If anyone finds this recording, then I suppose I should start by introducing myself. My name is Vega. I'm recording this from a small exploration vessel currently traveling far beyond the borders of my home. I don't know who will hear this, or if anyone ever will, but I need to leave some kind of record behind. If something happens to me, I want there to be an explanation.

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I come from a world called Asterra. For most of my life, Asterra was a beautiful place. The night sky was filled with countless stars, and every one of them mattered. We studied them, mapped them, and built our lives around them. The stars were more than distant lights to usthey were symbols of our history, our families, and our future.Then they started disappearing.

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At first, nobody paid much attention. A single missing star could be explained away as an error in observation. Then another vanished. Then another. Entire constellations began to lose points of light. The astronomers noticed it first, followed by the observatories and the Keepers, the people responsible for studying and protecting our knowledge of the stars.

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Everyone told us not to worry when the first stars disappeared.

The Keepers assured everyone that they were investigating the problem. The observatories studied the sky night after night, searching for patterns and explanations. Leaders across Asterra promised that whatever was happening would be understood and stopped.

At first, people believed them.

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The disappearances seemed distant, almost unreal. A star would vanish from the sky, and life would continue as normal. Then another would disappear, and then another. Slowly, the dark spaces between the remaining stars began to grow.

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But the stars weren't the only things disappearing. with every star that went so did the person connected to it. My mother was one of the first people I knew who disappeared. She left home one morning and never came back. There was no sign of a struggle, no evidence that she had traveled anywhere, and no explanation for where she had gone. It was as if she had simply been erased from the world. My father disappeared months later. Then my brother.

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The same thing was happening all across Asterra. Families lost loved ones without warning. Friends vanished. Neighbors vanished. Entire homes were left empty overnight. Every disappearance looked the same: no clues, no witnesses, and no answers.

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The authorities did everything they could. Investigators followed every lead they found. The Keepers searched ancient records for anything that resembled what was happening. Scientists compared astronomical data from centuries of observations. Ships were sent to investigate unusual readings in nearby sectors.

 

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As the years passed, fear spread throughout Asterra. Each night the sky grew darker, and each day brought news that someone else had vanished. People stopped making long-term plans. Some refused to leave their homes. Others spent their lives searching for loved ones who never returned.

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I kept waiting for someone to solve the problem.

I thought surely there had to be experts somewhere who understood what was happening. Someone smarter than me, more experienced than me, and better equipped to find answers.

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But no answers came.

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Eventually I realized that if I wanted to know what happened to my family, I would have to go looking for them myself. That decision led me to do something incredibly reckless. I stole a spaceship.

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The ship had originally belonged to my uncle, an explorer who spent most of his life traveling beyond known space. He was fascinated by mysteries and always believed there was something worth discovering beyond every horizon.

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Years ago, he disappeared during one of his expeditions.

Most people assumed he had died. I never accepted that explanation.

Before he vanished, he used to tell me stories about distant regions of space and strange things hidden among the stars. One phrase stayed with me more than any other.

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"If the stars ever stop singing, don't wait for someone else to listen."

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When I was younger, I thought it was just one of his dramatic sayings.

Now I think he may have known something important. After his disappearance, his ship was placed in storage at the northern docking fields. The vessel was officially sealed and left untouched.

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Officially, nobody was allowed inside.

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Officially, I definitely wasn't supposed to take it.

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Unfortunately, desperation has a way of making rules seem less important. I gathered everything I thought I would need for a long journey. I packed supplies, navigation charts, emergency equipment, a notebook for recording anything I discovered, and the last photograph I had of my family. I also packed far too many snacks. At the time, I was convinced I was ready for whatever waited beyond Asterra.

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I was wrong.

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My plan was simple. I would investigate the phenomenon people had started calling The Fading. I would discover why the stars were disappearing. I would find my family and everyone else who had vanished.

Then I would return home with answers.

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It sounded heroic.

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It was also wildly unrealistic.

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I've been traveling for three cycles now, following fragments of data and old records connected to my uncle's final expedition. So far I've learned very little except that space is much larger, much stranger, and much less cooperative than I expected. I've already collided with two asteroids. I accidentally scraped a communications satellite. And somehow I managed to lock myself out of my own navigation system twice.

I'm still not entirely sure how I managed that.

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Even so, I don't regret leaving.Every day I stayed on Asterra felt like watching another piece of my world disappear. Eventually doing nothing became harder than facing the unknown. Lately I've been thinking about home more often. I think about the streets where I grew up, the observatory towers glowing beneath the night sky, and the evenings my family spent together on the roof watching the stars. Back then the sky felt endless. 

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Now I spend most nights staring through the cockpit window at unfamiliar constellations, wondering whether my family is somewhere out there looking at the same sky. Maybe they're alive. Maybe they're trapped somewhere. Maybe they're searching for answers just like I am.

I don't know.

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What I do know is that every time I start questioning this journey, I remember why I began it. If there's even the smallest chance that I can find my family or learn what's happening to Asterra, then I have to keep going.

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That's why I'm making this recording.

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If someone finds this ship and I'm not around to explain things myself, at least you'll know who I was and what I was trying to do. I left home to search for my family. I left home to understand The Fading. And I left home because nobody else seemed able to find the answers.

 

For the first time since my journey began, I think I might finally be close to something important. The coordinates I've been following match fragments from my uncle's logs, and there's a signal ahead that shouldn't exist this far from known space.

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It could be nothing. It could be another dead end. or it could be the first real clue I've found.

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Either way, I'm going to find out.

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...Hold on a second.

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That's strange.

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The signal just changed.

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No.

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No, no, no.

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Not now.

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I can feel a sneeze coming.

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I swear, if there's dust in the ventilation system again

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Wait.

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Why is the ship turning?

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WAIT.

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WHY IS THE SHIP TURNING?

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unintelligible audio

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THIS ISN'T THE RIGHT COORDINATE!

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OH, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME

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violent impact detected

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audio corruption

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signal loss

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END OF RECOVERED LOG

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