I stare at the picture of my two beautiful children. Ella and Josh; twins with white blonde hair. They were only two when I left them.

Five long years I have been gone, sitting among the stars while they grew. They came out with pitch black, thick hair; My husband and I cried the day they were born. Now they will be about seven years old. I've missed so much.

The mission; fly to Alpha Centauri, our neighboring solar system, confirm habitable and fly home. With the help of warp engines developed by NASA, I was able to minimize my time in space and be home before my kids hit their teen years.

Spending years on a ship, alone, has been long and exhausting. The excitement of finding Alpha Earth put me in a good mood for most of my two-and-a-half-year trip home, I am able to finally tell NASA that we have a new world to migrate too.

Earth is finally coming into view, but something is wrong, something is different.

When I left, the world was vibrant, with blue seas, white clouds, greens and browns and burnt oranges.

The Earth I am looking at is brown, dull and lifeless.

My ship enters the Earth's orbit, a bit of a rocky entry, but my mind isn't worrying about that.

Clicking buttons on my control panel and connecting the radio transmitter, I try and reach Earth.

"Mission control, this is Mission Alpha Centauri. Do you come in?" Static follows.

I try again.

"Mission Control, this is Mission Alpha Centauri, come in?!" More worrying static.

I panic.

My training prepared me for panic in space, trying to tell the earth-bound soul that you couldn't just go outside. You were confined to the ship, the small spaces, the deafening silence.

Nothing prepared me for this.

No one told me that when I got back home, I was flying onto a dead planet.

I check my systems, worried that I entered a worm hole at some point without realizing. But that's crazy, there would have been alarms blaring if such a thing happened.

My systems confirm I am in Earth's orbit. I can see the Moon and the Sun. I can see Mars being shadowed by Jupiter.

It's getting hot in the small space; my breathing is getting out of control.

"Mission Control, this is Mission Alpha Centauri, do you come in?" I try again, desperation filling my voice. Still, only static follows.

I fiddle with the frequency, hoping I can pick up any sort of transmission.

The sound of a female's voice fills the space ship.

"This is an emergency broadcast... this is an emergency broad cast." An automatic voice repeats with a few loud beeps.

"Nuclear war has been declared on the human race." The voice informs me. My heart sinking.

I peer through the small round window looking over Earth.

My family is gone.

My home is gone.

I am alone, stuck in space.