The rings of Saturn weren’t as solid as they looked. Composed of countless small particles, the gravitational pull of the planet flattened them into a field that appeared solid from a distance.
Dr. Fautus knew this from her studies of the planet from afar, but was still surprised to find the variety of objects floating in the rings when she stepped out of her own spaceship. Yes, there was water and rock, but there were hundreds of manufactured objects; ballbearings, high-impact glass, bolts, even a dog collar. She followed these, floating to one after another, following them like breadcrumbs, until she found the capsule floating among the rings.
It was old, older than the century Dr. Faustus inhabited, and peeled open like a pomegranate, the central console stripped away to leave the ejector seat floating out in the void like a throne. On it, the phantom cosmonaut sat, pointing her out to the green-eyed aliens surrounding him. “See!” he said, voice carrying across the vacuum of space, “I told you! The capitalists have come!”
See the author’s published work here.
Related Posts
The American: Chapter 58 Next Post:
The American: Chapter 59
