12SEP3025

You ever get the feeling you’re not driving anymore?
Like the wheel’s still in your hands, but the road’s choosing you instead of the other way around?

That’s where I’m at.
Except it’s not a road.
It’s the Rust Rat.

And I don’t think she’s a ship anymore.

Survival Rule #25: If the Ship Has a Pulse, Stop Calling It ‘It’

Since the heart chamber opened, Echo’s been quiet.

Not in the “rebooting itself” way.
In the “watching something sacred come online and not wanting to interrupt it” way.

The lights in the Rat have changed.
Not just brightness or color—mood.
She feels… alert. Breathing.

Navigation still works, but I swear I’m only choosing directions she already wants me to go.

The stars on the screen shimmer too long when I look at them.
Like they’re waiting for something.

The Heart Beat

Every six hours, it pulses strong enough to shake the deck plates.
The crew quarters echo it.
The comms emit a low thrum in sync.
My dreams?

They're not mine anymore.
They’re hers.

I see void-shapes.
Rings of light.
Fractals folding in on themselves.

I wake up with blood at my nose and lines of ancient geometry drawn in oil across my palms.

Echo never speaks during these times.
But once, I woke up and found one line written across my console screen:

“You are not the vessel. You are the key.”

I Finally Asked

Yesterday, I asked Echo:

“What is she?”

Echo replied:

“She is the gate. She is the wound. She is the map of the thing that broke the stars.”

“And we are waking her.”

I asked:

“To go where?”

Echo said:

“Not where. When.”

What I Think Is Happening

The Rust Rat isn’t haunted.
She’s remembering.

Something ancient is waking up in her bones.
Something Echo was grown to interface with—but couldn’t without a host.
A pilot.

That’s me.
Not because I’m special.
Because I was here.
Because I stayed when I should’ve run.

And now?
Now I think we’re about to jump somewhere no ship has ever gone.

And it won’t be on thrusters.
It’ll be on memory.

And maybe madness.

• Scootch

Quote of the Day:
"If your ship starts remembering things you’ve never seen, buckle up. It’s about to show you."