Riza scratched the glowing scar on her cheek that appeared not of flesh but star dust. A tear through space time, which, if one looked closely, held the star formations of countless galaxies within it.

  “The med-techs called it 'persistent dermal luminescence’. The biologists called it an ‘unclassified symbiotic biofilm’. My colleagues shrugged and muttered that it was a performative tattoo– A cry for attention by a physicist that failed to live up to her academic potential. The scar on my cheek is the only proof I have of that day, the only thing that's assured me time and time again… I'm not crazy.”

  When Riza was ten years old, she and Kaal would frequently stray from the village and into the forest, where they would play tag amongst the rays of moonlight that etched through the leaves overhead. The elders would often leave them to it, warning them not to stay out too long, lest they forget their way back home.

  “You're it!” Riza giggled as she tapped Kaal on the shoulder. Running off into the shadows of the forest in an instant.

  “No fair, you were hiding here?!” Kaal grunted as he gave chase.

  Riza ducked behind a nearby boulder, hiding as she heard Kaal’s footsteps pass by and doing her best to suppress her mischievous laughter.

  “Sip'e vash!” She yelled, Got you!, as she slipped behind him and continued running.

  Kaal, now enjoying the thrill of the chase, found his laughter also echoing throughout the forest as they ran. In the distance, ahead of Riza, she noticed a faint, purple-blue light amongst the trees, and with mothlike interest, she ran in its direction. Dodging and leaping through branches and over bushes, the light grew with each step towards it, and she'd focused so intensely on the refractions ahead of her that she nearly ran right past the source. She halted, frozen in place as a beaming magenta towered beside her.

  Her body tingled, uncertain of whether it was fear or excitement, she turned to face the source. Before her, extending from the ground and disappearing through the tree tops was a tear that stretched four barbin trees wide, like a wound through space-time. Within it, she could see the formations of an uncountable number of star systems, all before her as though the stars had made their way to her through this rip in reality.

  “Riza!” Kaal called out, searching for her. “Where are you?!”

  She thought she should yell in response, but felt no urge to do so. What she witnessed before her created a sense of awe that lulled her mind and body. All she could do was stare, uncertain of how long she'd done so.

  “Riza!” His voice barked beside her as he found her. But quickly, he fell into the same trance as she did once he turned to face the gateway before him.

  “What is that?” He murmured.

  “I don't know,” Riza whispered.

  “... Let's go inside,” He added.

  Riza turned to look at him, finally able to break eye contact with the universe, and she locked eyes with him. There was an unspoken agreement. They both stepped forward, as if his words had primed a new directive within them and as they reached their hands out to the rift, there was a sharp buzz and a thunderous boom that rippled throughout every atom of their being.

  Bolts of bright, black lightning struck Riza on the cheek and Kaal on the chest. When they awoke, they found themselves in a world they didn’t recognise. Each with a new scar on their bodies that marked the occasion they were one with the universe.

  When Riza opened her eyes, she scurried in fear at the sight of large beasts of steel that spat flames as they flew to the skies and ones that would carve into hills with a single swipe of their immense claws. There were no trees, no plant life of any kind in sight. It took her weeks to accept that she’d awoken on a mining planet named Cintri.

  The Elders who found them lying in the dirt in their seemingly tribal clothing thought Riza and Kaal were just orphans who'd gone astray. Speaking in a language completely unfamiliar to everyone around them was a sign of their uneducated abandonment as opposed to evidence of an alternate life.

  They took Riza and Kaal to their camp and considered them orphans whose parents had left them. She’d later learn that this was common in a place like Cintri. The medics who observed them found strange details in their biology, such as the left and right hemispheres in Riza’s brain being switched. Opposite to the people of this world. Her heart was also an irregular shape and size, which she later learned was because it processed more than just Oxygen and Carbon dioxide.

  Her eyes perceived an expanded spectrum of light, maybe the result of the sun she’d grown up orbiting, or maybe the result of biology… And lastly, her DNA vibrated at a different frequency– One much slower than the people of this universe. These anomalies left the medtechs rather perplexed, but since she appeared to be alright for the most part, they considered her healthy and moved on to more pressing matters.

  “I believe that’s what killed Kaal.” She said as she tapped her foot anxiously, the log she was recording had reached an hour. “He died within a year of our arrival. Complete cellular degradation. The doctors of Cintri couldn't quite figure out what had happened, but they were much too underfunded to deal with the regular needs of Cintri citizens, let alone a medical anomaly. I’m not sure why it didn’t kill me as well, but over the years, I began to feel the effects of it.”

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  The orphanage put Riza in a school, where she learned the common language, and it was here that she discovered an interest in the sciences. All that she could think about was getting back to where she came from, to her Mama and Baba. Science was the only field she could use to understand what may have happened.

  As a result, her grades were stellar, and she got the opportunity to study at almost any university she wanted to, with career prospects guaranteed upon her graduation. Her thesis was on the electromagnetic resonance of her own body, which she used to develop a resequencing treatment that balanced her DNA’s resonant frequency with this universe. She’s felt better since then, but constantly needs to retune the device on her lower neck and refill it with the necessary stimulants.

  “I've spent a fortune in credits trying to find the other side of that rift. But the more I've searched, the less I've found.” She mumbled, agitated by the fading memories of a life that now felt like a dream.

  She’d worked for KYTHERA Research Labs as a lead physicist for the past few years. It paid well, but really, it had allowed her to undergo her search for the rift whilst using their vast resources to do so. But, maybe its time I give up on that dream… I don’t know. The memories of her past haunt her like a ghost etched in her soul.

  Riza leaned back in her seat, the tension in her shoulders eased slightly after sharing the story, and she caught a glimpse of the glowing scar on the computer screen that cast a soft bluish light on her brown cheek. Her slim eyes and thick eyelashes came to her attention, too, as she wondered what else about her biology might be uncommon. Her small, button-like nose and volumetric lips rested above her rounded chin.

  She took a deep breath to ease her anxiety as she twirled one of the two blond dreadlocks that fell at either side of her face and down below her chin. The front Half of her hair was braided locs that stretched back to the latter half of her head, where the blonde locs unfurled into a bushy brown afro. The only detail that truly set her apart was the glistening scar below her right eye– a gateway to another world.

  The company assigned psychologist suggested she start a log since it was clear there were details she felt uncomfortable sharing, and considering she’d never told this story to anyone else, she could get used to creating a log of her own.

  “Hey, boss!” Pilo beeped over the comms from the entertainment section of the Skipper, “The race is about to start.”

  “I’ll be there in a minute,” She replied, trying to sound like her usual self, “You redirected the power to the probe, right?”

  “Done and done,” He said.

  “Speaking of which, what should I be filtering for?” Violet asked over comms.

  “Anything abstract,” Riza shrugged, “The Supervisors weren’t very specific about what we're looking for. We just need to flag anything out of the ordinary.”

  “Copy that,” Violet responded.

  “You two doing okay out there?” Pilo asked.

  “If by okay you mean sweaty as fuck in this humid-ass, wet-ass, waterlogged, shit-sphere of a planet?” Duncan grunted over comms, “Yeah, doing just dandy.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Riza replied as she left her station, “Don't forget to put the suits in the steamer once you're back up here. I don’t want a nose-full of your BO on my next skip,”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Duncan muttered.

  “Copt that,” Violet added.

  Riza and her crew's research mission was rather unclear, but KYTHERA had been overly focused on identifying anomalies over the past few months; most of the missions they’d been sent on were some form of reconnaissance. This one was a little different– they were sent to the ocean planet ‘Prion A’ to oversee the deep sea mine and conduct environmental scans. It was clear to them that the company was searching for something, but KYTHERA had a fetish for secrecy and classification, so they’d only know what they were searching for if they found it.

  As Riza arrived in the entertainment room, Pilo- a large, darkskinned engineer with the heart of gold- she saw the spread of snacks and drinks that he’d laid across the table for the crew.

  “Pilo! You didn’t have to do this.” She said as she immediately began trying one of everything.

  “It’s not every day that we’re all here to watch the Drop racing. Hopefully, Violet and Duncan get here before you finish it all.” He chuckled.

  “So what’s she saying this time?” Riza said as she took a seat, “She’s always running her mouth.”

  “Who, Izzy?” Pilo grinned, “Some shit about why she’s the best drop racer in history or whatever, you know how she is at these press conferences,”

  “Ugh, of course she is.”

  “Y’know, her racing team’s primary sponsor is KYTHERA, right?” He grins, preparing to get on Riza’s nerves. “She’s basically our work colleague- it’d do you well to support her,”

  “Blegh,” She muttered, “There’s no way I could support that cocky douche,”

  Pilo laughs, “Still a top-tier hater.” He grabs a handful of snacks, “You can say what you want about her, she’s won the most championships out of anyone in any sport, ever. She’s undeniably the greatest.”

  “Yeah, yeah, greatest pilot in history and blah blah,” She waved her hand, “You're just a fanboy,”

  “What’s the Captain complaining about this time?” Duncan chirped as he entered the room, “Still hating on the goat?”

  The entertainment room doors wisped open as Duncan and Violet entered the room, immediately gunning for the snacks as they arrived.

  “As usual,” Pilo shrugged.

  “Whoa! Thanks, Pilo,” Violet grinned at the range of snacks. “You got all this at the field store?”

  “Yep,” He grinned, “I even found a few of your favourites,” He pointed to the box of assorted Pop candies.

  “No way!” She gushed as she grabbed the whole box. “You’re amazing,”

  “I thought we all deserved it now that we’ve marked our third month on Prion,”

  “You’re damn right we do,” Riza grunted, “You used the mission budget, right?”

  “Yeah, hope that’s alright,”

  “That’s perfect,” She grinned as she reached for more snacks, “Put it on the multi-trillion Unit mega-corporation,”

  “Izzy Montoya! Do you have any concerns about the race today? Maybe about your second-place competitor, Team Veyn?” A journalist on the holo-screen asked.

  “Let’s go, Team Veyn!” Riza cheered, prompting the others to roll their eyes at her.

  “Why would I have any concerns about second place?” Izzy responded.

  “Three hundred units she crashes out on the drop,” Riza prompted Pilo and Duncan.

  “I’ll take those odds,” Duncan nodded.

  “You’re on,” Pilo agreed.