Cradle

Detective twenty years on the force, and the case file still felt cold in his hands. The signal wasn't supposed to exist, a ghost pulse from a derelict orbital cradle. In the year 2016, humanity had moved on from the old stations, but for him, this 2016 sci-fi mystery was the only thing left. He suited up, the clang of the airlock sealing his fate. Inside the silent, rotating ring, gravity was a memory and every shadow held a data-ghost from the collapse. What was meant to be a routine evidence retrieval became a race against a decaying orbit and the station's own defensive protocols. To find the truth, he’d have to reboot systems meant to stay dead, each activation bringing the fragile structure closer to tearing itself apart in the void.