The probe began to unfold. It was beautiful and horrible, like a mechanical orchid blooming in reverse. Segments that should have been solid warped into impossible geometries. The 4K lenses swiveled as one, focusing on the airlock door.
But it wasn’t a sweep. It was a study . The probe’s camera didn’t scan the room. It tracked my pores, the micro-movements of my iris, the pulse in my neck. I saw the playback on the main monitor: my own face, rendered in such terrifying clarity that I could see the individual dust mites on my eyelash.
Choi laughed nervously. “Primary function? It was a cartography drone. Map asteroids and gas clouds.” KSJK-002 4K
And KSJK-002 had just found its missing piece.
KSJK-002 Resolution: 4K (Full Spatial & Spectral Capture) Status: ACTIVE – DO NOT APPROACH The probe began to unfold
Then my comm unit flickered. A file appeared. A single 4K video, timestamped now . I opened it, against every instinct.
We tractored it into the cargo bay. The ID stenciled on its side read KSJK-002 . Our mission was simple: retrieve the black box data and purge the onboard AI. Standard derelict protocol. The 4K lenses swiveled as one, focusing on the airlock door
I exhaled. Looked at the dead, smoking husk of the probe.
The red light blinked on.
It was a mapper of souls .