Wires of the Past

Rojas ran her fingers over the cold metal of the engine’s core. The hum of The Last Starship vibrated through her bones, the sound a reminder of both the ship’s resilience and its impending decay. Each circuit she fixed, each panel she patched, was another step in a race against time—a race to find hope in the broken technology that was supposed to save them all.

But deep down, Rojas couldn’t shake the feeling that they weren’t really running toward freedom. They were running away from something, and it wasn’t just Earth.

“Another malfunction,” she muttered, wiping the sweat from her brow. Her hands were stained with oil and grease—markers of a lifetime spent fixing things that were beyond repair.

The ship’s core engine groaned again, as if the ship itself were alive, straining against the weight of its journey. They had left Earth’s dying world far behind, but the true cost of that escape was becoming clearer with every passing day.

Rojas reached for the circuit board. It was a simple task, just a recalibration of an outdated system. But as she removed the panel, something glimmered in the corner—hidden, dusty, and old. A chip.

Her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t standard issue. She had seen these markings before—when she’d worked on old Earth technology, before they fled to the stars.

Her pulse quickened as she connected the chip to the ship’s diagnostic terminal. The screen flickered, stuttering against the ship’s outdated systems. Then it powered up, displaying a series of encrypted messages.

“We have been watching. The cycle continues. The key is not in the stars, but in the people. You are not free. You never were.”

Rojas froze. Her mind raced. The elites hadn’t just escaped Earth—they had orchestrated it. The Last Starship wasn’t salvation. It was part of a larger plan, a piece of a cycle that had been repeating itself for centuries.

“Another reset,” she whispered to herself. But this time, she could feel it—she wasn’t just fixing engines. She was fixing the illusion. They weren’t free. Not yet.

A sound broke through her thoughts—footsteps approaching. Dr. Thorne, the ship’s medical officer, stood in the doorway. She raised an eyebrow at the screen, knowing something was different.

“You found it, didn’t you?” she asked quietly.

Rojas didn’t answer at first. The tension between them was thick. Trust on the ship was in short supply. But this? This couldn’t be ignored.

She hit a button, sending the message to the ship’s central systems. The screen blinked to life again, projecting the encrypted lines into the ship’s mainframe.

Dr. Thorne stepped forward, her gaze scanning the text. A heavy silence filled the room, and for the first time, Rojas saw her expression falter.

“It’s true,” she whispered, her voice almost lost to the hum of the engines.

The weight of her words hung in the air between them. They weren’t just fighting for survival. They were fighting against a system that had controlled them for far too long.

“Are we really free?” Rojas asked, the reality settling in like a lead weight. “Or are we just another reset, another cycle?”

Dr. Thorne’s lips tightened. “We’re only free when we understand the game.”

The realization hit Rojas with the force of a jolt—she wasn’t just fixing technology. She was building a resistance. A resistance against a system that had kept humanity in the dark, resetting them again and again. It wasn’t about fixing engines anymore; it was about breaking the chains of control.

The more we repair the broken systems of our world, the more we see the patterns we’ve been trained to ignore. The ship The Last Starship may seem like a symbol of hope, but if it’s running away from a hidden truth, what happens when that truth catches up?

Are we truly free, or have we just been fed another lie? The cycle is not inevitable. It’s engineered. And until we recognize that, we’re all just fixing the same machine, over and over again.

What about you? Have you ever wondered if the systems around you are really working for your benefit—or if they’re designed to keep you from seeing the truth? It’s time to start questioning the game we’ve been playing.

💬 Share your thoughts below—what hidden systems are you starting to uncover? How can we break free from the cycle? Let’s explore these patterns together.

🚀 If this made you think, share it with someone who’s ready to see beyond the illusion. Let’s keep questioning. The truth is out there.