The designation was . It wasn’t a name. It was a log entry, a line in a spreadsheet, a ghost in the machine.
The silence of space was not silent. It was a pressure, a weight, a cold that chewed through her suit’s heating coils. Behind her, the Rake was a dull grey needle against the bruised purple of the nebula. Ahead, the graveyard. ATID-60202-47-44 Min
"Min… don’t come. They told me it was a salvage run. It’s not. The company… ATID… they’re using us to map the gravitational anomalies. They knew the star was going to collapse. Don't let them wipe the logs. Tell everyone. 47-44 is the proof. I love—" The designation was
Min had nodded, her face blank. But she didn’t go to the server room. She went to the airlock. The silence of space was not silent