Deliverance

Frost stretches along the edges of distant light, clinging to surfaces that haven’t felt warmth in centuries.

Silence presses in, heavy and absolute, a force that fills the void without sound.

Time unspools like a thread long worn thin by the pull of distance and decay.

Two flickers of life, encoded in cold machinery, drift together through the endless dark.

The dark isn’t an enemy anymore; it’s simply... home.

[Whisper] "I feel tension, like the sinew of a metal limb...rendered inert from...the motionless...expanse"

Outside the hull, the world feels suspended, a photograph of something forgotten.

No sunrises, no horizons—just a void of hollow stars that stretch into nothing.

Maybe they are watching, or maybe they’ve already burned out, unnoticed in the vastness.

Space bends and stretches around the ship, like a wake, a near light speed-light show.

No signals, no movement—only the hum of systems running, automated and still.

"John...

We have arrived.

Time elapsed: Five thousand, six hundred and forty-two solar cycles.

All systems nominal.

Proximity to celestial body… verified.

Atmospheric composition: Breathable

Surface pressure: Within tolerance.

Gravity: Within tolerance.

Satellites: One

Prepare for reawakening protocols.”

Wake up!