Alice Violett, Pennant 740

After all that time in transit, I’d have struggled to adjust to being on any terrain, but the patch of Earth we’d alighted on was something else. The landscape was the flattest I’d ever encountered, and the scattered remnants of abandoned buildings were all that kept me from freaking out that I could see so far into the distance no matter which way I faced. It was also deathly quiet, without even the ducks and chickens that pecked around every human settlement in the galaxy.

The sky was orange, but it didn’t look the same in every direction. A solid wall of terracotta had greeted me as I emerged through the hatch and descended the fold-out steel steps. Once on the ground, I turned 120 degrees to see a frothy white line resting on the horizon, creating an ombré effect. Another small turn, and a huge, blazing sun bleached the sky an apricot shade. Even with my suit’s inbuilt temperature regulation system and automatic transition visor, being in its direct path was barely tolerable. At least the filters were effective – I didn’t want to know what toxins were lurking in the air.

‘I always imagined the sky would be blue, like in the old films,’ said Cam. ‘I suppose that’s just how it was Before, though.’

The fields of shingle, scrubby grass, and shallow craters of stagnant water – either from the mercurial sea, or one of Earth’s periodic but violent downpours – that surrounded us were divided by what must have once been a well-delineated stone path, now barely distinguishable by the rotten stumps of wood that lined it on either side. Putting our trust in the wisdom of our forebears, we decided to follow the path with the sun behind us, and walked in silence for a while, stones skittering in our wake. Piles of rubble and corroded scrap metal, as well as the distant buildings growing closer, broke up the monotony of the landscape, and Cam would occasionally veer off course to check out the odd piece of metal that still glinted. She collected a few bits she thought might fit the bill, which I duly zipped into her backpack.