John Quig was the only inhabitant of Planet 65798. Well, the only inhabitant of his kind. Planet 65798 had been discovered several hundred years before by the first space telescope. A tiny wobble had been detected in a distant star, indicating an orbiting planet. And Planet 65798 was the first of several hundred subsequent planets that had been discovered beyond the solar system way back before the wars. Back then the scientific community had hoped one day to travel to Planet 65798, which looked like the one most able to support life.

John Quig was an astroexplorer. He’d trained on space ships large and small. He had been the first to walk on a planet other than the one he had been born on. But unlike Planet 65798, that was a planet in his own solar system. Nevertheless, he had gotten the parades, the acclaim, and the book deals when he returned home the hero he truly was. He’d made history and would never be forgotten – or so he thought.

Thinking back on how Planet 65798 had been discovered, Quig nearly smiled, and almost cried. All the astronomers and scientists had been so excited back then. He had read all the histories of extrasolar planetary discoveries. They were very interesting histories. Once long ago, in the Ages of Darkness, theologians had believed God’s children were the only ones in the entire universe. But as science moved on one giant leap after another with discovery after discovery, that had all changed. There were other planets out there -- extrasolar planets. At first the astronomers had found one, then hundreds, finally thousands. But there was no way to reach even one -- at least not in those primitive days of space travel.

It took another several hundred years to develop and perfect ion propulsion and reach near light speed. Still that was not enough. It took wormhole capture to finally reach those distant extrasolar planets. But until that rapid means of space travel had been invented, scientists had been using their instruments to evaluate each of these extrasolar planets. They were able to determine the quality of their atmosphere, their surface temperature, their degree of gravity, and whether or not those far away extrasolar planets had any water. Most of these worlds could not support life. But a few seemed like excellent candidates for colonization. And as John Quig and the scientists knew, time was running out for their home planet.

Back home the ravages of overpopulation had led to wars over resources. Water was the biggest cause of these devastating battles. Millions had died in atomic wars. Radiation killed millions more. So the world was dying and a new world had to be found. And that world was where John Quig now sat as the lone intelligent inhabitant. He laughed as he cooked by his campfire. As it sizzled on the spit, he turned the game he had shot. At least there was game. And it wasn’t hard to capture. He took a bite and chewed the tender flesh. He smiled at the old joke. It did indeed taste like chicken.

As he looked up at the thousands of stars glistening in the black nighttime sky, he thought of the stars he and his children had looked up at on those very rare clear nights. The polluted atmosphere back home had made astronomy nearly impossible. Thanks to the space telescope, however, scientists had found this planet. But they hadn’t realized then that traveling to it would find something quite different than what they had seen with their instruments. How could they make such a mistake? Had they forgotten Relativity? Had they failed to include it in their calculations? Had they neglected to think that wormhole speed might change everything? Maybe they had just been so desperate to find a new safe haven in the vast universe, all other things had been overlooked. Who knew? Certainly not John Quig.

From home this planet had seemed a virtual garden. Scientists had detected life in abundance. There were vast oceans. Forests. Even jungles. Yes, even cities had been detected. True, there were some pollutants, but everything to indicate a thriving civilization.
The scientists had even detected signs of technology. They had decoded their signals. So there was indeed intelligent life on Planet 65798. Intelligent? Quig laughed. These creatures were stone age. The scientists had seen the distant past of Planet 65798. Quig saw its present. The creatures here now lived in caves, dying trees, and tunnels under the ground. Thanks to them, John Quig was able to survive. But he longed for home. His ship had crashed and his crew had been killed. He was the lone survivor.
At first he’d been happy to have survived. But loneliness had become more painful than death.

So here he was, the only advanced life form on this once-blue planet. He felt totally alone and, once again, he was contemplating suicide. He put down what he had been eating and took out his blaster. He held the crystalline muzzle to his temple. His finger was on the trigger and he began to slowly pull it. But once again he stopped. He couldn’t do it. Suicide was against his religion. It was also against the code of an astroexplorer. You never gave in to defeat. Never. You carried on. You endured. And John Quig would endure. He looked around at this devastated, desolate planet that had once been so beautiful and alive. But now it was dying. The animals were nothing but food for him. These humans were easily shot and eaten. This planet, once called Earth, was now nothing but a lonely wilderness for John Quig as he looked at his crumpled flying saucer and thought of home and family. He knew that only the lonely could understand the pain he was feeling as he bit into another human.