[Flash Back]
Another day, quiet and peaceful. For twenty years after colonization, the world was quiet. That's what people hope for, after all, so why have a detective agency? Jeb and Lur had spent the better part of twenty years dealing with small cases, cheaters, thieves, and simple crime. That was just the calm before the storm.
Twenty starships of twenty thousand people, all at a type of ceasefire. It's the anticipation that keeps them quiet. Nobody knows what a world will bring them. The survey teams don't always get everything right. Nature is unpredictable, after all.
It was a warm summer day when Jeb received the call. He could hardly believe what had happened. For the first time since they settled, the media had already been all over the case. A murder in a small town. This would change everything. It would put their agency on the map. It was an opportunity he couldn't refuse.
He learned everything over the phone. It was a double homicide in the home their nineteen-year-old called it in and confessed. He had stabbed his parents to death. In an hour's time after the call, the case had already gone viral. In a day, the world knew, all eyes watched in anticipation. A gruesome murder with no motive.
Jeb took every moment in stride, every step he took, unraveling the mystery further. That is until he met the boy.
[Present]
[You have reached your destination, disengaging autopilot.]
Jeb roused from his slumber, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Sitting forward, Jeb turned to examine his surroundings. Nothing but stars and beautiful lights shined to his left and right. His eyes widened as he looked ahead at the radiant beacon that dominated the dark expanse before him. The quasar pulsed with an otherworldly light, hues shifting between brilliant white, deep violets, and piercing golds. It was alive in a way he could scarcely describe, a celestial heartbeat echoing through the void.
Jebs' breath caught, his blood ran cold as he gazed deeper into the light, its blinding radiance transfixed him. He couldn't move, speak, or feel. He caught himself. He couldn't breathe. His mind raced as minutes passed. Every second felt like an eternity until he saw it. In the light, in the luminous form of this celestial body, was a small, insignificant speck that blocked out the blinding light. He broke away for a moment, gasping for air.
"Is this what he saw?" Jeb whispered to himself, his voice trembling as he reached instinctively for the console. But he hesitated, his hand hovering over the controls.
The light dimmed slowly, like a shade was cast over him and every moment that shade grew darker, he couldn't pull his gaze from the console. Something was out there, stalking him, watching him. He couldn't move as his hands trembled and his mind stuttered.
A sudden static crackled through the comm system, breaking the eerie stillness. Then came a voice, faint and distorted, as if carried on by a wave of static and light.
"You shouldn't have come back."
Something, something cold and dark, spoke to him. With such finality that Jebs' mind almost broke.
"Please, I'll go…" Speaking below a whisper, Jeb mustered the last of his courage.
"Why?"
"What?"
"Why leave now? You already know what you've done."
"I don't know please, just let me go" Jebs voice cracked, his eyes still shut as cold crawled into his flesh like worms, sliding between his skin, gnawing at his bones.
"I told the small one, a moment ago…"
"The small one? What does that mean?" Jeb stuttered.
"It matters not. You are small. Your people are all so small. Fragile things, reaching for stars that would burn you alive. You were not meant to be here."
The voice reverberated through the shuttle's cabin, not just in the air but within Jeb's very being. It was a sound that pierced his ears and borrowed directly into his mind, a presence impossibly vast, speaking as though its words were carved into the fabric of reality itself.
Jeb's hands shook as he gripped the armrests of his seat, his knuckles white. "I—I didn't come here to harm anyone! I just wanted answers. The boy—Quasar—said he saw something. I had to know if it was true!"
A low, resonant hum filled the shuttle, growing louder with each passing second. The light of the quasar flickered, as if laughing, mocking him.
"Seeking, and never finding, wanting and never receiving, the small one knows. For I showed it, why do you seek more?"
Jebs' mind raced, burning while he fought, grasping at straws in his mind. Who was the small one? The only other person who knew something was here was…
"The baby!" Jeb shouted.
"The baby, the small one that you're talking about! They were a baby, they didn't understand! I do, I understand I can listen please…" Pleading while gasping for his last breath, Jeb shook his head violently.
"Baby?"
The voice seemed to linger on the word, as if tasting it, turning it over like a fragment of some ancient memory.
"Yes," Jeb pressed, desperation bleeding into his voice. "Quasar, the boy, he was just a baby when he saw you. He couldn't understand what he was looking at. But I—I can. I've lived long enough. I can try to understand what you are, what you want."
"Show me… Please." Jebs' voice faded, his energy sapped away from him. He was at the end of the line. He opened his eyes and prayed.
"Show him?" The voice seemed amused, almost mocking. "He was not shown. He looked. Against the currents of fate, he turned his gaze into the light, and the light answered."
The quasar's glow surged, filling the cabin with a blinding brilliance. Jeb squinted, trying to look away, but he couldn't. The light seemed to hold him, as if it had a will of its own.
"And now," the voice continued, its tone darker, colder, "you have followed his path. You, too, will look."
"Rise your head."