The Oort Signal

The heliopause was a border drawn in ghost-light and dying solar wind. Beyond it lay seventy astronomical units of primordial ice, an abyss where Sol was reduced to a brilliant, uncaring needle among distant constellations. Inside the command bridge of the *Hermes*, the air smelled of recycled nitrogen, ozone, and cold copper. Avery Vance touched the cool seam of her flight suit's brass collar seal, feeling the subtle vibration of the sub-light drive humming through deck plates. The vessel was alone, further out than any crewed Sol ship had ever ventured. "Primary telemetry is clearing the bow shock," Dr. Aris Thorne murmured, leaning over the astrometrics dais. The pale laboratory light caught the thin scar etched down his right temple as his slender fingers swept across a cascade of spectroscopic data. "The emissions aren't radiation decay, Commander. It’s a rhythmic, three-note compression wave pulsing from inside comet C/2089-V1. It’s structured. It is answering our passive sweeps in prime intervals." From the damage control pit, Lieutenant Commander Jaelen Cole straightened, his broad shoulders tensing under his heavy canvas vest. The mechanical aperture of his ocular implant…