When the Signal Fades

WHEN THE SIGNAL FADES [Verse 1 — piano, very restrained] Past the last light of Stanton where the law forgets our names, there's a stone that keeps on turning while we bargain lives for change. We came carrying a promise worth more than what it paid. No one asked who'd see the morning. We just knew who'd stay. [Pre-Chorus — strings enter] Let the warning fill the glass. Let the red lights come alive. I don't need to hear your voice to know who's at my side. --- [CHORUS — orchestra opens completely] When the signal fades, stand with me. When the stars go blind, still believe. Let the heavens close and the jump points disappear— if the dark has come to take us, let it find us together here. When the signal fades. --- [Verse 2] We ran dark beyond Delamar, with our heat against the cold. Had a hold full of tomorrow and a price upon our souls. Then the first shot split the silence. Someone whispered, "Here they come." Funny how the fear gets smaller when you're not the only one. --- [Pre-Chorus] There are debts you pay in credits. There are debts no ledger knows. You don't learn what someone's worth until there's nowhere left to go. --- [CHORUS — larger] When the signal fades, stand with me. When the stars go blind, still believe. Let them burn our names across every screen in Nyx. There are things a man can surrender. There are things you never give. When the signal fades. --- [Bridge — everything falls away except piano] If I fall beyond the airlock, don't promise me revenge. Don't trade another life for mine. Don't make my ending theirs. Just get them home. All of them. And when they ask what it cost— lie. Some prices shouldn't follow you home. --- [slow orchestral rise] Because ships become wreckage. Credits become numbers. Victories become stories that somebody tells wrong. But somewhere in the black, when every instrument goes quiet, you'll discover what was real was there all along. --- [FINAL CHORUS — huge, sustained vocal] When the signal fades, stand with me. When the stars go blind, still believe. Let Delamar turn beneath us. Let the whole of Nyx ignite. If this is where the road ends, then we end it side by side. When the signal fades, don't look away. There are worse things than dying. There are worse things than pain. To live long enough to save yourself and leave your own behind— I'd rather meet the darkness with your shoulder against mine. --- [Outro — piano; almost whispered] When the signal fades... you'll know who stayed.