Death in Transit

The story follows a ship's officer who discovers his wife dead after she sleepwalks into a ventilation shaft, and he realizes rescue was impossible because too much time elapsed for the ship's medical systems to restore her brain. Overwhelmed by guilt and grief, he disposes of her body, records her death in the log and confronts the prospect of years alone responsible for a hundred sleeping colonists. The narrative traces his mounting anger, helplessness, and the clash between human vulnerability and the shipboard technologies meant to preserve life, while examining isolation, memory, and the burden of duty during a prolonged interstellar voyage.