It was 9:24 in Earth time. Here on Mars, however, it was 5:32, and everyone at MB16 was still asleep. Everyone but me. I mentally reviewed my plan before darting down the hallway in 3.711 gravity and stepping into the space pod. I could not take three more years in a high-tech base on Mars, where every day was the same as the last. I closed the door behind me, pressing hard on the acceleration pedal as I directed the pod toward Earth, a small speck in the distance. It was time to take matters into my own hands.
    
Stars became a blur as I sped along, and I was feeling pretty confident when suddenly the pod made contact. A large asteroid glanced off the pod’s windshield, cracking the glass. Oxygen hissed, and the controls were damaged.

If I could just get inside Earth’s atmosphere, I would live. With that in my mind, I pressed hard on the acceleration pedal, gritting my teeth and hoping that the pod would reach Earth in time.
    
The air in the pod thinned, and I held my breath. The cracks in the glass were widening, and a few shards looked ready to fall off; I would estimate that I had about thirty seconds left.

Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. I stomped on the acceleration pedal. I was getting closer. I could only hope it was close enough.

Twenty. Nineteen. I crossed my fingers. . . . Eleven. Ten.

Just as I was nearing one, the pod entered the atmosphere, and I took a deep breath. I glanced down through the cracked window. What I saw was enough to make me catch my breath. I was plummeting toward Earth at hundreds of miles per hour.

I crawled under the control table and shut the hatch, hoping that its thick metal would protect me. I squeezed my eyes shut and curled up in a ball before I heard a resounding bang and rock ripped through the metal of the pod.

I had just enough time to register that I was actually on Earth before everything went black.