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Sophie’s arms dropped as she blinked at him. Momentarily too stunned to even be offended. She was just shocked those words came out of his mouth and, for a moment, it was all she could do to finally pull herself together enough to finally gasp-
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he declared. “You’re staying here. It’s not controlling! It’s me looking out for your personal safety, even if you won’t! So, go back to putting on your makeup or whatever banal thing it is you’re doing today. I’m going to the surface, and I’m going alone.”
With that, he turned and stomped from the room.
Sophie was left gaping after him. Still too stunned to even form a thought.
But as his footsteps faded, the anger rushed to the fore.
“Excuse me!” She snapped, stomping after him. Ready to give him a piece of her mind and then some for that comment alone.
She knew what she did wasn’t as important as hard-hitting investigative journalism. She was under no delusions about that and had never once even insinuated that it was. But for him to dismiss her like that was absolutely unacceptable.
However, when she caught up with him, the door of the one person landing pod was already sliding shut, locking him inside.
She came to a halt in front of the little window which showed his face on the inside. He was pressing something on the inside, readying for launch as the fastener strapped him down.
But he finally looked up and caught her eye.
He saw her expression.
Saw the anger burning on her cheeks.
The heated tears boiling her eyes.
Something like realization and regret filled his face.
Then, he was gone.
With a rumble and whoosh, the pod was ejected, and she was left looking into the empty docking bay where he had just been, wiping angrily at her teary eyes.
“You have to come back sometime,” she snarled at the blank window.
Chapter 34
Serval
Terraformed dwarf planets weren’t uncommon. The ultra rich sometimes liked to do such things to small planets, moons, or even large asteroids for no other reason than they could. Some were actually very helpful. Some became farming worlds that did nothing but produce food. Others became protected habitats for endangered or rare species. Others still were made into recreational worlds that people visited for pleasure or sport.
But doing such things required a lot of permits. The inspection process alone before anything could be approved could last up to a full Standard year. Everything currently on or in the planet had to be registered, all plans for terraforming had to be presented for approval, any major changes, cities, or businesses based on the colony had to be documented and registered. It was a lot, and not everyone was willing to do all that work.
Illegal colonies came in all shapes and styles, but the one thing they tended to have in common was that they were designed to blend into whatever landscape made up the terraformed surface. It made discovery just a little bit harder. However, they also tended to be the kind of places that were hastily built and could be just as hastily dismantled in case they were discovered. The people here were prepared to abandon everything to escape, but that didn’t mean they wanted to. They would try to take as much as possible as quickly as possible.
Serval’s one person landing pod wasn’t the only one. There were a few of them, all pierced into the dirt, in the same area that his landed. Proof of multiple shuttles orbiting above. Those would all be people that had come to purchase things. Probably small things that were easy to transport in the same pod. For those selling and those making larger purchases, they brought down proper landing shuttles, but they didn’t want to keep those surfaceside for long.
Serval pulled his brown scarf up over his nose as he stepped out into the desolate desert environment. This dwarf planet was close to its sun, and because of that, it was hot and dry. There were only a few permanent buildings. Six different obelisks formed the perimeter of the market, creating the artificial gravity and atmosphere that was confined to only this area as that was cheaper than doing the same to the entire planet. Most of the shops were placed in the open backside of landing shuttles that could be easily and quickly closed so the ship could depart hastily in an emergency.
Everything was brown. From the dry, hard packed dirt under Serval’s boots, puffs of dust kicking up with each step, to the brown camouflaging fabric hung up over all the shuttles so that they couldn’t be easily spotted from above. The rare stone building he spotted seemed to be made of the same deep golden-brown dirt as the rest of the area.
Whoever had terraformed this place had done the barest minimum as far as work. The atmosphere was breathable, though Serval could already feel his nose and throat complaining from the lack of humidity. It wasn’t the kind of air he’d want to breathe for long periods.
It wasn’t the kind of air he wanted Sophie to breathe at all.
He’d been cruel.
He’d been stupid.
