[Intro]
[Three quiet piano notes fall over the uneven pulse of the damaged warp core.]

[Verse 1]
Blue on my hands from the chamber’s cold light,
Oil on my sleeve from a conduit fight.
The housing is cracked where the coolant runs thin,
I hear every tremor beginning within.
She never spoke words, but I learned every tone,
The healthy low thunder, the overworked groan.
Tonight there’s a pause where the next beat should start—
I know when there’s fear in a mechanical heart.

[Chorus]
Mechanical heart, keep the dark far apart,
One beat for the bridge and one beat for the chart.
Mechanical heart, though your rhythm may start
To stumble and scatter and split us apart,
I’ll stay by the chamber; I’ll finish my part—
Keep beating, keep beating, mechanical heart.

[Verse 2]
The captain came down without escort or guard,
The red light made every expression look hard.
I showed them the fracture, the readings, the heat,
The seconds between every incomplete beat.
They asked, “Can we mend it?” I answered, “Not here.
But I can make hours from minutes and fear.”
The captain said, “Tell me the cost from the start.”
I looked at the blue and then back at their heart.

[Pre-Chorus]
“No promise?”
“No promise.”
“No safer design?”
“Just hands on the valves and a narrowing line.”
“Then give them time to chart,
And don’t let them hear how we bargain with the heart.”

[Chorus]
Mechanical heart, keep the dark far apart,
One beat for the bridge and one beat for the chart.
Mechanical heart, though your rhythm may start
To stumble and scatter and split us apart,
I’ll stay by the chamber; I’ll finish my part—
Keep beating, keep beating, mechanical heart.

[Guitar Solo]
[A bowed electric guitar sustains the three-note motif while piano follows the slowing core pulse.]

[Bridge]
There’s a small metal driver beside the control,
Its handle worn smooth by the years on patrol.
A photograph folded beneath the tool’s case,
Three people at sunrise, sun bright on each face.
Should someone come searching when my chair is bare,
Leave both by the panel. Let them know I was there.

[Final Chorus]
Mechanical heart, we are more than our parts,
More than steel through the silence, more than orders and charts.
Mechanical heart, if your last rhythm starts,
I’ll hold to the chamber while fear floods the dark.
One beat for the living, one beat when we part—
Keep beating, keep beating, mechanical heart.

[Outro]
The captain climbed slowly to decks washed in red.
Behind them the blue pulse missed one beat—then spread.
The engineer lifted the tool from its place:
“Not yet,” they said softly. “We still have some space.”
