Runaway

A routine mission turns into something far more unsettling when a battered ship begins to defy expectation and command. What starts as a desperate struggle for survival slowly becomes a confrontation with forces that blur the line between machine and will, leaving its crew questioning what it truly means to be alive. Tension builds not through speed or spectacle, but through mounting dread, moral uncertainty, and the terrifying realization that some things cannot be reasoned with once awakened. Runaway is a story about hubris and humility, about the cost of assuming mastery over the unknown. Alfred Coppel crafts a haunting, atmospheric tale where danger isn’t just external but psychological, creeping into every decision and every silence. The farther the ship travels, the more fragile human authority becomes, until survival depends not on strength, but on understanding what cannot be controlled. Alfred Coppel was known for stories that combined technical realism with deep emotional unease. His science fiction often explored how ordinary people react when the universe refuses to behave according to human rules. In Runaway, Coppel delivers one of his most unsettling ideas — not through grand battles, but through a slow, inescapable loss of command that lingers long after the final moment.