My name… my name is… Alysson.

I'm a doctor, yes. Dr. Alysson Drew- an experienced technitian, a grade A student. A remarkable woman. That is who I am. But today, today all my expeirence, all my remarkability- amounts to nothing.

"All crew to battle stations. I repeat- all crew to battle stations!" the Captain's voice echoes all across the UNSC Everalsting, a small research and surveilance ship orbiting the colony Pompei- a lonely purple planet in the edges of human space. I am rushing to the bridge, rushing to meet the Captain and see what's happening. "This is not a drill! I repeat- ALL CREW TO BATTLE STATIONS!"

Across the deck, people were rushing through the dimly lit metal hallways, set alight with the spinning madness of the alarm siren. I zig and zag, dodging the flooding mass of crewembers rushing to the place they were needed- and I, only I am useless.

When I breach the doors to the bridge, I am already out of breath. The madness down below was no match to what is happening here on the bridge. Unlike the people down there, here they know. "Captain! Captain, what's going on?" I ask the man.

"I don't have time for this, doctor," the Captain answers coldly. He is in his fifties, gray of hair. I've served under him for years, and I've seen him undergo various emotions: anger, humor, depression, even jealousy- but never have I seen him like this. The look on his face was that of pure dread.

"Sir, sir you need to see this!"

"What is it, Private? Have they gone? Have they flown away?" the Captain turns away from me, and for the moment I don't exist.

"No, Captain sir… they're… they're coming straight for us."

"God help us all, then," the Captain says. "Elsie, ready the weapons. Yes- all of them. Pascal, heat up the engines, prepare for evasive maneuvers. Flint, I'm going to need you to power the Slipspace drive."

"Sir… so close to the planet? The gravity will collapse the gateway. Our Shaw-Fujikawa engine isn't strong enou-"

"Do what you can, and quickly," he orders.

I approach the holographic panel slowly, in fear of what I might see painted on it… and my fears were warranted. A ship- curved up at its end, almost like a ball on a stick. A Covenant Cruiser. "Captain. Captain!" I scream at him. "We have to warn the colonists."

He looks at me suddenly, his eyes loosening with purpose. "Make yourself useful, doctor. You're a technician, you must know how to handle comms."

I nod to him and make my way to the communications desk, pushing away the soldier facing it. "Pompei, this is UNSC Everlasting, can you read me?" I ask. There is no answer. "Pompei, Pompei- this is Everlasting. Please report."

Nothing but white noise. "I've been trying to contact them, doctor. They ain't answering. I think… I think the Covenant's jamming us."

I can feel my face contort with terror. It is not my death which I am worried about- my death is now a certainty- but the colonists... if they aren't warned ahead of time… thousands will die. "A jammer, a Covenant jammer. Tell me everything you know about Covenant jammers."

The soldier wasn't responding, he was in shock. "Are you listening? Stay with me!"

"Uhm, yes. Yes. Covenant jammer. Blocks all communucations by radio wave in a 3000 kilometer radius by creating a strong electromagnetic field around-"

"That's it," I say.

"What?"

"The electromagnetic field, it can be overriden if we counter it with a second perfectly replicating the other and in a negative phase. It'll hold for just a second, but that should be enough to get a compressed message down to Pompei. Do you understand?" I ask.

"Yes… I understand."

"Then do it, quickly!"

Behind us there was a growing commotion, and then the Captain yelled into the shipwide intercom: "Crew, prepare for impact! We have two plasma torpedos homing on us. Hold on tight!"

The ship shakes from the impact, merely two seconds after the Captain's warning, toppling me to my knees, my hands blocking the fall. "Damage report! I need a damage report immediately!" the Captain yells.

"Doctor… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" the soldier at the desk says.

"What is it?"

"The antenna. They got the antenna." he says, weeping. "Comms are out."

It takes me exactly ten seconds to regain posture and breathe in deeply. "Captain. Captain listen to me!" I yell. He turns to me, his face so frightened he might have stared into the abyss itself. "I'm going out."

"Out? What do you mean out?"

"Out to the antenna. To make myself useful. To send the message," I explain. "I'll be needing a space suit, preferrably before the Covenant shred us to bits."

"I won't allow you to risk your life, not in your… condition," the Captain says, motioning to my swelling belly.

"I'm not asking you," I say. "Some things, Captain, are more important. And besides, we're all dead already."

He thinks for a short moment, then nods to me with a sad smile. "Sargeant Adams, take the doctor out to the airlock in section B. Get her a suit. Lightspeed, Sargeant! I want you here within two minutes!" the Captain barked.

"Follow me, Dr. Drew," the Seargent, a girl no older than twenty, takes me through the now emptied corridors. The red lights of the sirens are still flashing, but now instead of the raving crowds there is a stillness that makes me uneasy. The stillness that comes before death.

"This is it, Doctor," Adams says.

"Please, call me Alice." I smile to her.

"Good luck, Alice," she tells me before rushing away.

"And to you!" I tell her as I climb into the rubbery space suit and seal the helmet on top. I can already feel the synthesized air circulating into the glass sphere that contained my head and allowed me direct view into the outside world. I enter the airlock and press the emergency release button after entering the apropriate code. The door behind me shuts tightly and then the air begins filtering out. I am struck with a sudden anxiety, the same anxiety I get every time I brave the open space- often called voidophobia.

The ship's antigravity lets go as if it never existed, and now I'm beginning to float upwards. The airlock door ahead opens wide- revealing the pitch black darkness of space, sprinkled with white stars. I activate my grav boots and press forward, ignoring the terror. Beyond me, Pompei looms ominously- indifferent to our conflict.

Don't look down. Don't look back. Simply press forwards.

I am now walking vertically, down from the airlock, following the narrow service lane lined with small blue lights. Every breath of mine seems to bounce around in my helmet, and I can hear the steady beat of my heart. I take a turn, and then I see it…

The Cruiser is massive, dwarfing our slim Everlasting like an elephant among mice. "Holy hell…" I curse, astonished. And then I look down- and see the damage. There is a hole in the ship the size of a schoolbus beneath which I see layers and layers of smoldering hull- and the antenna is a blackened mess of bent metal. The fires, it seemed, were extinguished by the vaccum of space- allowing me entry.

I walk as fast as I can in zero gravity, but that's not nearly fast enough. The Cruiser charges its laser for twenty, maybe thirty seconds- and then fires violently, burning another gaping hole into the ship's shell- this time farther down below. Still, I fall backwards, nearly losing my footing. The grav boots save me, and help alleviate my sudden and total distress. "Dam- report! Give- a- amage report!" the Captain's voice flashes in the helmet comms, mostly muted by the white noise broadcasted by the jammer.

"Eng- Captain sir. They hit the- gines." I'm going to die today. In just a few minutes, I'll be pulverized by that beam- just an assortment of particles floating across the expanse. The only thing that matters is what might still, in those precious minutes, be done.

I reach the antenna, bits of metal float all around me. The antenna itself is a mess- any inexperienced technitian would announce it beyond repair, but not me. I know I can get a signal through it- even if it'll only last for a second. That second could save 16,000 lives. Having the planet stretch before me, watching impatiently, demanding my success… it applied great pressure. Needed pressure.

I begin tearing the computerized unit apart, revealing the soft and colorful internals. Wires, power cells, and layers of metal waited beneath- all busted and sparking. If I can reconnect them somehow, re-energize the elctromagnetic generator… that should override the jammer, for the few seconds it takes them to retrace our frequencies.

"Cruiser is charging- laser. Prep… impact."

No, not now… just another second, one more second and then I'll be done. "Ready the message to Pompei!" I scream into the comms, hoping to God they can hear me- just as the antenna sparks back to life.

I smile. "Send the message, Captain! Send it now!"

But I'll never find out if my last ditch effort bore any fruit, because a second later the laser fires again- and this one entirely mercilessly. The UNSC Everlasting shudders under my feet as the pulsing red beam carves through it like a knife to butter. I hear screams in my comms, watch an explosion of fire and shrapnel being sucked out to the vaccume of space.

A large metal girder flies towards me and, instinctively, I shut off my grav boots and leap out of its way. Too late. The metal strikes my feet in an incredible speed. The pain is sudden, though intense. Space spins around me- Pompei, then the Cruiser, then the debris field that was once the Everlasting. And then again- Pompei, the Cruiser- this time farther than before- and where the Everlasting used to be. As I continue spinning, doing my best not to succumb to nausea, I come to terms with my fate.

Space. The final frontier. An emptyness so vast it may well stretch for eternity. And me, just a random assortment of particles, a small miracle spinning through the void. And this void, this terrible, frightening void- will be my grave.

In my final moments, as I breathe the last of my suit's oxygen, I think of him.