Countdown
By Martin L. Shoemaker
Looking out into the black void of space, she felt her muscles tense as she readied for the long leap.
She was ready for this, had trained for this, and still she clung to the safety of the airlock.
But her life, her future, and all her family were out there in the transport, waiting for her.
They could only wait a little longer before the ship must leave, with her or without her.
And since she could not imagine life without them, she had no choice but to leap!
Through blackness she sailed, safety trailing behind, a thousand questions ahead and no longer avoidable.
The transport was but a distant dot, growing far too slow for her comfort.
Had she made a fatal miscalculation, targeting not safety but an unreachable star?
Would she float forever, leaving home and family for a lonely death?
Was the dot growing, or was she already out of air?
She called for help, but heard not even echoes answering.
She recalled nothing of how to operate her jets.
This was the death she long had feared…
The loneliness of space, the lost control.
To be forgotten, to be nobody.
Family, hope, future, all lost.
An arm reaches out.
Grasps for her.
She stretches.
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