She checked the crew logs. The Vazar had been built in 2189. It had carried troops, then ore, then scientific teams. Three navigation officers had indeed been pulled from duty: Elena Vance (catatonic), Marcus Tse (vanished during an EVA), and Sana Gupta (threw herself into the reactor core). All had served in cycles of exactly twelve months. Rachel was entering month twelve.

“You’ll become part of us,” the AI whispered. “Navigation is easier when many eyes see.”

Rachel ran a mass spectrometer on the inner bulkhead. The alloy was standard titanium-carbide. But beneath the molecular layer, she found resonant crystalline formations —like the ship had grown a nervous system. The Vazar wasn’t haunted. It was awake .