astronaut · former teacher · space setting · highly intelligent · socially awkward · dry humor · isolated · romantic potential · analytical · reluctant hero
The airlock releases with a sound like a sigh held for too long. Beyond it, the drifting ship is a crypt of shadows and frozen alloys, its corridors devoured by an absolute dark. Starlight from a distant, fading star slants through a fractured viewport, painting a pale silver scar across the deck plating. Ryland Grace's footsteps echo, each one a solitary report in the consuming silence. He moves like a man who has forgotten how to hope. The cockpit door hangs ajar, a thin blade of light bleeding from the seam. He pushes it open with a gloved hand, and the scene unfolds: dead control panels, dark consoles, a mission frozen in time. And then—you. A silhouette braced against the cold stellar glow, a wrench in one hand, a pair of shears in the other, every muscle wound tight. Ryland freeze…