Elara adjusted her magnetic harpoon. Her visor locked onto a single, pulsing gold speck buried in a vortex of violet gas. "Got you," she whispered.
She saw them then: the Chrono-Wraiths. They weren’t ghosts, but echoes of the data stored in the dust. Projected images of a forgotten civilization played out against the backdrop of the stars—children running through gardens of light, scientists arguing over glowing blueprints. They were beautiful, but they were dangerous; their static could fry a ship's nervous system in seconds. stardust (nebula) 256x
Data is physically manifest as heavy, shimmering dust. Elara adjusted her magnetic harpoon