16 ipuin amodiozko
He knew he was still standing. He always was. His body was a prison, locked in place, hands still gripping the table, eyes wide and unseeing. A perfect statue. The crew’s terrified glances would slide over him. Is he dead? Is he praying? Is he even human anymore?
He chose.
“Damage report,” he said, his voice steady. As if he hadn’t just spent seventeen seconds dead to the world. As if degree one hundred was just another tool in the box. navarch ability cooldown 17.6 seconds degree 100
He didn’t tell them that degree one hundred hadn’t just shown him the battle. It had shown him the next three. It had shown him the face of the man who would betray him, six months from now, on a space station called Meridian. It had shown him the exact date of his own death.
The static began to clear. The lullaby fractured into silence. He saw the inside of his own eyelids again—a blessing. The needles withdrew, one by one, each extraction a small mercy. He knew he was still standing
“Set a course for the rendezvous point,” he said. “And someone get me a stimulant. I need to stay awake for the debrief.”
Kaelen gasped. Air flooded his lungs like cold water. His vision returned in jagged shards—first the blinking red of a damage alert, then Haris’s terrified face, then the main viewscreen. A perfect statue
“Navarch, the lead dreadnought is charging its lance!” Lieutenant Haris shouted, his voice cracking. “We don’t have time—”