Title: "The Last Message"
Captain Elara Voss floated in the quiet hum of the spacecraft, staring out at the vastness of space. Her
mission was simple: to be the first human to reach Proxima Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth.
But now, as she drifted closer to its distant light, everything felt impossibly... hollow.
For over two years, she’d been alone in the confines of the ship, orbiting the silent void. Earth, with all
its bustling noise, seemed like a dream. She’d lost track of the time since her last communication with
mission control. Their messages came less frequently, then stopped altogether. No one could explain it
—no one even knew if they were still out there.
Her fingers gently brushed the console, activating the holographic interface. A static crackle filled the
cabin. A faint signal. Then, a voice, distorted but unmistakable.
“Elara... Elara, do you copy?”
Her heart skipped a beat. She leaned closer. "Control? Is that you?"
There was a long pause before the voice returned, softer this time. "It's been... too long. You need to
return home. There's nothing left for you out there."
Elara’s pulse quickened. She had anticipated this—years of isolation could do that to a person, make
them doubt everything. But she couldn't return now. Not without finishing what she'd started.
"I'm so close," she whispered to herself, staring out at the swirling star system ahead. Proxima Centauri
was almost within reach. She wasn’t just a scientist anymore. She was a symbol, a pioneer, humanity's
last hope of finding a new world.
But the voice continued, now more urgent. “It’s not just the mission that’s gone dark, Elara. Earth—it's
gone. Everything.”
The words hit like a punch. She felt dizzy, disconnected. Earth was gone? She looked at the glowing
stars outside, but none of them felt like home anymore. She thought of her family, her friends, the
simple joy of feeling the warmth of the sun on her face. Was it all a dream? Had she left all of that
behind for a ghost story?
“No,” she whispered, fighting back tears. “I have to finish this.”
But the voice only replied, “You’re not alone out there anymore. We’ve seen the signal. It’s coming
toward you.”
A chill ran down Elara’s spine. The signal? She had seen anomalies in the ship’s systems, strange data
bursts, unexplained patterns. Were they... signals from something else? Something not human?
Suddenly, the ship's lights flickered, and the hum of the engines changed, becoming more erratic. A
massive shadow swept across the viewport—a dark shape, like a celestial beast, looming against the
backdrop of the stars.
Elara stared, wide-eyed, as the voice spoke again, now clearer than before. "You must turn back. The
frontier you seek is not what you think."
She swallowed hard, her mind racing. But in the silence that followed, all she could hear was the
pounding of her own heart.
And in that moment, as the shadow approached, Elara realized the stars she had longed to reach might
have been waiting for her all along—but not in the way she had imagined.
