My Infinite System.

The Star-Jumper settled into the dust with a final, tired groan. Outside, the Black Vault waited—a dark, silent mouth set into the crater wall. No lights, no welcome mat. It didn’t look like a place that wanted visitors.

For a long moment, nobody in the cockpit spoke.

Reia was the first to move, unclipping her harness with a quiet click. ”Helmets on until we’re inside. The air’s thin.”

”Atmosphere’s stable,” Evelyn confirmed, checking her wrist scanner. ”Just... empty.”

Silas let out a low whistle. ”Yeah, ’empty’ is one word for it. This place looks like it starved to death.”

Kaela, already standing by the hatch, adjusted her white jacket. ”It’s meant to be overlooked. That’s the point.”

”The point is spooky,” Silas muttered as the ramp hissed down.

They stepped out into the cold, thin air. Their boots echoed on the metal walkway leading to a massive door carved right into the rock. Ancient symbols glowed faintly on its surface.

Kaela pressed her palm to a glass panel beside it. ”Kaela Selyn. Theta-Seven.”

The door split down the middle and slid open with a deep, grinding sound, revealing a dark corridor that sloped downward.

Silas peered inside. ”You know, for a fancy corporate CEO, you sure pick some dim hangout spots.”

”Light draws attention,” Kaela said, stepping inside. ”We prefer our history to stay hidden.”

”Yeah, well,” Silas grumbled, following her, ”history could use a lamp.”

The inside was cold and echoey, all metal walls and humming pipes. The deeper they went, the colder it got. They passed sealed doors with weird symbols and what looked like old scorch marks.

Silas slowed by one. ”Remind me why we’re trusting the lady with the murder basement?”

Evelyn gave him a look. ”Because she knows things we need to know. That’s it.”

He sighed. ”You guys have a weird checklist.”

At the end of the hall, Kaela stopped at a shimmering, see-through door. It slid open without a sound.

The room on the other side made them all stop.

It was a library. A huge one. Towers of books and scrolls and glowing crystals reached up into shadows so high you couldn’t see the ceiling. The air smelled like old paper and static.

Silas blinked. ”You’re kidding me. All this security... for a library?”

Kaela almost smiled. ”Knowledge is more dangerous than any weapon.”

Reia scanned the endless shelves. ”Depends on who’s holding it.”

Evelyn stepped forward, her eyes wide. ”Some of these are older than any human city.”

Reia pinched the bridge of her nose. ”And we’re supposed to search all this by hand?”

”Afraid so,” Kaela said. ”The oldest records are too fragile for machines.”

Reia let out a slow breath and turned to Evelyn. ”Please tell me one of those copied abilities of yours is super speed.”

Evelyn smirked. ”Something like that.”

Then she moved.

It wasn’t like running. One second she was there, the next she was a blur. The air in the library stirred, pages fluttering as three faint afterimages of Evelyn zipped down different aisles.

Kaela stared, her calm mask finally cracking. ”She can... copy powers?”

”Yep,” Silas said, leaning against a bookshelf, clearly enjoying the show. ”Powers, people, your ship—heck, I bet she could copy your job if she felt like it.”

Reia didn’t look up from her datapad. ”Silas. Stop talking.”

”See?” he muttered. ”No appreciation for talent.”

Before Kaela could respond, three Evelyns reappeared at the central table, each carrying a tall stack of books and crystal tablets. They set them down with soft thuds, and then two of them merged back into the first.

Kaela was still staring. ”Three of you. And they’re all... you?”

”We’re one,” Evelyn said simply, brushing dust from her sleeve.

Silas grinned. ”Cool, right?”

Evelyn shot him a look. ”You say that every time.”

”Because it is every time,” he said, hopping up to sit on the table’s edge. ”So, what’d we get?”

Reia pulled two books from the pile. The covers were thick with dust. ”The Primordial Races: Aethel, Diva, Ashura Origins,” she read aloud. ”And The Origin of the Universe.”

Silas leaned over, squinting at the strange lettering. ”Sounds like the kind of stuff you read before you take over the world.”

Reia ignored him and opened the first book. The pages crackled softly. Inside were drawings of beings that were almost human, but wrapped in light and shadow.

Kaela watched quietly. ”Those came from a dead station near a burned-out star. We’ve translated them a dozen times. Half of it still doesn’t make sense.”

”Maybe it will to us,” Reia said, her eyes not leaving the page.

Evelyn picked up a crystal tablet, her fingers tracing the glowing runes. ”It’s mostly family lines. Dead bloodlines. It keeps talking about ’First Blood’ and ’Crimson Thrones.’ The word Aethel shows up a lot, but not as a race. More like... a title.”

Reia frowned. ”A title?”

”Maybe ’first-born.’ Or ’the ones who remember the dawn.’ The meaning shifts.”

Silas rested his chin on his hand. ”So these Aethels were the original big shots? The gods before anyone else showed up?”

Reia turned a page filled with intricate diagrams. ”Looks like it. It says there were three primordial races. The Diva, who made order. The Ashura, who brought chaos. And the Aethel...” She paused, reading more carefully. ”They shaped reality itself. Their will became law.”

Silas blinked. ”Their will became law? You mean if one of them said ’rain candy,’ it would rain candy?”

”Basically,” Evelyn said.

Kaela folded her arms. ”That explains why they were wiped out. No one can share a universe with that.”

Reia wasn’t listening. Her gaze was fixed on a passage at the end of the book, written in a language none of them knew.

Silas noticed her focus. ”What is it?”

Reia traced the strange letters with her gloved finger. ”This isn’t history. It’s a warning.” She translated slowly, her voice quiet. ”When the last Aethel sleeps, the world will reset. When the bloodline wakes, the First Song will be heard again.”

Evelyn looked up. ”The First Song?”

”That’s an old myth,” Kaela said, her voice uneasy. ”It appears in a few ancient texts. The idea that creation starts over with a sound—a frequency that rings through the void.”

Silas let out a low whistle. ”Poetic. And seriously creepy.”

Reia closed the book gently. ”Poetic or not, it’s our best lead. Lucy woke up her bloodline. That might have... started something. Triggered this ’Song.’”

Evelyn turned the crystal tablet toward the light. ”Then if Alistair is trying to restart that cycle, we need to find where it began. The source.”

Kaela nodded slowly. ”The first resonance. If it’s real, there would be a marker. A scar in space.”

Reia’s expression hardened. ”Then we find it.”

Silas leaned back with a half-smile. ”You make it sound easy.”

Reia picked up the second book, The Origin of the Universe. ”It never is.”

She opened it to the first page.

”Start here,” she said.

And for the first time since they’d entered the Vault, no one had a joke to make. The only sound was the soft rustle of a page turning in the deep, waiting silence.