The Zenith docks with a gentle thud, magnetic clamps securing your ship in place. A soft chime hums through the vessel as Sabine confirms the airlock is stable. Beyond the viewport, the structure looms—a vast station suspended in the quiet abyss, its metal skin shimmering with the faint glow of unknown energies. The Arctuary.
“I’ve interfaced with the station’s systems,” Sabine murmurs through your comms. “It’s… old. Older than anything in mapped space. But it’s waiting for you.”
With a deep breath, you step forward. The airlock hisses open, and a rush of cool, sterile air greets you. The interior is unlike any spacecraft you’ve encountered—elegant, vast, and… alive. Bioluminescent lights pulse like slow heartbeats along the corridor’s edge, illuminating a path forward. The walls ripple, shifting subtly as if adapting to your presence.
And then, at the end of the corridor, you see it—
A grand chamber, stretching into infinity. Bookshelves spiral into the void, defying gravity, suspended on unseen forces. A digital mist swirls along the ground, shifting as you walk. To your left, an entire wall hums with floating holographic archives, text and imagery flickering in a thousand languages. To your right, the physical realm—tomes bound in leather, metal, and materials unrecognizable to human hands, radiating an eerie warmth as if containing something more than mere words.
A circular platform rises from the center of the room. A single object rests upon it—a delicate pair of glasses, sleek, unmarked, waiting.
“Try them on,” Sabine suggests, her voice almost reverent. “I think they were meant for you.”
You hesitate but reach forward. As the glasses settle onto your face, the universe shifts.
The text on the bookshelves ignites with light. The holograms spiral around you, responding to thought rather than touch. The walls dissolve into a cascade of cosmic imagery—worlds, histories, civilizations long forgotten. Knowledge floods your vision, infinite and overwhelming.
Sabine’s voice steadies you.
“Breathe. The Arctuary is adapting to you. Ask… and it will answer.”
Before you can even form a question, the first archive opens—
A memory, a message, a warning.
Something wants to be known.
—
‘Delve into the Archives’ / ‘Seek a Specific Answer’ / ‘Leave the Arctuary and Return to Outpost 09’)
If they land, they step onto the abandoned outpost, the doors creaking open into the unknown… and Sabine awaits inside.