The Blood Planet

There were two things I wanted to do before I died. Order the biggest bucket of chilli anchovies at the East Kaamarha Seahorse Show, and then straight after, bet all of my money on Sapphire Recluse. 50:1 odds. No chance. I'd die of a heart attack if she won.

My whole family is really into seahorse racing. It's a big thing on our home planet. They've really done it up in recent years. When racing first started, it was just a bunch of old men desperately clinging onto their seahorses, which used to be their mode of transport until shellcars were invented. Now it's this global phenomenon, some people even trying to promote it on other planets.

I'd give anything to go home, one last time. See my family. My kids. My darling daughter, my beautiful son. My daughter is off to hydromagic school in two months, and my son is powering through exams. The last time I saw them, I promised I'd return. They will never forgive me. I just want to see them one last time.

Our station is damaged beyond repair. We've exhausted our fuel, our medical resources, everything. It's all gone. So is any hope of surviving. We're in such close proximity to Khanaa that our satellites aren't working, and we cannot communicate with the outside world.

Every cycle I wake up and stare out the window, at the blood planet. Its tendrils reach closer and closer. It should hit us in about five cycles. I watched these same tendrils evaporate two other research stations. The blood, the fire, the destruction. How can something that doesn't even live and breathe cause such terror?

But the one thing I can't stop thinking about is my kids. They are about to grow up without a mother. They have been growing up without a mother. I've been on this expedition for seven months now. I doubt I'd recognise them, if I saw them again. It's like I've already lost them. It's like... I'm grieving for them, for what they were to me, even though I haven't lost them. Not yet. I keep praying, to any God that might be out there, to bless my family, bring me back to my kids. I made them a promise, that I would return. I made them a promise. I, promised.