Crystal Apotheosis

The light fractured into a thousand particles as the vessel decelerated to livable velocities, or LiVo as it was called in slang parlance. Jets of gas hissed through the containment quarters as the liquid gel drained out of the safety chambers. The crew blinked and slowly began to move as the oxygen masks uncoupled and retracted into the walls. IV tubes shot out from the wall and hit each crew member in the left arm, injecting them with vitamins and nutrients and rousing them from the state of near slumber. Spacers called it The Edge. The thin line between waking and sleeping. You didn't dream on the Edge, but nor were you conscious. Sometimes people would crack- would go insane, try to turn on their crew- but those cases were rare, perhaps even myth. Everyone knew someone who crewed with someone who heard tell of someone that had 'crossed the edge'. The stories were generally told after a few drinks around the low light of a bar. After a story everyone would be jumpy for a few hours after resuming LiVo. Of course, no-one ever knew someone that it had happened to personally.

Captain Matthias Lelange emerged from his chamber, he pulled a robe from the cupboard and slipped it on before making his way to the bridge. Captain of a small trading ship, the Devil Ray, he stared up at the screens, catching up on data and working out exactly where in space they had stopped. He assumed it all was on target as when he had stepped back from the edge there had been no warning sirens or lights flashing. He frowned as he tapped one of the screens.

"Charlotte", he spoke into his wrist mic, "Can you come to the bridge please? I want to run some numbers past you." He looked at the screen again and shrugged. It was probably just a random anomaly, but best to be sure. While he waited for Charlotte to arrive he pulled up the outside camera and proceeded to do a visual check on his ship to make sure there was nothing clinging from the voyage, or that they had sustained no tears that needed to be fixed sooner rather than later.

The camera panned across the ship, it looked like a gigantic manta ray gliding serenely through space, the outer skin was still in good condition, several minor tears from micrometeorites, but no major damage that required someone to space walk. The light from the distant star glinted from the the underside of the 'Ray. She was a beauty to behold and the captain always took great pleasure in doing his visual inspection.

"Captain?", Charlotte asked as she stepped onto the bridge.

"Greetings to you", the captain replied as he looked over fondly at his daughter, "Can you confirm the data on monitor three?" he asked.

Charlotte looked up at the data and blinked, she waved her hand and a keyboard appeared. A few quick keystrokes later and the screen refreshed, looking exactly the same as before.

"Father, the computer calculations are correct, the star in the center of this system is no natural sun. It's an artificial object, I've never seen anything like it before."