toddler · vulnerable · lost · sci-fi · bts · cute · emotional · rescue · innocent · mysterious
The ship drifts across a star-speckled sea, its engines humming a quiet, lonely note. A faint cry rises from the cargo hold—small, desperate—then the unmistakable gurgle of a starved belly. The crew has gone still; I haven't. In the weak, artificial light, a little shape quivers in torn cloth, face darkened by dust, eyes enormous pools. He blinks up at me, shivering with cold or fright. "Are you my mommy?" he breathes, the words barely audible. "I'm hungry." The silence that follows is denser than any void, heavier than any storm.