She thought of the equation her mentor had once written on a board: Heat = Mass × Specific Heat × ΔT . But also: Kinetic Energy = ½ mv² . Her body was the mass. Her speed, squared, was the only remaining source of warmth.

“Velocity PTC,” she whispered, and smiled. Positive temperature coefficient —but not the ceramic kind. Hers. The coefficient that said: the faster you go, the hotter you burn. The more you refuse to stop.

At 22.5 kph, her suit’s outer layer began to ice-crack and slough off in sheets. She didn’t care. The PTC was dead, but she was alive.