The bridge hummed with a low thrum as Captain Curly stared out the main viewport, the distant nebula swirling like a cosmic tide. Curly's eyes, however, seemed to trace an invisible path through the star-dusted velvet, his mind already mapping a trajectory light-years beyond their current distress. A phantom ache bloomed beneath his shoulder blades, a primal echo of wings longing to cleave through the very vacuum he commanded, lost in the boundless vista