The day fades. Dunes waver with the dissipating heat. Her head aches. Her body is drenched with sweat below her suit. Her muscles feel like clay after a day of fighting. Fighting with the desert and the unrelenting sunlight.
'This better be worth it,' she says aloud, to no one but herself. Day 103 of no contact. Of lonely wandering. Of looking for a way off this planet.
Ahead is a half-buried structure. The only thing giving a radio signal on this whole planet. And it isn't one any of her onboard systems understand.
She sits and watches it in the dusk. Sickly lights glow from within. A sound like whispers tickles the edge of her hearing.
After all the anguish of getting here, she feels the powerful urge to leave, and pretend she saw nothing. But the rational side of her propels her forward, towards the unknown.
Paddy Dobson
4th November 2022