Interstellar Barriers: Isotope Scribes in Search of Hope

The ship's alarm sounded and the lights flared to life. I squinted at the sudden brightness. My eyes had never adjusted to the darkness of sleep, but then again I had never been in space before. I'm not sure I ever could have slept, even with all the sedatives they gave us. The ship rolled and pitched as it accelerated into orbit around Mars. It wasn't too bad for a moment, but then the warning beeps started up again, the loudest and longest ones reserved for imminent destruction.

"Oh shit," said a voice. It was a woman's voice, so I knew it wasn't my own. "What do you think we're going to hit?" Her words were clipped and quick, like she couldn't get them out fast enough.

"I really don't know," I said as calmly as possible. We were going to die today, after all; it was better not to dwell on it too much. "It could be a meteor or... or a piece of space junk."

"Or another ship!" she said excitedly.

"I don't think so," I said, shaking my head back and forth slowly.

The alarms kept sounding, louder now than ever before. We were going to die today and that realization washed over me in a wave of adrenaline; it's hard to explain what happens next when you've only got minutes left to live, but suffice it to say that everything is incredibly sharp and crystal clear for just long enough for you to realize what your life meant up until that point. As those last moments ticked away I felt an overwhelming sadness and regret for things I'd left undone or unsaid and found myself wishing I could go back and fix everything that had gone wrong in my life—but that's not exactly possible when your whole existence is about to end in a fiery ball of death hurtling through space towards an inhospitable planet full of volcanoes, earthquakes, dust storms and alien civilizations who might still be hostile to humanity even after all these centuries since we first met them. And then suddenly the alarms cut off abruptly and all was silent and still in the dark stillness of space once more; the ship was intact, the alarms silenced forever. We hadn't died after all—at least not yet! Our course appeared on our screens, which lit up automatically near-instantaneously in response to our close proximity to Mars' gravity well: we were headed straight for Phlegra Montes!

My heart sank at this realization, though in retrospect perhaps it should have been obvious from the start: who else would have told us where we were headed? The ship landed softly on its retro thrusters and came to rest at the bottom of one of Phlegra's many deep canyons; trees swayed gently in the breeze across two hundred meters above our heads as we looked out across a vast plain dotted with small lakes surrounded by tall grasses waving gently in the wind beneath a cloudless blue sky aglow with golden sunlight streaming down from above us—it was beautiful here! A stream snaked along beside us through the grasses towards one of these lakes; birdsong reached our ears from those trees above us along with other sounds like distant voices calling out names over each other excitedly—perhaps there were people living here! This valley seemed like such a peaceful place—why had we been sent here? Where was everyone?

"Hey," I said quickly as I turned towards my companion from Earth—a custodian who had come with me from Earth myself—and realized what must have happened: she had wandered away from me towards that lake over there! She was about to speak when my thoughts suddenly turned darker still as I realized what must have happened: she had wandered away from me towards that lake over there because... because...