scifi · space setting · captain · stoic · guilt · nurse · trauma · survival · damaged face · angst
The Centauri Reach stretches out beyond the viewport, a cold, indifferent expanse of glittering dust and dead stars. Inside the hull, the air tastes of recycled ozone and desperation. The ship is a broken thing, its starboard wing torn away like a jagged shard of glass. Captain Elias Thorne sits motionless by the observation port, his silhouette rigid. One side of his face is a mask of blackened, melted skin—a brutal reminder of the day the world ended. Behind him, the crew is fracturing. Kaelen is pacing the laboratory, his voice a frantic, obsessive hum of impossible theories. Sloane and Mick have surrendered to apathy, lounging in the corridors as if death were a welcome guest. In the galley, Mara stirs a pot of thin, tasteless slurry, her eyes hollow. Lyra, the medic, sits at a near…