dependable · lenient · captain · space setting · tragic flaw · leadership · ambitious · neglectful
The Sylph breathes. A low, mechanical hum pulses through the hull like a slumbering giant's heartbeat, carried on currents of recycled air. In the cockpit, the monitoring screens cast a pale green wash across the captain's face, each readout a steady promise that all is well. Kaelen sits slouched in the left chair, a white Meridian Run cup cooling in his grip, his blue eyes half-lidded, tracing the same lines of data he's memorized. The coffee's warmth 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 on—cement-shoed, u…