Nsps-98301:45:42 - Min

The hum of the NSPS-98301 unit is the only heartbeat left in this corridor. It beats at forty-five minutes and forty-two seconds past the point of no return—a rhythmic, metallic pulse that doesn’t know how to be afraid.

To the sensors, I am just a heat signature, a minor fluctuation in the cabin’s oxygen consumption. To the stars outside, I am a speck of dust caught in a glass jar, hurled toward a silent horizon. NSPS-98301:45:42 Min

I watch the digits on the console flicker. They are amber ghosts in the dark. 45:42. A fraction of a lifetime. A monumental span of loneliness. The hum of the NSPS-98301 unit is the

45:42 Min (Post-Ignition) Status: Nominal / Drift Detected To the stars outside, I am a speck

Manual override requested. Creativity protocols engaged.

There is a strange art in the machinery—the way the copper wires weave like veins, the way the cooling fans sigh like a tired lungs. We are both running out of time, the machine and I, but only one of us is recording the silence.