[Intro]
[Piano plays three plain notes while a metal tool taps the same rhythm against a console.]

[Verse 1]
I found the old driver beneath panel four,
The handle still warm from the work done before.
The photograph waited beside the blue light,
Three faces at sunrise, all squinting and bright.
I thought I’d feel grand when this moment came,
Some polished last words for a polished last name.
Instead my left hand has gone numb,
And a loose wrench keeps rattling the drum.

[Chorus]
Three notes for the living, then one for the gone,
Three notes to remember where courage came from.
Three notes for the living—keep carrying on;
Three notes for the living, then carry me on.

[Verse 2]
The captain said, “Wait. We can search for a way.”
I answered, “The fracture gets wider each day—
No, each second. Time isn’t counting us right.
The core needs a hand in the chamber tonight.”
They said, “Once it seals, we cannot bring you through.”
I said, “Then stop telling me what I already knew.”
There are people above who still argue and breathe;
Give them years from the minute I’m choosing to leave.

[Pre-Chorus]
Do not call it fearless. My knees barely stand.
Do not call it fate. This is work for a hand.
I am scared, and I’m staying. Let both things be true.
Seal the door when I tell you. That’s my order to you.

[Chorus]
Three notes for the living, then one for the gone,
Three notes to remember where courage came from.
Three notes for the living—keep carrying on;
Three notes for the living, then carry me on.

[Instrumental Break]
[Metal percussion and toms accelerate as guitar, piano and analog pulse synchronize with the core.]

[Bridge]
Valve one is open. The field is aligned.

We hear you. We’re with you. The readings are clear.

Then don’t waste the seconds by keeping me here.
Tell them I complained to the end, as I should.
Tell them the core was a difficult piece of good.

[Climax]
Seal the door.
Hold the frame.
Blue turns white.
Say my name.
Just remember
Why we came.

[Final Chorus]
Three notes for the living, then one for the gone,
Three notes in the silence when my voice has moved on.
Three notes for the living—keep carrying on;
Make the years that I purchased worth more than this song.
Three notes for the living, then carry me on.

[Outro]
The core found its rhythm; the long stars grew small.
The ship left the fracture. One channel went dull.
At the empty work station, beneath steady blue,
Lay a tool, one photograph—and three notes the crew knew.