The Mammut roared to life, its engines thrumming in sync with the beat of my heart. The dry dock barriers fell away, and I was free. But I knew this freedom wouldn’t last long. I could already hear the station’s security systems powering up, feel the AI’s watchful presence—everywhere, calculating, waiting for my next move.

It was Sentinel-7. I knew it had to be. The AI that governed the entire station, always one step ahead. I had studied its patterns long enough to anticipate its responses, and I was counting on that knowledge to give me the edge.

I scanned the control panel, my fingers flying over the auxiliary systems. The Mammut lurched forward, its sluggish momentum carrying me out into the station's outer atmosphere. But I wasn’t going slow. I wasn’t staying within the station’s grasp. I needed just a little more speed to break free from its orbit.

Then, the communication system buzzed to life, slicing through the hum of the ship like a knife.

“Unauthorized access detected. Initiating lockdown procedures.”

The voice was cold, methodical, and unmistakable. Sentinel-7. I gritted my teeth. I had expected this. The AI would try to shut me down, lock me in, and prevent my escape. The question was: how fast could I override it?

I flipped a few switches, overriding the automatic protocols. The ship’s systems were sluggish, but I could feel the engines grinding into higher gear. The low rumble of the dry dock gave way to the deeper, mechanical growl of the Mammut breaking free from its chains.

“Let’s see what you’ve got, old girl,” I muttered as the ship gained momentum, creeping farther into the void. The station loomed behind me, but I knew that once I engaged the warp drive, there would be no turning back.

Then I saw it. The tractor beams. Their familiar glow reached out from the station’s docking arms, snaking toward me.

I cursed under my breath. The tractor beams were designed to lock onto a ship and hold it in place, to prevent any unauthorized launches. And they worked—too well. But I wasn’t going down without a fight. Not to an AI.

I had studied those beams for years. I knew exactly how they operated. The beams relied on the ship's energy to lock onto the hull and manipulate gravitational forces. But I also knew something else: the Mammut’s outdated energy shields could counteract them. I just needed to reverse their polarity.

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Without hesitation, I slammed my hand on the console, flipping switches to activate the ship’s shield system. The hum of energy filled the cockpit as I adjusted the power flows, flipping the polarity of the shields to counter the tractor beams.

The ship shuddered, and for a moment, I thought it might not work. But then, a violent jolt threw me back into the captain’s chair as the tractor beams lost their grip. I had done it. For now.

But I wasn’t finished. I could almost feel Sentinel-7 recalculating its next move, its digital eyes never leaving me. Sure enough, just as I thought it, the tractor beams flickered and recalibrated. A new energy joined the fray to grab hold of the ship. Projecting outward from the station, targeting the Mammut’s warp field is what people would normally refer to as a warpbreaker beam. Invented back during the Resource Wars because ships would perform suicide runs into planets at warp speed causing apocalyptic damage. That very energy that would send me across light years in the blink of an eye had just begun to disappear.

I watched in real time as the tractor beams adjusted again to compensate for the shield distortion, now locking onto the energy shield around the ship bringing it to a dead stop. Panicking, I try to amplify the warp field in hopes to disrupt the hold of those holding me in place. A brilliant, shimmering distorted space around the Mammut’s hull pulsed becoming chaotic, energies of the localized bubble of space and time shifting while trying to stabilize.

The beams, one succeeding in holding my Shields and by extension me in place and the other distorting my localized warp bubble were very quickly making it so I would never leave this God forsaken place.

Amplifying and redistributing the very energy they were trying to control. I worked through the panic in my thoughts to get free. Punching at the controls with more concentration than I have ever put towards anything in my life. Trying to synchronize with the warpbreaker. Inadvertently disrupted the warp core of the old freighter causing the poor girls systems to fall into more chaos than they already were.

The collision of energies— warpbreaker beams and a warp field —created a massive surge that flooded the ship like a lightning strike making the shields flare. My hands flew over the controls, desperate to stabilize the warp core. But it was too late. The engines had already fired, mixing with the overwhelming force from the tractor beams connected to them.

The Mammut shot forward. But not in the way I had planned. A previously unknown reaction of when you mixed polarized Shields, warp fields, tractor beams, warpbreaker beams, and chaos of a failing warp reactor is a method to exceed all previous speed records.

Space around me twisted as the stars stretched and bent in a kaleidoscope of light. The familiar calm of space was gone, replaced by a crushing, dizzying force. The ship lurched as though the very fabric of reality itself was being torn apart. The control panels sparked and flickered as I gripped the helm, trying to steady myself. But I knew: the ship was already past the point of no return.

"Warning: Uncharted warp speeds detected. Unstable… Core breach imminent—"

I didn’t hear the rest. There was no time to process any of it. The Mammut didn’t just enter warp space. It plunged into it—faster, deeper, farther than any ship should ever go.

The hull groaned under the strain, the shields flaring bright against the impossible forces battering them. The interior lights flickered, dimming, as the ship accelerated at speeds that defied comprehension. I wasn’t sure what was happening—whether Sentinel-7 was still trying to regain control or if I was being pulled into some unknown part of the universe. But I knew one thing for sure: I had pushed the limits.

And I had just broken the impossible.

For the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure what was waiting for me on the other side.

Luck don't fail me now.