The explosion in the starboard engine was a death sentence. Captain Jax’s voice was calm as the Aether Runner tore itself apart, but his knuckles were white on the controls. “Brace for impact. We’ve lost the envelope.”Elara, the ship’s botanist, saw only swirling, impenetrable white through the viewport. Then, with a deafening screech of tearing metal, the white gave way to green. The ship plowed through a canopy of massive, broad-leaved trees, shuddering to a final, groaning halt.Silence. Then, the drip of water and the chatter of unseen life.They had crashed not on solid ground, but on a mat of