The others backed away. Valdez keyed the fold coordinates: Mars orbit. Emergency beacon frequency.

I was alone.

Finally: “We’re not dead yet, Kaelen.”

I stared at the holomap. We were drifting at 12,000 m/s relative to nothing in particular. The nearest object was a rogue dwarf planet, 0.3 AU away. The nearest station? Ninety-two days at current drift.

“Kaelen,” she said. “We’ve lost propulsion. All of it. Main drive, maneuvering thrusters, the whole vector array.”

Valdez keyed the comm. “Elysium, do you copy? We found something. Something big.”

Stranded In Space Days 1-19 Complete Elysium Apr 2026

The others backed away. Valdez keyed the fold coordinates: Mars orbit. Emergency beacon frequency.

I was alone.

Finally: “We’re not dead yet, Kaelen.”

I stared at the holomap. We were drifting at 12,000 m/s relative to nothing in particular. The nearest object was a rogue dwarf planet, 0.3 AU away. The nearest station? Ninety-two days at current drift.

“Kaelen,” she said. “We’ve lost propulsion. All of it. Main drive, maneuvering thrusters, the whole vector array.”

Valdez keyed the comm. “Elysium, do you copy? We found something. Something big.”