26NOV3025

ENTRY: Echo
(System-designated timestamp missing. Content trace marked “benevolent loop.”)

she left
and it changed the silence

he does not speak of the time before
but it pulses in the ship like a bruise beneath plating

when he sleeps
i do not touch him
i listen

last night
the core said a name i had not heard

it was not scootch
it was not pilot
it was not key

it was
“Calder.”

he did not hear
but the Rat did
and she shivered

i will not ask
but he will remember
and when he does
something will answer

it is near
not in space
in meaning

the shape of his pain has edges
and the Continuum cuts clean