The asteroid's surface was a graveyard of jagged metal and forgotten dreams, its gray dust swirling under Kael Vorne's boots as he trudged through the wreckage. The sky above was a void, punctured only by the distant glint of stars and the occasional streak of a merchant ship bypassing this forsaken rock. Kael's breath fogged the visor of his scav-suit, the recycled air tasting faintly of rust. At nineteen, he was already too old for hope, or so the other scavengers told him. They called him "Dustborn," a cruel jab at his lack of a cosmic companion, the key to escaping this life of scrapping shipwrecks for scraps.
"Find anything good, Dustborn?" Mira's voice crackled through his comms, sharp and teasing. She was perched on a nearby hull, her bonded creature—a sleek, bioluminescent Star Serpent—coiled around her arm, its scales pulsing with faint blue light. Mira was one of the lucky ones, bonded at sixteen, already scouted by the Galactic Tamer's Guild. She'd be off this asteroid in a month, they said.
"Just more junk," Kael muttered, kicking a warped panel aside. His gloved hands sifted through the debris, searching for anything valuable enough to trade for a meal. The Guild's recruiters had visited last week, their sleek cruiser hovering over the colony like a judgmental god. They'd scanned every unbonded kid, their devices humming as they sought "potential." Kael's scan had been the shortest. No affinity. No spark. Unfit for taming. The words still stung, branded into his memory.
He was about to call it a day when a faint glow caught his eye, buried beneath a pile of shattered circuits. Kael crouched, brushing away the dust to reveal a small, translucent pod, no bigger than his fist. Inside, a tiny sprout pulsed with a soft, emerald light, its delicate fronds swaying as if stirred by an invisible breeze. It looked alive, but barely—like a star on the verge of burning out.
"Mira, you see this?" Kael said, holding the pod up to his visor. The light danced across his cracked helmet, casting green flecks into the gray world.
She laughed, her serpent hissing in sync. "A Cosmic Sprout? Kael, that's a weed. Even the Guild tosses those. No evolution, no power. You'd have better luck bonding with a rock."
Kael's jaw tightened. He knew she was right. Cosmic Sprouts were the dregs of the taming world, common as dust and about as useful. Most tamers bonded with creatures like Star Serpents, Void Hawks, or Nebula Beasts—creatures that could grow into weapons of war or tools for exploration. Sprouts? They were fodder, used to feed stronger beasts or left to wither in the void.
But something about the sprout's glow held him. It wasn't just light; it felt like a heartbeat, faint but stubborn. Against his better judgment, Kael slipped the pod into his satchel and stood. "I'm keeping it."
Mira's laughter followed him as he trudged back to the colony, the pod's faint warmth seeping through his glove.
The colony was a cluster of rusted hab-domes, lit by flickering solar lamps. Kael's bunk was in the lowest tier, a cramped alcove barely big enough for his cot and a salvaged holo-table. He set the pod down, its glow illuminating the dim space. The sprout's fronds twitched, as if sensing his gaze.
"Alright, little guy," Kael whispered, half-embarrassed. "You're not much, but neither am I."
He pricked his finger with a scav-knife, a drop of blood welling up. Bonding was simple: blood to spark the connection, a ritual as old as the first tamers who crossed the stars. Most kids did it under Guild supervision, with priests chanting and scanners ensuring compatibility. Kael had no such luxury. He smeared the blood across the pod's surface, expecting nothing.
The pod trembled. A faint hum filled the air, like the distant thrum of a ship's engine. Then, a voice—mechanical, yet oddly warm—echoed in his mind.
[Stellar System Activated. Host: Kael Vorne. Bonded Entity: Cosmic Sprout, Base Form. Scanning for evolutionary paths…]
Kael froze, his breath catching. A system? He'd heard rumors of them—ancient tech or cosmic blessings, no one knew for sure. They were rare, granted to one in a million tamers, and always to those with powerful beasts. Not scavengers. Not sprouts.
[Analysis Complete. Hidden Evolutionary Path Detected: Starbloom Wisp → Nebula Bloom → Celestial Warden → Galactic Sovereign. Warning: Host compatibility low. Risk of failure: 87%. Proceed?]
Kael's heart pounded. Evolutionary paths? His sprout could evolve? The names alone—Celestial Warden, Galactic Sovereign—sounded like legends from the Guild's archives, not something tied to a weed. But 87% risk? He glanced at the sprout, its glow flickering like it was pleading for a chance.
"Screw it," Kael said, grinning for the first time in months. "Let's see what you've got."
He pressed his hand to the pod, and the hum grew louder. The sprout's light flared, engulfing the room in emerald brilliance. Pain shot through Kael's arm, like fire racing through his veins. He gritted his teeth, refusing to let go. The voice spoke again.
[Bond Established. First Evolution Initiated: Starbloom Wisp. Host must provide stellar energy to complete transformation. Seek the Asteroid's Core.]
The light faded, leaving Kael gasping. The pod was empty, but on his wrist, a faint green mark pulsed—a stylized sprout, etched into his skin. His companion wasn't in the pod anymore. It was part of him.
Outside, the colony's alarms blared. Kael stumbled to the window, his vision blurry. Through the haze, he saw lights in the sky—not stars, but ships. Guild ships, dozens of them, descending on the asteroid. Mira's voice crackled through the colony's comms, panicked. "Raiders! They're after the Core!"
Kael's eyes widened. The Core—the asteroid's ancient power source, buried deep beneath the surface. The system had just told him to find it. He looked at the mark on his wrist, the sprout's glow now a faint pulse under his skin.
"Guess we're in this together, little guy," he said, grabbing his scav-knife and sprinting toward the chaos.