. "You died."
"I know," she said, almost sympathetically. "But you're just getting started. Welcome to the loop."