The word Haggard means: "looking exhausted and unwell, especially from fatigue, worry, or suffering."
Using context clues such as "Lance Kenniston felt the cold realization of failure" and "He looked hopelessly across the dark spaceport," Exhausted makes the most sense in the scenario.
Well for me the most common way for me to choose a writing topic is to determine if what i am writing is fiction or nonfiction.Once you chose then think of in that area brainstorm things you want to write about