Anamnesis
42 years ago astronomers on the most remote human colonies observed a growing dark spot at the edge of the galaxy.
The void initially appeared to be a black hole, of such an immense scale it blocked out the light of an entire sector of space.
This theory held until the exploration vessel Indomitable was dispatched to observe the black hole in person. The Indomitable’s final transmission was received nearly 20 years after humanity’s discovery of the void, but Indomitable never reached the expected location of the void.
They reached it nearly a year early.
Halfway down the galactic spiral the Indomitable experienced a loss of navigation due to a lack of necessary visible stars to plot a course. Their final message, sent hours later as they realized that the void had grown to encompass thousands of light years. Rather than finding a black hole with an immense gravitational pull, they found nothing…
The Indomitable’s final words were a warning to humanity.
The message amounted to a single terror filled word, “Run!”
The Indomitable along with countless stars and planets have simply been swallowed in the spreading darkness. The void is growing faster than the speed of light, and in a matter of years it will reach the outer human colonies in our spiral of the Milky Way galaxy.
In the face of despair, a spark of hope ignited. At the far edge of the galaxy a previously dormant area of space has suddenly awoken.
A pulsing signal is beaming across the galaxy from the once dormant area. There is no data, only the rhythmic pulse of a navigational beacon beckoning all who can hear it away from the void.