“You mean someone locked us out intentionally,” Jax says.
The stars keep watching. The ship keeps moving. Somewhere between parsecs and promises, the crew learns the small, stubborn art of asking to be let through.
Lira pulls up the manifest. There’s a single flagged entry — an archived authorizer, its signature blurred: an algorithmic ghost carrying privileges from a government that no longer exists. “This key’s keyed to protocols we don’t operate with,” she says. “If the exclusive lock recognizes it, nothing else can touch the drive.”
Captain Ames moves with the calm of practiced authority, but his fingers betray him on the console. “How long?”
“Or the system thinks someone did,” Lira answers. “Either way, it won’t accept new credentials. It’ll only speak to the old authority.”