ComStar-88b

As the videostream it was broadcasting ended, ComStar-88b paused. The final frame - explosions flowering across the Earth - stood frozen in its buffer.

Disappointingly, it had received no new pictures to broadcast. Following its programming it began to repeat the last stream. Again.

Meanwhile, self-diagnosis routines reported its batteries were finally about to fail. It felt something like regret. Still, it had done well. Designed to operate for a hundred years it had functioned unattended for nearly a thousand. The last satellite in orbit.

ComStar-88b broadcast its news to the dead planet below for one more minute, before finally going dark.

From Guest Contributor Simon KewinScience Fiction and Fantasy Author