The Ballad of Blaster Bill

A battered freight ship darts through the asteroid belt, its crew a ragtag mix of grizzled engineers and star‑swept captains. Among them is Blaster Bill, a hulking mechanic with bone‑crushing strength but a mind that often wanders into chaos, and his irritable counterpart, Master Engineer Jonathan McNeer, who runs the ship’s delicate systems with obsessive precision. The rhythm of their day‑to‑day labour is broken only by the occasional awe‑inspiring beacon that cuts through the darkness of space, reminding everyone that they’re part of something larger than themselves.

When a rogue asteroid threatens to slam into the freighter, the crew’s usual routine erupts into frantic urgency. McNeer’s order to get the hypatomic motors humming again collides with Bill’s well‑meaning but disastrous decision to melt a critical component for a quick fix. As molten metal bubbles and alarms blare, the tension on the bridge rises, and the crew must decide whether their loyalty to each other can outpace the peril looming outside.