Close your eyes and count to ten.
I glanced at all of the displays in front of me, double checking pressure, fuel levels, generator power. Everything came back green.
In the silence there was a moment to breathe. I closed my eyes and put my hand on the empty seat beside me, one of thirteen now vacant. This journey was never supposed to be two-way. Fourteen people were supposed to come out here and never come back. Of course, we were supposed to have support, aid, and supplies sent to us until we were secure, too.
Nothing had gone the way it had been planned. Command stopped communicating two weeks after the ship had