PEGASI AUTUMN - Chapter 8
05 Oct 2017Jemine Caesar
“Does the ship normally run this hot?”Jemine Caesar’s eyes had been glued to the Schadenfreude’s reactor output for some time. It had undoubtedly been heavily modified, producing far more more energy and waste heat alike than its original design called for. The ship was in no danger, of course- but what could Kat possibly need all that power for?
Ahead to the right of her, von Steuben shot her partner a glance. “Ja. And don’t worry about my ship unless I tell you to worry. Ist alle klar?”
Swallowing her other questions, Jemine nodded. They were in the midst of a dense asteroid field, around a ringed planet in an uninhabited system. Between the control panels around her and the ship’s directional thrusters, everything in the bridge was bathed in an eerie red glow. The space around them was almost totally dark, flying as they were in the planet’s shadow. Dark outlines of asteroids barely contrasted against the darkness of the void behind them.
Summoning the courage to ask another question, Jemine gestured to the floating rocks around her.
“And what are we doing here? Do you moonlight as a miner or something?”
That earned another, sharper glance from the older woman. “We’re looking for a safe place to set down. Some place where no one will find us.”
Jemine sighed, endless shadows stretching out before her. Kat was right. The asteroids didn’t even contain valuable ores. Prospecting here would be a fool’s errand.
“Then I’d say that you found it. This is as lonely as it gets.”
Von Steuben was silent for awhile. To Jemine’s surprise she answered, and in a more subdued tone than she’d have expected.
“Nein, wenig Maulwurf,” she said. “It is not.”
The story continues here...