[section 1 female spoken word; section 2 male spoken word] [section 1] [mezzo soprano solemn] I made the decision this morning. The creatures here--small, fast, quiet--survive somehow. --That means water. --Somewhere. I’ve mapped their tracks. They converge near the western ridge, just beyond the crater rim. --I have to try. --If I stay, --I die. --If I go, --I might still die. --But I’ll die moving. I’ve packed light. --Two canteens. --The rock from home. If anyone finds this--if anyone’s listening--my name is Commander Dru Baldwin. --Terran Federation. --Echo Survey 9. --We were hit. --We crashed. --The crew is gone. --I’m the last. --I’m going to find water. --Or die trying. --Over.-- She clipped the recorder to the hull fragment, --checked the sun’s angle, --and started walking. The sand shifted beneath her boots. --The wind whispered like breath. --She didn’t look back. She climbed the crater rim slowly, scanning the horizon. --Nothing. --Just dust, heat, and the shimmer of twin moons. --Then she heard it. --A sound like thunder. But slower. --Rithmic.-- Almost like breathing. She turned. --It was huge. --Ancient. --Close enough to feel its breath. ---And it was watching her. She didn’t run. She didn’t scream. --She raised one arm--not in fear, --but in recognition. --And then-- silence. [section 2] [ male baritone spoken word] The Vantage dropped into orbit three weeks after the distress signal fractured. ---Magnetized debris from the Eltanin Rift made scans unreliable. --But two lifesigns flickered through the static. --One near the wreckage. --One moving west. Halix was chosen for descent. --Bio-mek emissary. --Immune to radiation. --Calibrated for silence. He was beamed down to the crater’s edge. --The wreckage was still warm. --The recorder blinked. --He played it. --Her voice. --Calm.-- Steady.-- Fierce. He listened twice. --Then followed her path.-- He climbed the rim fast, --sand slipping beneath his boots. He saw her---just ahead---standing on the ridge. --One arm raised. --Still as stone. --Then he saw it. --The entity.-- Vast. --Luminous. --He ran. But the rise of the crater wall broke his line of sight. --When he reached the top--- she was gone. --No footprints. --No signal. --Just sand. --And silence. He stood there for a long time, scanning, calling, listening. --Nothing. --Later, aboard the Vantage, he replayed the footage from his embedded camera. --Frame by frame. There she was. Dru Baldwin. Standing motionless. One arm raised. --The entity’s arm--if it could be called that--reached forward. --She never looked away.-- Then the camera lost focus. --And the stars blinked.
