Ten789 (PREMIUM × 2025)

"Descension Control to Leo," crackled the comms. "Final check. Bio-signs?"

Ten years of drills. Seven kilometers of pure dark. Nine minutes of oxygen buffer once he hit the bottom.

Above, the purple sky waited. The comms crackled: "Leo? You're ascending early. Report." ten789

He fired his descent thrusters to slow his fall. Four kilometers. Five. The walls narrowed. The amber turned to blood-red. The singing grew sharp, insistent—not a choir now but a thousand whispered arguments, each one tugging at a different fear.

Ten years of guilt. Seven kilometers of descent. Nine minutes of mercy turned to seven seconds of truth. "Descension Control to Leo," crackled the comms

Ten seconds to the first ledge. Seven minutes to the surface. Nine years until he could forgive himself.

Then he saw it: a single crystal, no larger than his thumb, floating in the exact center of the space. It was transparent, almost invisible, but it hummed at a pitch that made his joints ache. Seven kilometers of pure dark

He reached for it.