The Gravity of Goodbye

Entry for 2/9

The airlock hissed, a sterile, mechanical sigh that mirrored the tightness in Kael’s chest. Beyond the reinforced glass, the nebula glowed like a bruised violet lung, beautiful and indifferent. He adjusted the seals on his suit, refusing to look back at the station bay where Elara stood.
"The jump-drive is stable," her voice crackled through his comms, stripped of its usual warmth by the digital transmission. "You’ll be past the event horizon before they even realize the hangar is empty."
Kael gripped the manual override lever. "I’ll send word once I find the colony. I'll find a way to bring you—"
"No," she interrupted, her silhouette sharp against the flickering emergency lights of the station. The silence that followed was heavier than the vacuum of space. "This is a one-way trajectory, Kael. For both of us. Don’t come back."
He pulled the lever. As the stars elongated into blinding white needles, the finality of her command anchored him more firmly than any gravity well ever could.

Word Count 132