Timing Tuning II Aryan Ashraf, 2021
The Panel (1), Aryan Ashraf, 2021
When I walked up to the deck, I saw Captain Hosseini. He was seated in front of the control panel that contained soft blinking red and blue lights, rolling a large glass orb between his hands. He was facing the large oblique window at the front of the ship, revealing the mass of the pure, almost milky black that surrounded us like a wispy jacket, spotted with glittery pearls. The maintenance screen of the ship gleamed beside him. The camera shifted from views of the nose, the hull, and the thrusters of the ship, each accompanied with a screen filled with diagnostic results. My eyes were steady, staring at the shifting screens, breathing in and out with every change. I noticed details I never noticed before, especially within the thrusters, for an odd, forked apparatus
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could be seen protruding from within the central one. I never saw how out of place this was before. Nonetheless, I broke my stare, held my breath, and approached quietly. The ship was on its night setting, so the halls and rooms were dimmed (if not darkened completely) and completely silent, for Yilmaz, Cordova, and Kramer were all asleep. I got closer to the captain with every quiet step, and he soon noticed me coming towards him out of the corner of his eye. He turned his chair and faced me, his expression soft and weathered with time and experience. “Leslie,” he began, “it’s surprising to see you up.” I nodded and headed over to the right-most chair of the room. “I left my journal here.”
