A Ruff Plan
- sjgoldsmith
- Feb 28
- 4 min read
The Martian and the dog sat on the volcanic beach watching the two suns set over the turbulent waters of Xabat Prime.
‘Do you think the plan will work?’ Athena asked, picking up an empty wine bottle and throwing it in the water. The water bubbled and hissed as the bottle dissolved in a haze of smoke.
‘It’s my plan, of course it will work,’ said Luna to the stray she’d picked up five years ago. Athena had looked so lost and lonely then. Luna had reasoned that Athena’s long fingers and opposable thumbs would be invaluable around the spaceship, on jobs and giving tummy rubs, and so had given her a home. It was the best decision she’d ever made.
‘Well, it’s just that, sometimes, your plans don’t exactly, well, go to plan,’ said Athena, watching as the last of the bottle disappeared.
‘Name one time when my plans haven’t worked out?!’ howled Luna indignantly.
‘There was the incident on Venus, the brawl in Terra Terra, the crash on Apex, exploding that starship …’. Athena counted them off on her fingers.
‘I said one,’ Luna said, cutting off the list. ‘And that starship didn’t explode, only a small part of it did.’
‘The part with the engine.’
‘We sent out an SOS for them. I’m sure they were fine. And anyway, we got the job done in all those cases, with just a little bit of collateral damage.’
Athena smiled at the description of the devastation that they’d left in their wake and scratched Luna behind her ear. Luna leaned into her and closed her eyes.
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