Hold the Free Lanes

Sirens in the starlight. No jump, no way home. Something cold is moving through the dark between our worlds. They came with perfect orders and a flag without a face. Robots in the landing smoke, steel across the lanes. They said one hand could guide us, one command could keep us safe. But the stars were never promised by a throne we did not name. Cut the drive and kill the signal, lock the system down. Still the warning fires are waking every scattered town. If the dark says kneel, we answer with our engines. If the map goes red, we make another way. Hold the free lanes, hold them through the fire. We were born to cross the dark, not bow beneath the wire. Hold the free lanes, let the engines cry. If they come to chain the stars, we teach the stars to fight. Hold the free lanes. Hold the free lanes. From New Atlantis windows to the dust of Akila ground, every voice on broken comms is asking, are you out? We are miners, scouts, and captains, we are names they never learned. But the smallest ship can carry all the freedom they would burn. Grav drives choke on static, cruise lights cut the black. There is no fast road forward, there is only no way back. If the dark says kneel, we answer with our engines. If the map goes red, we make another way. Hold the free lanes, hold them through the fire. We were born to cross the dark, not bow beneath the wire. Hold the free lanes, let the engines cry. If they come to chain the stars, we teach the stars to fight. Hold the free lanes. Hold the free lanes. Maybe peace is not a palace. Maybe safety is a cage. Maybe every open heaven needs a hand that disobeys. So light the hull in warning. Mark the wounded on the chart. We are not the armada. We are every beating heart. Hold the free lanes, hold them through the fire. We were born to cross the dark, not bow beneath the wire. Hold the free lanes, let the engines cry. If they come to chain the stars, we teach the stars to fight. Hold the free lanes. Hold the free lanes. No king owns the morning. No fleet owns the sky. Hold the free lanes. Hold them with your life.