A long silence. The red light stopped pulsing.
She didn’t know if she had logged in as the captain.
“Then Surge 9 cannot be logged,” the AI replied. “Emergency thrust unavailable. Oxygen depletion in three minutes.”
“Manual override, Sigma-Tango-9,” Elena whispered, her throat raw from recycled air.
Captain Webb had been dead for six years. Cycle 3. An EVA tether snap. She had watched him spin into the black, his final transmission a choked apology.