I laid on my side, facing a steep wall. My arms and entire left side were in stabbing pain. I gasped, but it felt like nothing happened. I tried again, with a deeper breath. I felt air in my lungs at least, just not enough. And the deeper breath sent more stabbing pains through my body. But I was desperate now, wincing as I pushed past the pain and find my breath again.

                I sat up and looked around gingerly. I couldn't turn my head by itself too far in any direction without the same overwhelming pain shooting down my spine, so I stiffly turned my whole body to examine my surroundings. The steep walls in front of me and loose dirt below me looked like some kind of sinkhole.

                "Soelli? Oh my god, Soelli are you okay? I am so sorry, I tried to stop you. I thought you saw... please tell me you're okay." The speaker in my helmet crackled loudly with each word as Audrina called me desperately. I flinched and turned to look up.

                "Yeah. I'm good." I croaked. There was a minute of sweet silence as I stood up, pushing my way onto one knee and then up all the way. "I think I'm good to walk."

                "You need to climb." She mumbled.

                "Yeah, I kn-"

                "Now." Her voice was different, forceful.

                I paused and looked up, to see her eyes focused on something behind me. I turned slowly, trying to keep my head from sending shooting pain down my back.

                I did a double take half way. There, on the face of the steep, dirt wall was a door.

                Thank god! The crew has another settlement.

                "You don't think we should check out this door?" I turned back towards Audrina, "Looks like the other crew just moved to a diff-"

                "Soelli, that door is wrong. It's not for us." She was whispering now, still staring behind me.

                I turned. She was right. The door was too small for some reason.

                I kept turning to see what she had been looking at. There were several smaller doors on the other side of the pit I was in.

                And there was a creature that had appeared in front of me, having just exited from one of those doors.

                The strange being was oddly similar to me, but was shorter— roughly only six feet tall. And unlike me, it only had two arms. Its head was a round shape without any of the familiar bony facial protrusions that my species has, and its skin was a uniformly flat, earthy-tan color. Its eyes were particular unsettling, just a soulless brown circle surrounded by white. Two circles staring up at me in horror.

                The creature took a step back, extending both hands which were holding some long, alien device. The end of which flashed a brilliant yellow light, and a slight thunder filled the trench around me.

                I took my own step back. The pain in my side was suddenly stronger and focused on a singular point. I heard an oddly distant scream from Audrina.

                The alien creature took another step back, then turned furiously and ran a few steps back towards the door it had emerged from. Two other nearly identical alien creatures almost immediately emerged from the same exit, both wielding the same device. Two more thunderous booms rang out, before the first creature stopped the other two.

                I realized by then what was being held was a weapon. The pain had intensified, and when I looked down, I saw the turquoise smear of blood as I pressed both my upper and lower right arm on the hole in my suit.

                I dropped onto my knee as my vision swam. The world had pulled away from me before swinging back with force, and I needed to lay down for a second. That would be the best thing for me. That would make me so much more comfortable. I collapsed downward, looking up at the distant sky. I didn't see Audrina anymore, and I assumed she was running to get some help.

                The vaguely more familiar, first alien creature ran over to me and knelt down. Its weapon was gone. The alien was rapidly looking me up and down. I realized this was all the help I would be getting. The reality of the situation had been mercifully distant until I made eye contact with the creature. We were different species, but the look was universal. There was no hope in those eyes, just fear. My own hope began to dwindle.

###

                And that brings us to now. The afternoon of November 19th, 2102. That's it, my whole story. And I can't shake the thought in the back of my head that my story is ending.

                The creature in front of me continues to look into my eyes with what must be sympathy. I can feel them searching my expression. I desperately wish I could somehow communicate back, show them all these memories playing in my mind. But I know they can only see my fear. Because I am scared. God, I'm so scared. Is Audrina alright? Will Lunëne be safe?

                I feel a small hand press down on my wound. I think it's trying to save me. Even if it could somehow know the anatomy of my species, do I have enough time? An icy cold creeps into my heart and I feel a shiver travel throughout my body. I know the answer.

                 I can't open my mouth and say how much I miss my parents right now in this moment, but for some reason I really think the alien creature should know that. Someone has to know.  I love them so incredibly much.

                Breathing is really difficult. We came all this way, all those years... it's not fucking fair. We were doing something so great, for the future. And I am one of the four hundred. I am special, aren't I? Why is-

###

                The year is 2127. A desperate warning message sent from a distant planet arrives, greeted only by a whistling wind that blows dust and lonely echoes across an abandoned, dark reddish-grey terrain. Just echoes of a story, fragmented and scattered like shrapnel— buried deep within distant hearts.