The colony had been quiet for years, but the sensors picked up a signal—faint, rhythmic, artificial. Captain Elena Vasquez stood in the command center, her eyes on the display.
"Command, this is Odyssey. I've found something."
"Copy, Odyssey. What is it?"
"A signal. Coming from deep space."
The Builders appeared beside her. "It's our home world. We thought it was destroyed."
"Then we need to go," Elena said.
The Odyssey launched, its engines burning. The journey was long, the space between stars dark and cold.
The home world was dead—its surface barren, its atmosphere gon