The alien planet hung like a pool of blue. Their only stop on a one-way journey.
Their vessel’s final dregs of energy concealed them in orbit while their shuttle fell into the alien atmosphere.
The violent entry rattled the shuttle, pilot and crew breathed deep lungfuls, fighting to clear their minds, to imagine a paradise so near.
Generations spent drifting through the void had corroded all memories of their world from before.
This or death.
The pilot’s expert hands flew across controls – navigating, maintaining, adjusting – to grant the first of their last a swift passage into their new world.
© 2021 Rebecca Glaessner
April 1 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a swift passage. You can take inspiration from any source. Who is going where and why. What makes it swift? Go where the prompt leads!
Submissions now closed. Read the full collection here.
