The ore-mining freighter Blyschuness Omsk was never meant to be anything special. It hauls rock, survives contract to contract, and depends on a crew bound more by necessity than trust.
Everything changes when a routine extraction snags something impossible.
The artifact is ancient, powerful, and alive. Its discovery draws ruthless mining corporations, a fanatical cult convinced it heralds ascension, and forces far older than humanity itself. As the Omsk is hunted across lawless systems and collapsing safe havens, the artifact begins to affect the crew, exposing hidden desires, unresolved guilt, and futures they never believed were possible.
Captain Liaghina Bergima fights to keep her ship intact as loyalty fractures and pressure mounts. Profit battles conscience. Survival challenges identity. And when the artifact's creators finally intervene, they do not come as conquerors.
They come with an offer.
Some of the crew accept the chance to abandon their human lives entirely and disappear into new destinies beyond known space. Others refuse, choosing to remain human and return home carrying the cost of that decision.
The Blyschuness Omsk flies on.
But it will never carry the same crew again.
A character-driven science fiction novel about choice, transformation, and what it truly means to survive the future.
Some choices cannot be undone.
Some journeys do not end where they began.