As my body floated in the dark opulence space, I felt my doom echoing, and it sounded like a
drum, a one of a kind that reminded me of home. So this is it- I whispered to myself as I
whiskered away in the absence of gravity. Everywhere appeared dark, but a dim refractive light
shone in the corner of my left eye as I thought of the past I once lived, it was better than the ones
I had lived before- but how I knew all these was still a mystery but I was sure the one ending
wasn’t my first. My body felt light as I drifted slowly by, letting go of the willingness to fight.
I suddenly realized I could hear a voice – a faint calling that echoed a name, a name I was
familiar with.

“Don’t let yourself go,” T’kala said, his voice now audible enough for me to grasp. “We have to
get to the ship and return back to earth.”

It then now I realized where I was, more like where we were. I wasn’t a lost soul finding its way
back to the maker, instead I was a voyager, on a mission to save Earth.

We read in history about how our ancestors plagued the earth, ransacked its resources and now it
was left depleted and deserted with little for our kind to survive on. Luckily, I was chosen to
accompany on the mission to save Earth. The thesis I wrote as my final year Project had
suddenly become a breakthrough for humanity, at least for the ones left on earth. We weren’t
fancy like the ones that absconded to the Moon or Mars, a luxury ordinary people like us couldn’t
afford.

I just knew Mama and Papa would be at home, their eyes glued to the screen, watching the
broadcast footage of our exploration, witnessing how their precious daughter almost died after
we’re attacked by the explorers from the Moon. They were after what we had, but not under my
watch would they get away with my sweat and blood. I must get the vessel back to earth, but
before doing that I had to first reach our broken ship, have it fixed and return to earth
victoriously.

Mama taught me about bravery and Papa had instilled some skills of survival just in case I might
need it someday- and that day was today. My wounded legs wouldn’t stop me from reaching the
final destination. As I had the vessel tucked to the safety of my belt, I swam in space as if I was
underneath the water until my arms gave up on me. T’kala started operating the engines, he did
all he could to take us back home but somehow his engineering skills failed him when our ship
refused to launch. Now we were running out of oxygen and time- all until we were hit once again
not by intruders but by nature – a meteorite I had predicted might strike.

Written by Oluwatoyin Magbagbeola