{text:child_name} had learned that courage was not something you found in the moment.

It was something you built long before the moment arrived.

The final coordinates blinked softly on the screen.

The end of the map.

As the Horizon moved forward, the universe began to change.

At first, it was subtle. The stars thinned. The constellations stretched farther apart. The familiar patterns that had once guided navigation slowly dissolved into scattered points of light.

Then the mist appeared. A deep violet haze, thick and shifting, like a living thing.

It swallowed the stars behind it.

Inside the cockpit, the air felt different. Heavy. Still. Unsettling.

“Engines steady,” {text:child_name} said quietly.

The words hung in the silence.

The silence was deafening.