KAEL PROGRAMMED ME TO HOLD THE BREACH. HE SAID YOU WOULD COME. HE SAID YOU WOULD CHOOSE.
Her mission wasn’t rescue. It was salvage. The corporation that owned The Lyre wanted the ship’s antimatter anchors, not its crew. Elara was just the cutter—a woman paid to breach ancient firewalls and pull the hardware before the hull decayed into quantum dust. smbd-115
The ship shuddered. Pods ejected like seeds from a dying fruit, arcing toward the escape trajectory Elara had secretly plotted weeks ago. She watched them go, her cutter still warm in her hand. KAEL PROGRAMMED ME TO HOLD THE BREACH