The Issahar Artifacts

"The Issahar Artifacts" by Jesse F. (Jesse Franklin) Bone is a science fiction story that looks at what happens when people are all alone, how smart aliens might be, and what finding new things in space really means. It's about the bad stuff that can happen when humans go exploring far away from Earth and asks big questions about what it means to be alive and aware. A scientist gets stuck on a strange planet after his ship crashes. He feels super lonely and scared, but then he notices something weird—a quiet, thinking thing that seems to live in the water. He tries to stay alive while also fighting this strange creature in his own head, and he ends up destroying it just to feel normal again. Finally, he sends a message hoping someone will save him, but he can’t stop thinking about what could happen to smart beings like himself, making you think about how humans and unknown life can live together in space.