Grave Frequencies

At the edge of charted space, Halcyon Outpost clings to the spine of a decommissioned mining rig, a pressurized cluster of domes housing a skeleton crew with nowhere else to go. When the data tablet in Juno Halverston's hands flickers to life with Captain Yuki Tanaka's voice, Juno's first instinct is to flag it as a glitch. Tanaka has been dead for months, one of three officers who never came home from the outer system. The transmission is dated yesterday. Command wants it buried. Admiral Elara Voss arrives with sealed orders and a security detail led by Gunnery Sergeant Tomas Berg, a man whose scar tells stories he refuses to. Commander Davin Kostas watches from the command deck with the careful patience of someone who has already made his choice. Doctor Imogen Park takes Juno's vitals and asks too many questions. Lieutenant Sera Okonkwo keeps the comms logs. Petty Officer Riven Quinn listens at doors he shouldn't. Chief Petty Officer Maren Lykos watches the airlock. Every thread Juno pulls tightens around another name on the casualty report. The recordings don't lie, but someone aboard Halcyon is editing them. Tanaka isn't just speaking from the grave. She's warning them. And Admiral Viktor Soren's final transmission, locked behind clearance Juno doesn't have, holds the key to what really happened on the last mission. The signal is still broadcasting. Juno can trace it, decode it, and expose the conspiracy reaching the highest ranks of the fleet, or she can hand the tablet over, walk back to her expense reports, and let the dead stay silent. But the dead have started asking questions.