Status Updates From The Last Astronaut

"Matriphagy," Rao said. "It's common in spiders and nematodes back on Earth."

She would never have this chance again. To stand inside the skull of a creature from another star.

"This whole time," Rao said, "we've been looking for aliens. We never stopped to think that the alien was right in front of us. This," she said, gesturing at everything around them, "is the alien."

"And when I look down at Earth, I see it too."
"What do you see?" she asked.
"I see how fragile it is. The thin margin of the atmosphere, like a glass shell around the planet."

She had found that in life, more often than not, the information you saw that was the most heartbreaking was the most accurate. It was the hopeful stuff you had to be wary of.