Capt. Cathy - Joy's Arrival 3D Render, Digital Art by Edheldil3D

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Capt. Cathy - Joys Arrival 3D Render, Digital Artwork by Edheldil3D

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PROFILE

Capt. Cathy - Joy's Arrival

3D Render by Edheldil3D

The Discovery in the Eternal Sea

The scanner aboard the GoldenStar emitted an irregular, hollow clicking sound. It wasn't an alarm, but the signal for a drifting object in the emptiness of space.

"Debris?" Cathy asked without taking her eyes off the control stick.

She was younger then, her hair wilder, her gaze more restless. She sought adventure in the uncharted fringes of the galaxy, driven by nothing more than the desire to discover the unknown.

Doro Android stood at the sensor array. Her golden chassis had not yet acquired the small scratches of later years, but her movements were exactly the same. She entered a sequence, analyzed the thermal readings, and paused.

"Negative, Captain," Doro said. Her voice flickered ever so slightly. "The metal alloy is highly compressed. Silver-coated. This is an artificial object. An escape pod. It shows significant structural damage—burn marks consistent with an explosion in close proximity. And... bidi bidi beep."

Cathy spun around in her chair.

"A signal?"

"Not an active beacon. Navigation systems are dead. However, my biosensors detect a minimal thermal signature inside." Doro looked up at Cathy. Her optical sensors widened slightly. "There is something alive aboard."

"Bring us alongside. Lock it with the tractor beam," Cathy ordered, the excitement of adventure in her voice giving way to sudden, serious focus.

A few minutes later, a dull metallic impact echoed through the GoldenStar's hangar bay.

The escape pod was small, barely larger than a cargo container, covered in deep grooves and scorched paint. The automatic airlock seals were coated with a thin layer of cosmic frost.

Cathy was already waiting with a plasma cutter in hand as Doro sealed the hangar doors.

"The atmosphere inside is collapsing," the android warned. "Oxygen levels are down to a critical four percent."

"I'm working on it," Cathy muttered.

With a hiss, she pressed the tool against the sealed hatch. Sparks showered across the hangar, illuminating the ship's shadowy walls until the dented metal finally yielded with a heavy hydraulic sigh. A wave of icy, stale air rushed out toward them.

Cathy coughed, tossed the plasma cutter aside, and pulled the hatch fully open.

No lights remained inside the pod. Everything was dark except for the faint, rhythmic pulse of an emergency battery.

But amid the melted consoles and loose cables, there was no equipment.

Strapped securely into a padded seat with makeshift restraints lay a small silver blanket.

Cathy stepped closer, her boots ringing sharply against the grated floor. Carefully, she pulled the fabric aside.

A face emerged beneath it.

A tiny baby, only a few months old.

It wasn't crying. It wasn't even shivering from the cold.

As the beam of Cathy's flashlight fell upon the child, it opened its eyes.

Two eyes glowing with an unnatural clarity—a gaze so deep and ancient that it seemed to comprehend the endless void through which it had drifted.

Cathy forgot to breathe.

The fearless captain who feared neither pirates nor black holes took a reverent step backward.

"Doro... look at this."

Doro moved to her side. Her mechanical eyes scanned the child from head to toe.

"A human infant. Female. No registration number in the databases. No log entries. She is... alone. Without origin. Bidi bidi beep."

Doro's head tilted abruptly to one side as an internal filter stalled.

"My logic center reports a system conflict. There is no rational protocol for discovering an infant in an asteroid field."

"Forget the protocol," Cathy whispered.

With a gentleness she hardly recognized in herself, she reached into the pod and lifted the small bundle into her arms.

The child was feather-light.

As Cathy held her against her chest, she felt the baby's tiny fingers wrap around her thumb.

A faint metallic click sounded.

Around the girl's tiny wrist gleamed a narrow silver bracelet.

Cathy carefully turned it in the pale light.

A single word was deeply engraved into the metal.

"Joy," Cathy read softly.

"Joy," Doro repeated.

For the first time, the android's voice no longer sounded solely like circuits and code. There was something almost warm in it.

"An illogical name for someone emerging from such darkness."

Cathy looked from the bracelet to the endless stars beyond the hangar window.

In that moment, she felt the course of her entire life change.

This was no ordinary adventure anymore.

"She may come from the darkness, Doro," Cathy said as the baby looked up at her with those luminous eyes, "but we'll make sure she grows up in the light."

She smiled and gently held the child closer.

"Welcome aboard, Joy."

Workflow: DAZStudio4.24 -> Iray -> Affinity Photo 2