Here are a few options, each with a different tone:

**Mysterious/Atmospheric:**
"The last transmission from the *Avernus* arrived seventeen years after the ship had been declared lost, and whoever sent it was using the captain's voice."

**Philosophical/Unsettling:**
"On the morning they discovered consciousness was contagious, the quarantine lasted exactly four hours before the scientists began to smile."

**Immediate/Visceral:**
"She had thirty seconds to decide which version of herself deserved to survive."

**Quiet/Haunting:**
"Everyone on Earth remembered where they were the day the stars went out — all except the man who turned them off."

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My personal favorite is the first one — it establishes mystery, raises immediate questions, implies a long timeline, and introduces dread through a single, specific detail.

Would you like me to continue any of these into a full opening paragraph?
