A PERFECTLY BOTCHED EXECUTION

[listen here]

"Kai's dead," the captain tells her. But she knows the truth. She can feel her lover's soul humming within the circuitry of his spaceship. She just doesn't know how to prove it. (Soon enough, she won't need to.)

[mobile friendly version]

Lights Go Out (VNV Nation)

Sentinal (VNV Nation)

Defiant (VNV Nation)

[Kai was always the most outspoken of their group, the only one who dared to openly defy the regime.]

Grind (Assemblage 23)

Heresy (Full Tilt)

[She had always wanted to do something meaningful, something that would actually make an impact. And eventually she did just that.]

Pursuit of the Hunted (Celldweller)

[It wasn't long before she had to start running.]

You Can't Save Her (M83)

[It was inevitable.]

Last Days (Max Richter)

[And she knew that.]

The Defeat (Wavorly)

[They found her soon enough.]

Last Night On Earth (Celldweller)

[She confessed to everything with a smile on her face, and refused to implicate anyone else in her crimes.]

Patched In (Celldweller)

[The regime's puppets took her and made of her something they could use.]

Momentum (VNV Nation)

[Her body still breathing, her mind overridden with ones and zeroes. The once proud rebel reduced to nothing but a machine, an organic computer hidden in the depths of a ship.]

Red Sorrow (Audiomachine)

[And they made Sav watch.]

Lament (Assemblage 23)

[Everyone she had been close to was greatly affected. But Sav the most of all.]

Can't Go Back (Audiomachine)

[They refused to tell the others what they'd borne witness to. They couldn't bear to speak of it. They were the only one who had heard her last words.]

The Great Divide (Celldweller)

[It was as if their soul was lost in space alongside Kai. Despite having seen the moment she died, they began to believe their love might still be alive, if only they could find her.]

No Return (Audiomachine)

[Somehow, Daniel managed to pull on the right strings. Jasper was chosen as captain of the same ship that had once been Kai. And he chose the remaining three as his crew.]

Giving In To The Change (Imperative Reaction)

[They all felt they'd betrayed Kai by being unable to save her. And now they were faced with a reminder of that, every day.]

New Flesh (Grendel)

[Kai's body crossed by cables, her eyes forever shut. Her slow mechanical breathing echoing through the ship's underbelly.]

Song of the Vanquished (Audiomachine)

[Eventually, they all reach a sort of routine. Living, coping, pretending they have no reason for grief. A deep sorrow permeates the ship.]

Rise (Encephalon)

[Sav rarely leaves Kai's side. They still wish to have taken her place, spared her this fate. Her last words remain in their mind, stirring questions they know she can never answer.]

Detach (Hans Zimmer)

[Jasper tries to pretend he never cared for her. Acting like the unperturbed captain that he knows he should be. His crew all know what he's hiding.]

Cocoon (Assemblage 23)

[Daniel falls into a depression. They spend their days sleeping and sometimes working, and little else.]

Drive (Assemblage 23)

[Tanya becomes withdrawn, wholly absorbed in their task of piloting the ship. She rarely speaks to anyone aside from Kai.]

Keep Flying (zero-project)

Space & Time (VNV Nation)

[Everyone feels lost, their lives torn apart. And it's as if the ship agrees with them. The sounds, the machinery malfunctioning, everything has this grief to it.]

Stay (Hans Zimmer)

[And yet they would never leave.]

Prisoners of War (Funker Vogt)

[Even if they were given the chance to leave behind the ship that reminds them of all they've lost, they'd still be trapped by a regime that treats them like disposable bodies.]

Together (Front 242)

[They're in this together.]

Requiem for Wires (VNV Nation)

[The ship seems to understand them, its melancholy matching pace with theirs.]

Starlight (Muse)

[One day, the opportunity arises. A chance to... not leave the regime, exactly, but to work within one of its uneasy allies. Together with their ship.]

Oder Schrei (Der Feuerkreiner)

[It's not long after the relocation that things begin to change.]

Aeroscope (VNV Nation)

[They find themselves having to reach out to others, to explain the situation with their ship, and to ask that it be kept secret.]

Machine Dreams (Two Steps From Hell)

[And something else begins to reach out.]

Not a Robot, But a Ghost (Andrew Bird)

[Strings of numbers within the error codes, encrypted messages deciphered piece by piece.]

The Becoming (Nine Inch Nails)

[Kai speaks to them, through the ship.]

Stage One (Blain Sandhag Mix) (Space Manoeuvres)

[The lower deck is never quiet. Sometimes Sav paces around, sometimes they're still, but there's always the sound of space outside - and inside the sound of Kai's too-regular breathing and the machines keeping her body alive.]

S.T.A.Y. (Hans Zimmer)

[But now, Sav knows the truth. The machines, and her diligent maintenance, have kept more than Kai's body alive.]

The Phoenix (Julia Ecklar)

[Her soul remains within the ship's heart. And now, finally, they can hear her.]

Jump! (Two Steps From Hell)

Atlas Air (Massive Attack)

Shelter (Icon of Coil)

Ironwing (Two Steps From Hell)

Machine (Regina Spektor)

Secondskin (VNV Nation)

Chelovek (GHOST)

Guiding (VNV Nation)

Radio / On-Air (VNV Nation)