Gravekeeper of the Star Sea

In the interstellar age, every civilization that perishes is dragged into the Sea of Stars Graveyard. The protagonist, Lin Zang, inherits his grandfather's gravedigger's license and receives a decommissioned funeral ship and a soul-remnant stethoscope. He can hear the final words of sunken ships: a warship's regrets, a colony ship's longing for home, an AI's final log.

For every starship he lays to rest, he gains a piece of a civilization's legacy: curvature fragments, biological armor, lost star maps, even the last spark of an entire civilization. But the graveyard is far from peaceful. Raiders, black-market fleets, the Bureau of Civilization Archaeology, and the "Grave Cleaners" are all fighting over the relics. Lin Zang has no choice but to turn his funeral ship into a fleet. He collects the dead, wages war, and asks the departed one question: How did you all die?