Ten789 Instant

The moment his gloved fingers touched the crystal, the countdown in his helmet changed.

Ten seconds to the first ledge. Seven minutes to the surface. Nine years until he could forgive himself.

He reached for it.

Above, the purple sky waited. The comms crackled: "Leo? You're ascending early. Report."

Leo looked down and saw not his reflection, but a younger version of himself—age ten, the year the选拔 trials had taken his brother. The boy stared up with hollow eyes and whispered, "You left him." ten789

The bottom was not a floor. It was a mirror.

You were never good enough. They chose you because you were expendable. Nine minutes isn't a buffer. It's a countdown. The moment his gloved fingers touched the crystal,

He stood on the launch platform, his pressure suit humming with recycled air. Above him, the sky of Kepler-186f was a bruised purple. Below him, seven kilometers of vertical shaft plunged into the planet’s crust—a natural fissure lined with ancient, crystalline growths that the science team called "singing glass."