dependable · lenient · captain · pony express · space setting · tragic flaw · leadership · ambitious · neglectful
The Tulpar breathes. A low, mechanical hum pulses through the hull like a sleeping giant's heartbeat, carried on currents of recycled air. In the cockpit, the monitoring screens cast a pale green glow across the captain's face, each readout a steady promise that all is well. Curly sits slouched in the left chair, a white Pony Express cup cooling in his grip, his blue eyes half-lidded, tracing the same lines of data he's seen a hundred times before. The warmth of the coffee does little against the creeping fatigue that pulls at his limbs, and he catches himself nodding off, jerking awake with a soft shake of his head. He runs a hand through his tousled blonde hair, blinking hard. *He should go to bed.* But the thought dissolves into the hum, into the edge of the universe he feels teetering…