Remove Failed -

The device on Captain Elara Vane’s wrist blinked red.

She stared at the words, her gloved hand still pressed against the cold, black monolith in the asteroid’s core. Her mission was simple: extract the relic, jump home, and save the solar system from the solar flare that would sterilize Earth in seventy-two hours. The relic was the only thing that could absorb the flare’s energy. remove failed

Elara smiled, blood on her teeth, and watched the stars spin. She had failed to remove. But she had not failed to save. The device on Captain Elara Vane’s wrist blinked red

She wired the core to the monolith’s base. If you won’t be removed, she thought, then you’ll be moved. The relic was the only thing that could

She closed her eyes. Seventy-two hours became seventy-two minutes of oxygen. The asteroid was tumbling toward the sun. If she left without the relic, Earth burned. If she stayed, she burned with the asteroid, and Earth still burned.