Cassie held up her arm to shield against the storm. “Is anyone there?”

Behind her, the ship was wrecked. Fifty thousand pounds of twisted metal were slowly buried by dust. Cassie could see nothing besides the whirling dust, blotting out the sky and slipping underneath the bandana around her nose and mouth. She choked and fell to her knees.

“Anyone!” She cried out again, though she knew it was hopeless. “Please help me!”

From somewhere in the distance came a keening sound, like the wail of a woman grieving. But it was only the wind.

“I don’t know what to do…”

Her head was hunched over but the dust still came, settling on her cheeks and crusting her ears.

With trembling fingers she found her communicator in a fold of her jacket. She held the black box to her lips. It was set to a channel monitored by the space station where her father lived, where she’d lived, before her world ended. If her message went through, her father would receive it.

“Dad, this is Cassie. I’m so sorry. You’re probably wondering where I am.”

Everywhere, everywhere was dust. She couldn’t even cry. The dust clung to the corners of her eyes where moisture started to form.

“I’m the one who took your ship. Don’t punish anyone else on my account. It’s my fault.”

A wave of dust crashed down through the valley and clouded over the barren land. Cassie pulled the bandana tight across her face, squinting through narrow eyeholes that she’d cut in the fabric.

“I’ve gotten myself stranded on this planet. There’s no life here. But you’re not even hearing this, are you? You’re probably too busy running the station to check this frequency.”

The force of a sudden gale knocked her down. Her hands shot to her stomach and she lay there, trying not to think at all as the dust devil rushed through. She could feel it tugging the edges of her clothes, tickling fine hairs on her scalp. She felt so cold.

There was that noise again. Eyaaaa…far off on the unseen horizon.

When she got back to her feet the communicator was gone. “No no no…” Cassie dug into the earth all around, searching for the spot where falling dust had concealed her only hope of escaping this planet.

It was no use. She perched on a length of pipe that protruded from the dead ship, and kicked at the emergency parachute she’d tethered here so it wouldn’t blow away. The storm had buffeted her this way and that after she ejected, but somehow she’d still landed within sight of the wreckage, and was able to navigate her way back to its food and water stores.

But what did it matter? Her message probably couldn’t penetrate the tempest of dust that seemed to perpetually plague this world. And her father would be relieved that she was gone, though he’d never admit it.

“You’re busy.” Her voice rose to meet the wailing wind. If the communicator was nearby it might still pick up something. “Always so busy. By the time you get this, if you even do—by that time, I’ll be…and it’s not just me. I couldn’t tell you before, that it’s not just me anymore. But now…”

Then it was as if her words had been holding off the reality of the situation, and it hit her and she sobbed, gasping for air, the strange thin oxygen of this planet that pummeled her with its eternal dust, dust, dust.

She would die here after the meager rations on the ship ran out, and the dust would grind her body down to nothing.

How nice it would be to give up, to let the storm take her. She could rest her head on the earth and eventually she’d be covered by a soft blanket of dust, shielding her from the cold.

Inside, though, the wrenching in her stomach kept Cassie sitting up and her lips moving.

“The ship’s course was preprogrammed for these coordinates. Does that mean you came to this planet before, Dad? I checked the logs. More than a dozen trips over the years. I had to see it for myself, to try and understand. But I don’t.”

Dust gathered in the places between her fingers where she embraced her belly. She felt the baby kicking. “I messed up, Dad. A traveling merchant came to the station, and he was so kind to me and we…I’m sorry. My life doesn’t matter. I just wish hers could be saved.”

There was nothing more to say.

Cassie slipped to the ground. She felt the dust envelop her. It was warm.

She may have been asleep when it happened. She would never know for sure.

The shape of the dust didn’t change, nor did it cease its endless swirling. Somehow, though, Cassie knew who it was.

“Mom,” she said to the dust.

It didn’t respond. It was only dust, after all.

“Is this where you went missing? Thirteen years ago…I was only two. And,” Cassie realized, “Dad came to search for you. Many times.”

The dust formed piles upon the earth, then swept them away.

“He told me about your research expedition. How you studied unknown forms of life. I wanted to be a scientist like you.”

In the air, a sigh, soft as silk, and the storm quieted. It was strange, but Cassie wasn’t afraid.

“This baby is the only good thing I’ve ever done.”

A pattern traced itself within a million grains of dust, etched by a wayward breeze.

“This baby…I don’t know if I’m ready.”

How could a clump of pale, gritty dust look so beautiful?

“I don’t know what to do. But I don’t want to die.”

The pattern in the sand dissipated, but it was okay. What mattered were the individual grains, because without them there would be nothing at all.

“Dad’s coming, isn’t he?”

The dust parted, and finally she could see the sky.