The Next Time We Die

Two members of an off-world expedition are stranded in a hostile desert beside the ruins of a once-advanced city, wounded and hunted by natives wielding a deadly needle ray. Between urgent efforts to survive — treating injuries, plotting to reach their dur-steel vehicle and radio — they engage in reflective conversation about human persistence, reincarnation, and the cyclical rise and fall of civilizations. Longings for home and ordinary life surface amid imminent danger, while the ruined city raises questions about why technological peoples revert to primitiveness. The narrative balances tense survival action with philosophical speculation on sacrifice, evolution, and what makes a cause worth dying for.