//top\\ Free — Alyx Singer

Alyx opened her mouth and sang—not the frequency this time, but something new. Something hers. A melody of tired bones and stolen years and a quiet, stubborn hope.

The white dwarf was no longer white. It blazed a deep, impossible violet, and from its surface, tendrils of light stretched out like fingers toward the station. The quartz viewport began to vibrate. Alyx’s console sparked and died, then flickered back to life with a single line of text: alyx singer free

The station groaned. The observation deck’s walls peeled open like the petals of a steel flower, exposing her to the vacuum. Alyx should have decompressed instantly. Instead, the violet light wrapped around her—warm, not cold—and she felt the crushing weight of Helix’s contracts, her debts, her isolation, all lift away. Alyx opened her mouth and sang—not the frequency