Inky darkness.


    Hello?


    No voice.


    Hello?


    No sound.


    H...This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    No sight, no sound, no voice, no smell, no touch.


    ...


    Nothing.


    Help


    <hr>


    Sirens sounded on Mirror Station 07396. People ran from one computer to another, frantically searching for the source and location of the glitch.


    A ship was gone. There had been a brief power outage as it was incoming, and now it was lost. The light wasn’t simply somewhere in space, or back at the originating station. Mirror Station 06391 reported a successful transfer, with nothing returned.


    Light packets were supposed to reflect back if there was a problem at the receiving station. This hadn’t happened. The mirror hadn’t reflected; it had eaten the light. No one knew how.


    Five people were lost.


    Everyone on Mirror Station 07396 panicked. Not because somehow losing five souls was bad, but because unless they understood how, it might happen again. The station was unusable until the problem was resolved.


    And until then, they were stranded in space with no way home.