Behind every legend is a truth embellished upon by generations of recollection. Throughout mankind's determined yet stubborn existence, the stories of our ancestors have done little in stopping us from making their same mistakes. Though the circumst...
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Five minutes.
In a universe so uncertain, so mysterious, so massive that not a soul back home would notice if you never returned, it's easy to forget that time acts differently when you're in danger. A man may believe he has his life under control - that his actions actually have an impact - and yet a single event can turn his world upside down. What may feel like an eternity of brainstorming, prying at one's own mind to uncover the solution to an unsolvable problem, could in reality last no longer than five minutes.
Just five minutes can alter the course of your life forever.
It was an expedition much like any other. Our crew, a motley group of Starhoppers aboard a starship called the Isabella, had been tasked with charting the Tarala system for a conglomerate of buyers back on Earth. Though my friend Daniel had crafted a theory centered around tourist attractions and extravagant gift shops, the true purpose of why these men purchased the system from Earth's government was nonessential to our mission.
Our job was to produce the maps. That's all that mattered to us in the end.
I can still hear the excited commotion that bounced around the cockpit as we descended through the cloudy atmosphere of the third planet in the Tarala system. The first two had been barren rocks floating too close to the system's suns for life's comfort. After almost a day of repetitive craters and swirling red dust through our viewport, the possibility of life in the system intrigued us.
The Isabella had been flying over a vast desert when disaster clawed its way through the thick metal hull of our ship. With curious widened eyes, the imminence of the danger we were in was left unconsidered as black shapes began to shoot up into the air from deep within the sand.
Captain Ferrell had been speaking as a wriggling worm collided with the viewport, a viscous black goop splattering across the glass as more of the creatures clattered against the underside of the ship. After an eternal second had passed, an alarm blared loudly overhead as one of the creatures was sucked into the engine of the Isabella's left wing.
The ship crashed heavily into the rolling orange dunes far faster than we could have corrected its path.
I had lost consciousness for a brief time before waking, finding a piece of debris lodged deep within my flesh. Panic seeped into my foggy brain as a roaring fire blazed before me.
I'd managed to find a can of hardening foam before losing consciousness. Though the material was intended for use with metal, for quick ship repairs, I didn't care to think of the possible side effects before spraying my wound.
Not even a minute later, an explosion sent me tumbling onto my stomach as I carried a woman, Amanda, out from within the Isabella. The events of those previous few minutes looped infinitely within my mind as I stared down at her.
"Stay awake, dammit!" I stammered, my palms slipping against Amanda's slick skin as blood pumped out from within her wound. The flames billowing out from within the loading bay of the Isabella warmed my back as I suppressed Amanda's bleeding, her shaky breathing sending pangs of dread coursing through my gut.
