Galaxy Calendar Year 812. The engine room of the prison ship Grimhold hummed low. Ancient drive mechanisms vibrated in rhythm. The sound soaked into every wall. Kailan Melvis's consciousness returned slowly. Within that hum. Swallow. Throat dry. Eyelids heavy. Open them. Vision blurs. Gray. Everything gray. Floor. Walls. This entire world—stained gray. Try to rise. Body heavy. Right arm won't respond. Thrown onto the engine room floor. Cold metal clings to his back. Black hair falls across his eyes. Unkempt. Left arm bears a geometric tattoo—faint. Resonance Phase Drive. The design blueprint for faster-than-light spatial navigation. He carved it himself. Years ago. When he was free. Still. He stands. Hands on the floor. Push up. Pain shoots through his fingertips. Scars everywhere. The price of gripping tools endlessly. Standing. Legs unsteady. But standing. Look around. Engine room should be mid-shift. Usually prisoners assemble drive components in the iron-barred work section. That section is empty. No trace of other prisoners. (What happened?) Kailan walks forward. Feet stumble. He grips the distribution panel. Vibration. Faint. The drive operates at higher output than normal. No—wrong. This is abnormal. Door opens. Kailan crouches instantly. Hides behind steel beams. Back goes cold. Black-uniformed figures enter. Multiple. Black Smoke Fleet—armed force operating in the galaxy's shadows—technical officers. "Status?" The lead man speaks. Older. Deep wrinkles on his forehead. Authority in his voice. "Prisoners relocated from the drive chamber temporarily." Another officer answers. Young voice. Subordinate, probably. "Completely clear?" "Confirmed. They're in the lower section now." (What are they hiding?) Kailan breathes shallow. Mustn't be discovered. Not now. Not this moment— The older officer walks deeper into the engine room. Others follow. Kailan waits. Footsteps fade. He waits still. They head to the deepest section. The technical research area—normally locked. Where the Resonance Phase Drive core unit sits. The ship's heart. The power nucleus. Kailan himself is forced to work there. (Shadow Fall.) The name surfaces. Latest-generation warship in the galaxy. Length: 380 meters. Crew capacity: 85. And—the only ship carrying his Resonance Phase Drive. His technology is embedded in that ship. He learned this three weeks ago. When the Black Smoke Fleet commander visited. A careless word slipped out. "Melvis's drive system is finally complete." Since then. That fact repeats endlessly in his chest. That ship's completion draws near. He rises carefully. No figures visible. Engine room silent again. Kailan moves to his workstation. Center of the room. Old metal table. On it: phase drive energy converter—disassembled. Complex wiring. Countless small components. His daily task. Reassemble them. (This technology becomes a weapon.) Heavy thought. He picks up one component. Crystal the size of a pinky finger. Phase crystal—rare mineral from Outer Veil only. Enables faster-than-light travel. Nova Corporation monopolizes it. This crystal becomes the core component. Once, Kailan Melvis analyzed its properties. Discovered a method. Convert phase energy twelve times more efficiently than before. That made him famous. That made him a prisoner. Surveillance camera mounted beside the workstation. Red lamp glowing. Kailan looks up. He knows the camera's blind spot. So does the Black Smoke Fleet's surveillance technician. But—in mere seconds. A moment's gap. Escape the camera's view. He spent four months memorizing this prison ship's structure. Ventilation ducts—air circulation pipes spanning the entire vessel—their routes. Power supply systems—wiring networks feeding each section—their flow. Bulkhead thickness. Pipe placement. Staircase positions. Security camera angles. Everything. Every day. Working in this engine room. He observed. Memorized. Four months. Time consumed. But from that observation came one certain conclusion. (I might escape.) When did that thought first bloom? Can't remember exactly. Within daily repetition of despair. One day. Suddenly. He noticed. Escape possibility. Kailan continues working. Reassemble components. Connect wiring. Mechanical movements. Repeated countless times already. Then it happened. "Alert." Warning siren blares through the engine room. Red lamps flash. Kailan stops. Steps back from the workstation. Door opens. Multiple Black Smoke Fleet guards enter. Armed. Carrying guns. "Prisoners cease work. Move to designated section." One soldier commands. Mechanical voice. No emotion. Kailan obeys. Wrong moment to resist. Resistance now destroys everything. His plan. He leaves quietly. But—he notices something. Small metal fragment on the workstation corner. Not standard component. Different shape. Precision-engineered. Looks like part of some device. Communication unit fragment? Or— Kailan's mind judges instantly. Can't pick it up now. Guards watching. But what it is—he understands intuitively. Someone placed it. Intentionally. Walking toward the isolation cell, Kailan thinks about that fragment. (What is it?) Not standard component. Shape suggests communication device. But why on the workstation? (Someone placed it intentionally?) Several possibilities. Guard's lost item. Another prisoner planted it? No. Impossible. All prisoners are broken. No one has will to resist. Then— (Is there an ally inside the prison ship?) That thought ignites something in Kailan. Faint. But certain. A light. Isolation cell. Narrow space. Bed. Toilet. That's all. No window. Only small ventilation duct in ceiling. Kailan sits on the bed. Two hours until lights-out. Must organize what needs doing. First: secure that metal fragment. Second: identify it. Third: if it's truly communication device, find who placed it. Understand their intent. Fourth: if allies exist inside, find contact method. Kailan leans against the wall. Looks up at the ceiling duct. Through that narrow gap—the galaxy visible. Stars. Countless stars. Once he believed he could travel freely between them. With technology. With talent. With effort. All sweet illusions. Technology gets misused. Talent gets exploited. Effort goes unrewarded. That's this galaxy's order. Galatica Commonwealth—humanity's domain spanning roughly 12% of the galaxy—phase jump drive enables faster-than-light travel. Distant star systems now reachable in dozens of jumps. Only central zone wealthy and mega-corporations benefit. Frontier regions still starve in poverty. Nova Corporation. Galaxy's largest conglomerate. Phase crystal mining. Refinement. Weapons manufacturing. Medicine. Communications. Controls everything. Its influence reaches Commonwealth Parliament. And Black Smoke Fleet. Officially independent space pirates. Actually—Nova Corporation's unofficial armed division. Hidden blade maintaining galactic order. Kailan was one gear in that machine. He knows how his technology gets misused. Void Lance—spatial distortion cannon. His Resonance Phase Drive weaponized. Far greater destructive power than conventional drive cannons. Shadow Fall carrying that cannon becomes Black Smoke Fleet's flagship. (How many people die from my technology?) That question keeps him awake every night. But— (Not the time to think about that.) Kailan decides. Get the fragment. Find allies. Uncover the prison ship's secrets. Then—escape. Or—something more. His gray eyes gleamed slightly. Not resignation. Quiet flame of anger. In the cell's darkness, Kailan clenches his fist. From this cage. From this order. From everything—not escape. Destroy. Until that day, he waits.