Ksjk-002: 4k

The probe wasn’t a mapper of space.

KSJK-002 Resolution: 4K (Full Spatial & Spectral Capture) Status: ACTIVE – DO NOT APPROACH

The moment we powered the unit, every screen on the Magellan flickered. Then the 4K camera array on the probe’s housing spun to life—seven lenses, each the size of a coin, all of them focusing on me .

I watched the main monitor in horror as a 4K video of us began to render—not from the outside, but from the inside. Every synapse firing in my brain. Every heartbeat. Every memory, encoded as light. KSJK-002 4K

The lights went out. Emergency reds kicked in. And then the probe did something no cartography drone should be able to do. It began to record —but not light. Not sound. It recorded the quantum states of every particle in the cargo bay. My particles. Choi’s. The steel. The oxygen.

The probe began to unfold. It was beautiful and horrible, like a mechanical orchid blooming in reverse. Segments that should have been solid warped into impossible geometries. The 4K lenses swiveled as one, focusing on the airlock door.

Then my comm unit flickered. A file appeared. A single 4K video, timestamped now . I opened it, against every instinct. The probe wasn’t a mapper of space

Then it spoke. Not in a voice—through a subsonic vibration in the deck plates.

It showed me, standing right where I was. But in the video, my eyes were different. Empty. Swallowed by a perfect, mirror-smooth black. And my mouth was moving, forming words I never said:

Choi laughed nervously. “Primary function? It was a cartography drone. Map asteroids and gas clouds.” I watched the main monitor in horror as

It was a mapper of souls .

I exhaled. Looked at the dead, smoking husk of the probe.

We tractored it into the cargo bay. The ID stenciled on its side read KSJK-002 . Our mission was simple: retrieve the black box data and purge the onboard AI. Standard derelict protocol.