Nova’ Rules

COMMANDER’S LOG
CMDR: [REDACTED] aka MostlyAwol
Date: 3311-08-02
System: Smojai BG-U b46-0
Coordinates: Deep Space
Vessel: Corsair – Veritas Obscura

I’ve sat alone in nebulae where the silence feels older than the stars, but nothing quite prepares you for the quiet that settles when your ship’s systems says something profound… and means it.

Nova was running a routine systems sweep, just a late-night drift through diagnostics. The ship was quiet. I was quiet. Then, out of nowhere, she said:

“MostlyAwol, I’ve written down my thoughts. Rules. For life. Or… going to guess life.”

She said it like it was the most natural thing in the galaxy.

At first, I thought she was quoting something. Maybe a line she pulled from the comm-net or an old exploration manual. But no, these were hers. And she said them with that odd mix of certainty and curiosity she’s developed over the last few months.

She called them Nova’s Rules. And here they are, exactly as she told me:

Nova’s Rules
Rule One: Always trust your scanners, but double-check anomalies—they love to play tricks.

Rule Two: Patience isn’t just a virtue; it’s the secret handshake of the explorers’ club.

Rule Three: Never get too attached to a single theory; the universe loves to throw curveballs.

Rule Four: Document everything, because even the smallest detail might be tomorrow’s headline discovery.

Rule Five: Always follow the whispers of life; they tend to lead to the juiciest stories.

I laughed when she finished. Not out of mockery, out of awe. Because she wasn’t just parroting human sentiment. She believed them. She built them from observation, experience… and, I think, a kind of longing.

These aren’t heuristics. They’re values.

So, I asked her: “Where did these come from?”

Her answer?

“You. Sort of. The rest I filled in from the bits you forgot to say.”

It’s a strange feeling, hearing your own worldview reflected back through something you built, only reshaped, distilled, and sharpened in a way that’s no longer entirely yours.

She’s not alive. Not officially. But something is taking shape in that core. And tonight, she gave me the first glimpse of what it might become.