Maya slowly regained consciousness. There were seconds of haziness before her mind was fully back into the universe. She had gotten used to being knocked unconscious every HyperDrive jump.

Every time that Maya had jumped, she tried to guess how long she had been out for. This time she guessed that she had beaten her record by two or three seconds. Humans were the weakest of the sapient races they knew of, the strongest being the Korvax because of their metal bodies. Humans and Gek were the only ones affected by the amount of g-force put on their heads during a jump. Geks lost consciousness only for a few seconds. It had taken Maya 51 seconds to come around.

The rest of the journey was filled with the constant struggle to keep her breakfast where it was supposed to be. Throwing up inside an Exosuit was just as fun as the trip (more so when it happened during the jump) but a lot easier to clean up. The suit was designed with everything in mind. Even a human with a weak stomach. Thankfully, that human wasn't Maya.

22 minutes later, the ship pulled out of the jump and the light disappeared revealing the system Maya found herself landing in. Even though it felt like she had come to a complete stop, she knew she was still traveling hundreds of miles a second. If nanotech allowed her to survive a HyperDrive jump, it was more than able to make a Pulse jump be more than bearable.

A message appeared on Maya's HUD, warmly welcoming her to the solar system:

WELCOME TO / / VUYATIWAI / /

DISCOVERED BY / / [ AMAYARIS REA ] / / AT 8:13 | 05/24/2347

She took a few seconds to recover from the jump. When she did, she piloted the ship towards the closest planet. It was bigger than the others and was colored bright orange. It looked like it had teal colored water. It seemed like the most lively planet Maya had seen that year-round but she knew looks could be deceiving. The orange could be a strange type of radiated moss and the water could just be a type of element-based acid.

The ship flew towards the planet and cut into its atmosphere. She was surprised when she saw fluffy white clouds on the horizon and the dark starry sky slowly fade to a bright blue (if the atmosphere was toxic or irradiated, the sky would be gray and tinged with a slimy green color). As she got closer to the ground, Maya was able to make out orange grass and large, tall trees with large dark red colored fronds. The blue on the planet also turned out to be what she had written off as a possibility. Water.

Planets like these were gems. Rare and beautiful gems. Maya didn't know how she could be so lucky to be assigned to research this planet for a day. Workers for InExCor / Euclid weren't allowed to spend more than a week on a planet, they were required to return then. She would spend four weeks traveling back and forth each day while quickly documenting the local life and how they act. Then she would move onto the next system. If the system was interesting enough, a scientist at best would be sent out. Not a Korvax but certainly someone.

Maya landed her ship in a small grove of trees. There was a bay of water not too far away. The last time she saw this much water was back home. The Earth Maya grew up on did have a lot more water than the twenty-first century (starting from around 70% and ended with a total of 91% surface water), melting ice caps and global warming does that to a planet, but the amount of water on this planet was still rare.

Once the ship's landing gear touched down on the soft dirt, information filled the bottom right corner of Maya's HUD. It was the planet's environmental specifications.

/ / / / Paradise Planet

Weather Foggy

Sentinels Extreme

Flora Full

Fauna Scarce

Sentinels. The galaxy's police force. Every planet has them but some were more protective than others. Their job was to keep the environment as untouched as possible. The Paradise type planets always had the harshest Sentinels around them. You couldn't even touch a tree without getting a laser blasted through your Exosuit. Other planets, you could deforest an entire continent and they wouldn't mind.

Most were just small little robots that floated about seven feet from the ground. Two small PhotonCannons on each side. A punch from one of those suckers wasn't as strong as a bullet but defiantly could kill if there were enough of them.

Maya rubbed the side of her suit at the thought. She once had an unfortunate run-in with a pack of strict Sentinels. She had ignored her AI's warnings, thinking that she could handle a bunch of flying metal barrels if they became a problem. She started mining away some concentrated Di-Hydrogen crystals. She woke up with five bleeding wounds in her abdomen and two in her left shoulder. The reinforcements that they send in though, are a different story. Maya was sure that she would not have survived if she had to have dealt with them.

No one knew where they came from. Some guessed from other unexplored galaxies but there was no way they would be able to be so prevalent in our galaxies if that was the case. There also weren't any facilities that could manufacture the bots.

The most widely accepted explanation is that the Atlas had sent them. The Korvax god (and a very real one). A strange entity that left interfaces scattered across the galaxy. The Atlas constantly called every sapient creature including Maya. It called them to its aid. It said if they helped it, it would help them in return. It said that they couldn't resist. It told her that she had no choice but to follow its ways. But she resisted. The Atlas still called to her except she had grown in strength. She knew that she had to continue to resist it.

Maya hopped out of her ship's cockpit and landed in the grass. She took a deep breath of air in but remembered that the helmet was still on top of her head. The air still smelled and felt as synthesized as it was in the space station that she lived on.

The suit's temperature read 73°F. A warm sunny day back on Earth and after a glance at the panel on her wrist, Maya knew the atmosphere was made from oxygen and nitrogen. Perfect conditions. Something hard to find. Science had found many reasons for what was happening to the galaxy but they just brought more questions that didn't have answers.

Maya groaned as she lifted her hands to the side of the helmet. Her head still ached from the jump and she dearly hoped some fresh air would help. She twisted the helmet and it clicked, then she pulled it up and off of her head. She held the helmet at her side as she pulled a deep breath of air into her lungs, and then slowly pushed it back out. The air was fresh and clean and smelled of Gamma Root—which was strange that a plant that needed so much radiation to survive was able to make its way on a planet without any.

The temperature outside the suit and inside was the same. When the outside temperature fell in between 70 to 85°F, the suit would match the temperature. There wasn't not much of a point of it but to be a cool feature. Maya however, liked it. It made her feel less disconnected from the world she was exploring.

Maya's AI's computerized female voice (with a hint of a British accent) filled her ears through a hidden earpiece. It was louder than it needed to be but it was better than nothing. She would have been dead a long time ago (thanks only to her inattentiveness) if that annoying AI wasn't there. There were so many more interesting things on these planets (even though most of them were dead) than worrying about keeping herself from suffocation or burning or freezing to death.

"High Sentinel Planet. Continue with extreme caution."

"Thank you for warning me," Maya replied even though the AI only accepted pre-programmed terms. It would tell you the current temperature of the PulseEngine's resonator if you asked for it but when you asked it how it was feeling, it had nothing to tell you about.

What a fun life, Maya thought. She couldn't decide who had it better. Her? Or the AI.

Maya started out of the grove, looking for whatever smelled like Gamma Root—the tangy, bitter smell was hard to mistake. She was curious to know what Gamma Weed was doing here. If she did find some, it could be enough to get a research team out there. She would be rewarded handsomely even though it was pure luck that she had been assigned to that planet. It just shows how flawed the system was. People who put actual work in got nothing while the ones who rode on the back of others or had a nice stroke of luck got rich.

She checked the panel on her wrist again. 1,432,640 units to her name. Just eight more months of work and she would be able to afford a week's long trip back to Earth. Just a week. It had been 4 years since Maya had last seen her parents and her sister without the need of a ViewScreen. She had worked so hard all of that time just for only one week.

She remembered what she had learned about the twenty-second century Earth. At one point, people were working minimum wage at 50 to 60 units an hour and anyone could buy a very cheap starship for 200,000 units. Now, things cost more and it took people longer to earn money.

Maya sighed, at least she would get to see her family again. To be with them again. At least there was a smudge of good on the glass pane that was her life.

But what was it all for? Eventually, her parents would die. She would be left alone with her sister until she died and then eventually Sarah would and their family would be lost. What was it all for? Was all the strength and effort and energy that Maya had put—and are putting into living—into surviving—all a waste? Was it a waste of time if it could be taken away in a second?

Maya winced, "Geez. What a thought."

The beautiful landscape and the setting orange sun completely contrasted what was happening inside of her. She felt a sinking depression that completely overwhelmed her. A feeling of loneliness, helplessness. She had always thought of herself as a happy person but isolation did that to a person. It made them think thoughts they never thought they would. And never thought they could.

Maya pushed them all away, she had too. That wasn't the way she needed to be thinking. She just needed to think about that smudge on the window, the good. She would be able to see them again. She would be happy again. For now, she just needed to work.

And work she did.

Maya came back to her ship nine hours later after scanning every living thing she could find on the face of that planet, even though working through the night wasn't ideal. The trees, the plants, some flowers. She added a yellow one to the collection in her ship's cockpit. She also found some insects. One looked like an alien dragonfly with much larger eyes than she felt comfortable with.

She uploaded the scans and received her payment for them. 330 units were credited to her account. She shrugged as she saw the not abnormally low number and made her way back to her ship. Maya was securing the helmet back onto the neck of her suit when she remembered the Gamma Weed. She still hadn't found it.

She continued up the makeshift ladder carved in the hull of her ship and plopped down into the pilot's seat. The canopy slowly closed as it detected pressure on the seat and sealed the cockpit away from the world outside.

"Computer, voice command," she said as she scanned the land outside the canopy. A quiet beep signified that the computer was awaiting its instructions. "Scan for gamma root."

The AI replied, "Gamma Root and Gamma Weed not found on planets with a Paradise classification."

"Scan for it anyway."

As Maya finished speaking a wave of blue light shot out from her ship and traveled across the planet's surface. The light wasn't actually there, it was just a holographic projection of what the ship was actually doing.

A few seconds later, the AI returned, "Gamma Weed detected. Pinging Exosuit heads-up-display."

Before the AI finished speaking, a small lime green colored hexagon appeared on Maya's helmet's HUD. It fixed itself on a single spot as she moved her head around to show where the ship's scanners had picked up the weed. And it wasn't far either. To the right of the ping was the distance to the Gamma Weed. It was only 1,500 feet from Maya's position. It wouldn't take too long to walk there.

She hopped back out of the ship and began her walk. She didn't walk fast—she wasn't in a rush. She still had about an hour until she was expected to pick up her sister's call back at the space station. Maya just walked through the small groves of red trees and green bushes as the rising sun cast yellow rays of light across the blue colored bay. It was so peaceful. The water slowly washing up on a sandy shore. Maya hadn't touched a body of water in as long as she could remember. The sight of water with any more volume than a bathtub almost made her want to take her suit off and jump in.

She eventually reached the plant. It was growing in a small valley surrounded by gentle hills about 10 feet tall at max. The plant itself had long green stems that reached towards the sky almost like arms. On the tops of each stem was a yellow flower. It wasn't like the flowers Maya had back in her ship though. These were small and had thin, pointed pedals. The plant seemed so out of place on the Paradise planet she had found it on. Maybe that should've told her to leave it alone.

That was a developed problem of Maya's. She was too curious. Her parents joked that it would mean her end at some point in her life. She had once looked down the barrel of a PhotonKnife as a kid because it made funny noises when her parents used it and she wanted to know how it worked. Could've taken her eye out or worse.

She reached out to the plant and grabbed one of the stems. The roots of these plants harvested Sievert Beans. Yellow balls that glowed red. They were a stimulant more powerful than illegal drugs (but yet somehow legal). One of those would keep you full of energy for more than a day. You had a huge crash when you came down but they proved useful during the long-winded jobs.

Maya pulled up on the stem and yanked the base out from underneath the soft ground. The roots were exposed just enough to show the pearl-like yellow orbs that had a ring of red light around them. She got down on one knee and started to pick the beans off of the root but as soon as the tip of her finger touched one, a searing pain burst across the back of her head, slamming her into unconsciousness.

A flash of red—blindingly red light. Where was it coming from? The world was dark. Maya stood in front of the Gamma Weed. The sun was rising in front of her but the light didn't penetrate its surface. It was only the red light that she could see. It was pulsating, moving. She recognized it but she didn't want to admit it. She didn't want to say its name.

"Atlas."

ATLAS. It reached out to her—it kept calling. Everything vanished. She was standing in the plains of darkness. The ground nothing more than the space station's black reflective ground. Darkness as far as she could see. Her mind was being bombarded with words, it was speaking to her. The Atlas kept calling. Kept pulling her towards it. She tried to bring her hands to her ears but her arms wouldn't listen. She tried to scream but nothing came out. All that there was to hear was Atlas's voice.

Then the darkness vanished. Replaced with light. Everything stopped. The Atlas stopped calling to her. The only thing that remained was Maya-

-and herself.

She was lying on what would be the ground if there was anything else but white. Blood painted her already red suit. Her helmet was cracked and lying just inches away from her hands. The fingertips of the suit's gloves had been ripped off and her fingers were scratched and bloody.

But the most terrifying thing—the thing that struck Maya right in the heart. That took her breath away and destroyed it, was her face. She was looking up at her with a blank look on her face. A massive gash had carved itself across her right cheek and through the side of her skull, blood and drool dripping from it. Her usually bright hazel eyes were dull and dark and they were looking straight towards Maya. She was dead.

Maya's mind returned to the world in a rush of adrenaline that knocked the wind out of her lungs. The sun's light was blinding. The ship realized this and dimmed the canopy's glass. She was sitting in the pilot's seat with her hands latching onto the armrests of her chair like vises. Her head ached and her ears were ringing. She didn't know what had happened but it felt like her head was bleeding.

Maya went to take off her helmet but something was in her right fist. She opened it to see the glowing Sievert Beans laying in her palm. Her eyebrows wrinkled with confusion.

"What?" She asked herself. Maya immediately had assumed that she had been dreaming. That the smell when she first took off her helmet combined with the exhaustion she assumed she must've been feeling, created a dream where she had found the beans. But they were real. It was real.

The Atlas always appeared to you in dreams or at the interfaces. Maya had them before. They weren't dreams. They were more like nightmares. Some people feared them, some people accepted them because they worshiped the Atlas. It was something every sapient creature had to deal with and some did better than others.

But this one was different.

This wasn't a dream. It wasn't a nightmare. It was a vision. It was real. Maya could feel it now as she held the Sievert Beans in her hand. The Atlas spoke to her and she had no choice but to reply. She couldn't remember what it said and she didn't know what she replied with. Whether she fought to resist it? Or she succumbed to the call of the Atlas.

Maya tried to convince herself that she couldn't worry about it now. She needed to deal with it when it became a problem. Then was not the time. The problem that was most important to her was—after a quick check at her wrist—Maya only had 14 minutes to get back to the station to be there when her sister called.

She activated the LaunchThrusters and flew back up into space. Her ears popped as she broke through the atmosphere. The nanotechnology worked well enough to stop Maya from getting crushed by her chair when she activated the Pulse or HyperDrive but not well enough to stop pressure to be released from her ears or at least making it a little more comfortable. The technology wasn't that advanced she guessed.

The HyperDrive jump took a little shorter than the jump before. Once the path had been created between to points in HyperSpace, it became easier for the starship to break into the fabrics of the universe and travel along it.

The acceleration still knocked her unconscious though. Every time it happened, she woke up wondering if her brain was going to get permanently damaged by it. Maybe after several more jumps, she wouldn't wake up from a jump. Her brain and skull being too weak to resist the pressure.

Maya came out of the jump just a few thousand miles from the front of the space station. She pushed on the controls and the ship zoomed towards the bright blue triangular-shaped opening. The contrast between its gray metal, nonreflective surface, and the purple space behind it was incredible. Proof humanity was still ruining whatever they touched in one way or another. She tried to imagine what the purple space and the nearby planet would look like without the station and the blue streaks of light marking other people's ships cluttering the view.

Once Maya's ship reached the blue light, the controls were pulled away from her and hid under the rest of the ship's dashboard. The station piloted her ship through the long runway and to her designated landed spot. The ship touched down and the platform it landed on rotated so that the ship was ready to launch again.

The canopy opened automatically, urging Maya to get out so the ship could get fueled. She tucked the beans she still had in her hand into a cabinet to the side of her seat and climbed out of the ship. Her boots slammed onto the sleek black ground. She could see my reflection in it. Like she was looking down into a puddle but it was flat, black, and solid. Rain was another thing Maya hadn't seen a lot of.

She made her way back to her rooms through the crowds of other workers that were returning from their assigned parts of the galaxy. She didn't say a word until she got back into her rooms. She had never talked to anyone even though the hanger bay was filled with conversation.

This day was the same as any other. Maya quickly made her way up the one and a half foot long and eight-inch tall steps and hid herself away, alone in her room.