The night sky, eternity, holds us back, here on this red planet. We have no chance at survival, no matter how hard the four of us fight.

This won't be as good as the others, but…

Sevianna pressed her face against her window, watching the people argue. 

YES JUST IN TIME

Watching the adults scramble, argue, fight, and cry, it's really a wonder why they call us childish.

It was a dangerous silence, the kind that pressed in from all sides, taking away your breath. Sevianna knew it by another name: fear.

"We can totally build a nuclear reactor in three days, easy peasy," Sevianna said, looking up at their only hope of escape from Mars, an ancient rocket.

— 

"If it's not the worst thing about grown-ups, then it's close. Just when functionally – literally – everyone on Mars could be in worse danger than during the whole hatch malfunction debacle, they either dismiss it as no biggie or argue and fight without reaching the remotest answer." 

I look at the red sand between my toes, trying to recall tales of beachs. But now we're space locked, never too see a pool of water again. Oh, why didn't people listen to the scienticts before it was too late to save Earth? That big blue marble that crosses the sky every day, that marble that so few people in Wardon have been on. 

i didn't expect to get so many people in this contest, but I'm happy so many wanted to participate.  Picking the winners was really hard.  There were so many good sentences.  I liked each sentence equally for different reasons.  I finally made my desicions and here are the results!

~ ~ ~ ~

1st place: Aqua!

"It was not long ago that I took the twinkling night stars for granted.
But tonight, looking up at the sky, I cannot help but wonder if I will
ever see them again."

If I had never heard of the story plot before, this would have made me curious to know why she wondered if she would ever see the stars again.  I like the discription of "the twinkling stars".  I was able to imagine where the character was standing.

2nd place: Luminescence!

"It was a dangerous silence, the kind that pressed in from all
sides, taking away your breath. Sevianna knew it by another name: fear."

This one made me feel the fear, and the description of the fear was really good.  If this was the first sentence(s) I would have kept reading because I would have wanted to know why Sevianna felt fear.

3rd place: Rainbow Riot!

""We can totally build a nuclear reactor in three days, easy peasy," Sevianna said, looking up at their only hope of escape from Mars, an ancient rocket."

This one made me laugh.  I could easily see Sevianna's personality, and by knowing a little of her personality it gave me a connection to the character.  Having a connection to the character would make me want to read on and learn more about Sevianna and why she need to build a nuclear reactor in three days.

Honorable Mention:

Zahava S:

"The night sky, eternity, holds us back, here on this red planet.
We have no chance at survival, no matter how hard the four of us fight."

This would make me wonder why they have no chance at survival and would make me want to see the characters through their troubles.

Feline Fantasy:

"My older sister had been lying when she told me two years ago that our
relationship with earth was fine. Maybe not lying, exactly, but she had
been wrong." 

This made me curious to know what her sister had been lying about.

Sophie T:

"Accidentally blowing up the communication center might
have been a mistake, but I'd fix it, I had to. All our lives depended
upon me being able to go back and fix what I'd done, but it wouldn't be
easy."

This made me want to find out why she had blown up the comunication center, and why it might have been a mistake.

~ ~ ~ ~

Great job to all of you!  I hope you all continue to participate even if you didn't win.

Aqua, you're the next judge!  Go ahead and post the next story summary anytime you want.  Please let me know if you want to or don't want to be the next judge.

MoonHalo, I really liked your submission.  But it exceeded the sentence limit so I couldn't include you in the contest because it would have been unfair to the others.

You won! You're the next judge, can you post a judging date and theme, please? Thanks!

Also @Peregrine, wow, thanks! Second place! That's the highest I've been in any contest, period!