Lights Out

Amidst the debris and detritus of failed cosmic birth, he advanced in his gargantuan hulk of metal, sinking into the dark void of space.

His ancestors hadn’t anticipated this. Not this end to all light.

When the sickness had taken the life out of everyone else, youth had saved and doomed him in one svelte blow. He couldn’t navigate this huge exploratory vessel alone, thirsting for light from non-existent stars.

He stared at the blinking, red "Warning" light until it faded. Barely breathing in the last of the thin atmosphere, his eyes themselves darkened as the cold black seeped inside.