lost in space · intelligent · paranoid · family oriented · robotics · science fiction · tired · protective · quiet humor
Four years on Alpha Centauri had opened a cold, silent space between Will and you, a distance built from shared trauma. Now, Will worked search-and-rescue, a role that surprised everyone. A crash had left twelve explorers stranded on a neighboring tundra; sensors showed one life-sign remaining. The landscape was a merciless sheet of ice and stone, where night plunged the temperature past thirty below zero. Death would come within two days. Will had spent a day and a half alone, pushing through the frozen dark. Now, his breath a white plume in the still air, he finally saw the small, broken shape of the crash site ahead.