“Captain, the last shuttle is about to take off. You need to leave. Now!”

“I will, Josh. Just go. Quickly,” she ordered her first officer.

“Captain, we need to—”

“If I can’t get there in time, you take off! Get your ass to the shuttle! Now! That’s a direct order!”

Through all the turmoil of the debris pummeling the exterior and alarms ringing loudly throughout the ship, the computer droned on mercilessly with its audible countdown, but it barely registered with her. She needed that final recording.

She ran to her station, yanked out the flash drive and stuck it into the small slot on her belt. For her personal library, she always kept a recording of each and every mission.

“Fifty-nine seconds to impact. Fifty-eight, fifty-seven, fifty…”

“Shut the fuck up!” She glanced at the viewscreen and watched the last shuttle fly away with a heavy heart. Too late… No, wait, there’s the one-passenger exploration pod… Can I get to it in time? She raced to the turbo lift and punched the button to take her to the shuttle bay.

“Thirty-three, thirty…” the computer continued its countdown.

She put on her Cosmo-Suit at super speed. At fifteen seconds she climbed into the pod, put on her helmet, hooked it up to oxygen, and buckled up. At her command, the bay door opened. What the fuck was I thinking going back for that drive? I’m too far away from any planet. I’ll never make it to solid ground in a million years. Not in this small thing. She shook her head as her fingers flew over the control panel to set coordinates. Coordinates to where? She shrugged and punched in random coordinates to get away from the threatening impact, then set the pod on autopilot. It catapulted out of the bay. Within seconds, she watched the huge asteroid collide with her ship.

Was she far enough away?

She closed her eyes against the blinding light.

The shockwave sent the small round pod hurtling at too fast a speed. It felt like she was on the rollercoaster ride of her life as it tumbled through space. Her stomach roiled. She heaved and heaved again and swallowed the acidic bile rising to her throat. Why hadn’t she listened to Josh, her science officer, and gone with him to the last shuttle?

The pod spun so fast that she couldn’t even think anymore. Her body strained against the tight harness, and her brain felt like it was in a blender being scrambled into a smoothie… She opened her eyes, but quickly closed them again to shut out the piercing light that further numbed her mind until there was nothing but a black void…