Thread by @fallenwithstyle

The ship's alarms had blared for two full days, ever since the broken nav computer whirred to impossible life and punched a hole in the fabric of time and space. They were going to die inside this wormhole, and the ship was going to die screaming.

(Their pilot, who had died guiding them to safety, synced with the nav computer for far longer than any living human could bear, had met his end in silence. Now the rest of them would die knowing his sacrifice had been in vain.) If only they had surrendered--but no.

There would never have been a safe haven for the last Wen warship, no matter that it was packed with only refugees. Perhaps that was why the ship had chosen to flee reality itself.

“Ship, it's safe. We all made it. You don't have to do this, ship. Let's go home.”

“Is that really going to work?”

Tired, oh so tired, Wei Wuxian shook his head. “I know, I know, I always talk like they can understand me, but a ship's AI is just algorithms. It doesn't...it doesn't care. It glitched, and I don't have access, and--I failed you all, I'm sorry.”

Wen Qing took his hand, sat beside him. “Ship,” she said. “You did good. You protected us this far. It's enough.” Wei Wuxian almost wanted to laugh at how transparent that was. As if she would really comfort a machine.

But at her words, the alarm cut off. Stars, real stars,

flickered in and out of the viewports as the ship began to skim the edge of the wormhole. And over the intercom came a voice. “...Sister?”

It wasn’t his voice. It was the ship’s voice, cold and mechanical, but--he’d died synced. Died while synced, in a world of unreality.

Shaking, Wen Qing looked up, around, everywhere. “...A-Ning?”

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