Caitlin’s lips were turning blue, and I couldn’t get air into my lungs. There was none, after all.

Nobody had thought far enough ahead to consider that we might need to breathe in order to explore Volara, apparently.

I say nobody, but that was my job.

Kiro - the boy we had met on O-37924 - was having similar difficulties, though he’d not yet reached the same levels of panic as I had.

We were going to die here.

“Come on,” Caitlin wheezed, screwing her eyes shut. “We have to get back.”

I’d never be able to tell you how we got back to the collapsing portal, or how we managed to stop it from falling apart as we tumbled through.

But we did.