A streak of fire, trailing smoke and shattered debris, carved a violent path through the clouds. It wasn’t a plane. It was too small, too fast, and it was coming down.

The impact was a thunderclap that rattled windows for blocks. It landed in the woods at the edge of town, not with an explosion, but with a deep, groaning shudder that settled into an eerie silence.

Minutes later, in the crater of smoldering earth and fractured trees, something moved. A figure clad in strange, blue and red fabric, now torn and scorched, pushed herself up on one elbow. Her blonde hair was matted with dirt and ash. She coughed, a raw, human sound, and looked at her hands as if she didn’t recognize them.

She tried to stand, her legs buckling under her. The ship—her pod—lay shattered and sparking a few yards away, a tomb for a world that no longer existed.