-db- Kanata No Astra -

The void does not whisper. It does not threaten. That is what Aries Spring feared most as she drifted, tethered by a single silver thread to the rusted hull of the Astra . Below her, the planet they’d named “Shummoor” rotated—a marble of ochre and violet, beautiful and utterly indifferent to the nine teenagers clinging to life above it.

“We won’t.” He kicked off a loose panel and drifted closer, spinning lazily. “Because you’re doing the math.”

It had been eight days since they’d escaped the crumbling remains of the old military base. Eight days since Funicia had cried for a mother who wasn’t coming. Eight days since Kanata had grinned that reckless, impossible grin and said, “We’re going home. Together.”

And that, Aries realized, was the only north star they had ever needed. -DB- Kanata no Astra

“Aries.”

She flinched. Kanata’s voice, clear and warm as a terrestrial summer, cut through the suit’s comms. She looked up. He was floating twenty meters to her port side, untethered, his silhouette sharp against the banded rings of a gas giant in the distance.

Kanata stopped drifting. He reached out, and his gloved hand pressed against hers. Through the two layers of fabric and metal, she felt nothing. But she saw the conviction in his posture. The void does not whisper

Home. The word felt foreign now. Was it the planet they’d left behind, with its warm sun and cold betrayals? Or was it this—this creaking, patched-up ship where every ration was counted and every shadow held a secret?

Kanata grinned. He tugged Aries’s tether, pulling them both back toward the ship.

She adjusted her helmet, the click of the visor deafening in the perfect silence. Breathe, she told herself. One… two… three. Eight days since Funicia had cried for a

“What if we’re wrong about everything?” she asked, the question slipping out before she could tether it. “What if the people who sent us out here—what if the lies are bigger than we think?”

The Echo of Nine