I sat there, waiting for death.
The timer on my oxygen meter blinked like a mocking heartbeat.
1:03 minutes left.
The inside of my helmet fogged with every shallow breath. I tried to slow it, to savor what little was left, but my body betrayed me, lungs pulling desperately for air that wasn't there. My eyes burned as the world blurred behind my visor. I leaned back against a rock, my suit scraping against its rough surface, and stared at the endless red stretching around me.
Mars. Silent. Dead. Perfect.
I wondered if Kevin and Betty were already halfway to orbit by now, if Betty even cried for me again, or if Kevin had already convinced himself I was a "necessary sacrifice."
Legacy, my ass.
And still I couldn't help it, I kept staring. Even with death pressing against my chest, this view was worth every stupid, reckless decision that brought me here.
I laughed again, but it came out broken this time, thin and hoarse.
Then—
Something moved.
At first, I thought it was the haze in my helmet, a trick of oxygen deprivation. But no… no, it was real. My breath hitched, my eyes focusing through the thin dust swirling in the distance.
A shape.
No… shapes.
They looked almost human, but they weren't, too tall, too fluid. Like they were made from the wind itself, twisting and folding in ways that didn't seem possible. Yet there was structure to them, a kind of unnatural symmetry, and flashes of metallic sheen caught in the dull Martian light.
Technological? Organic? My brain fought for words.
They moved closer.
48 seconds.
I pressed myself back against the rock, panic and fascination battling inside me. Every instinct screamed to run, but there was nowhere to go. And despite the terror clawing at my chest, some deep, buried part of me—the scientist part—was… thrilled.
If I was going to die here, this was the way. Not suffocating quietly like an idiot, but staring at something that shouldn't exist.
Something impossible.
My eyes darted toward the ground. There, lying half-buried in dust, was the live transmission camera.
My hands trembled as I reached for it, cursing how clumsy my fingers felt inside the gloves. Was it even still recording? Was Earth seeing this right now? Clifford, Kevin, Betty were they watching?
God, if they were, at least let them see this.
I lifted the camera shakily, pointing it at the figures. The nearest one swirled closer, the dust around it spiraling unnaturally, like the air bent to its will. I swallowed hard, the dryness of my throat making it painful.
32 seconds.
My heart pounded so hard I thought it might crack my ribs. I tried to convince myself this was hallucination, an oxygen-starved brain firing its last desperate shots of imagination.
Then, before I could think further—
It moved. Fast.
One second, it was meters away; the next, the world jerked sideways as something slammed into me, knocking me flat. My visor hit the ground with a sharp crack, my chest compressing under the sudden weightlessness.
I couldn't breathe.
I couldn't move.
For a dizzying second, I thought maybe I was already gone.
Then my vision snapped back into focus, and I was no longer on the ground.
I was being carried.
Lifted. Snatched.
The dust and red rocks blurred beneath me as the world tilted, gravity pulling in directions it shouldn't. I wanted to scream, but the air left in my lungs felt too precious. My suit groaned under the sudden strain as we moved—flew?—through the haze, every motion so unnaturally fast it almost felt like being inside a hurricane.
And then—
The light changed.
We stopped.
I blinked, my chest heaving, trying to comprehend what I was seeing.
They surrounded me.
Shapes, no, not shapes, beings stood in a loose circle, towering above me. My brain screamed alien, but not the kind I'd ever imagined. They weren't monstrous; they were… beautiful, in a terrifying way.
Their bodies shimmered faintly, skin, if you could call it that, pulsing with a soft, bioluminescent glow. The light rippled across their forms like ocean waves, shifting blues and greens against the rusty Martian sky. Their faces, vaguely human-shaped, were too smooth, eyes too large and glassy, catching every flicker of light.
The way they moved made no sense, almost liquid, almost like sound made solid.
I couldn't stop staring.
Part of me wanted to weep, there's life here, and another part just wanted to curse Clifford to hell for not being here to see this.
16 seconds.
I coughed violently inside my helmet, trying to get their attention. I pointed desperately at my oxygen meter, at my chest, making frantic slashing gestures across my throat.
Nothing.
Of course nothing. Even on Earth, humans barely understood each other; why would these things understand me?
Still—they just hovered there. Watching. Studying me, like I was the alien.
I tried again, slapping my chest, motioning to my helmet, to my mouth.
My vision started to blur, black dots creeping in.
This was it.
I let my head fall back, my body sagging in the suit. Maybe it was all a hallucination. Maybe I'd already suffocated, and this was just neurons firing in some desperate dream of discovery.
And then—
One of them moved closer.
So close, its glow reflected off my visor, making its face appear distorted and otherworldly. Its huge eyes blinked slowly, like it was considering something.
Then, it reached out.
I flinched as it touched me.
A strange, electric tingle shot through my body, crawling under my skin like sparks. I gasped involuntarily, every nerve lighting up.
7 seconds.
I wanted to scream, to shove it away, but I couldn't move. My body refused to fight.
And just as the final seconds ticked down—
The alien's long, thin fingers pressed against the neck of my suit.
My heart stopped.
It was opening it.
I stared in frozen horror, eyes wide as the seal hissed and the helmet shifted.
"No—no, no, no, you don't understand, I'll die—" I croaked, barely able to speak.
The alien ignored me.
The helmet detached with a soft click, and a rush of cold air hit my face.
My eyes blew wide open.
I sucked in a breath on instinct, terrified, sure this would be the last breath I ever took.
But… it didn't burn.
My lungs didn't collapse.
The air, thin, cold, strange, filled me anyway.
I sat there, stunned, chest heaving.
I wasn't dead.
I was breathing.
On Mars.
I looked up at the glowing figures surrounding me, the bioluminescence reflecting off the alien landscape.
And for the first time in my life, I didn't know whether to laugh or scream. Happy or sad. Run or stand still.
But run? That's ridiculous