Stargazing #2
It had been a favorite game of ours twelve years ago.
Astrid loved listening to the stories I told of life on Earth before the Fall.
Earth History wasn’t taught in Imperial schools.
Quickly, my mind calculated our galactic position and the coordinates of old Earth. I gestured. “About there, I’d imagine.”
“What do you think is there?” Astrid asked, referencing another of our favorite pastimes, debating what the explorers would find when they reached transhumanity’s original star system, whether anything survived.
The most fanciful musings included thriving retrograde civilizations on multiple worlds, blasted back into technological simplicity by the Fall, building new societies from the ruins and junk of the old.
Unfortunately, reality had scrubbed away those utopic visions.
“I don’t need to imagine,” I replied. “Our Exploratory Service found Old Sol.”
Astrid started. “When?”
“After the war began. I guess it got lost in the news of Imperial invasions.”
Astrid’s hand clasped at my chest with unexpected ferocity. “What did you find?”
“Nothing. There’s nothing there. Someone set off a solar core bomb, detonated the sun.
There’s no star, no planets or moons, not even asteroids.
All that’s left is an expanding nebula of cooling dust, the remnants of an induced supernova,” I replied, my voice woodenly conveying the fate of transhumanity’s evolutionary home.
“That’s… very sad,” Astrid said.
I shrugged. “It’s life. We couldn’t have imagined any better from the stars, anyhow. There’s nothing there for us.”
“What do you mean?” My eyes stayed fixed on the stars, but I could tell hers were fixed upon me.
“We spend our time resettling the blasted remains of transhuman civilization in Fallspace, rediscovering lost terraformed worlds only to find they’ve been gassed into black rocks, scoured by carnivorous nanobots, infected with hideous bioengineered plagues, or worse.
We dream of finding a way across Fallspace to the far side of the Rim, but it’s a fool’s errand.
I haven’t looked at the stars in years,” I admitted.
“Most of the time, I look up to see what sort of space traffic we’re getting, whether Allied or enemy reinforcements have arrived, whether there’s a space battle going on, if we’re about to get hit by orbital drop troopers… ” My words trailed off.
“You taught me how to see pictures in the stars,” Astrid said quietly.
That captured me. I turned my gaze from the sky to Astrid’s brilliant azure-green eyes. They were wide, strangely innocent, not quite shrink-wrapped with tears, but not far from it.
“Well, we’ll have to try again, on a night with better conditions,” I said, and the pained confusion evaporated from her face.
“It’s a date,” she said, then refilled my mug.
“Are you hungry?” Astrid pulled a basket from the chest and placed it between us.
It was laden with oysters, strawberries, chocolate, and any other food which could possibly be considered an aphrodisiac on any civilized planet.
It was as though Astrid didn’t think I knew what this night was supposed to be, as though the fur and satin hadn’t already clued me in.
As I stared at the plate of mismatched erotic snacks, something stirred.
Despite the chill and the evening’s events, Astrid was winning me over, and I finally felt like letting her.
She was still the Emperor who’d torn a man’s heart from his chest in front of me, but I much preferred this fantasy version of her, under the stars in satin and lace with wine.
Thus, I gave the food a suspicious look.
“I don’t know. They could be poisoned.” Astrid gave me a confused look, and I explained. “With so many enemies around, who knows if one of them decided to knock you off.”
Astrid got the joke. “Mmm, or it could be you they’re trying to kill.”
“You’re the one who brought the food. Maybe you’re my would-be assassin,” I replied, my voice dropping a register.
Her voice lowered to match mine. “If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t need poison.”
“Be careful. I am armed. I can defend myself.” I moved my hand to indicate the dirk at my belt.
In a sudden rush of satin and fur, Astrid grabbed my wrists, rolled over on top of me, and pinned me to the ground.
It took less than a second, and I hardly resisted, but the action left both of us breathing heavily.
I was acutely aware of her thighs next to my torso, her hips on top of mine, her lips in front of my face.
“Still think you can defend yourself from me?” she asked.
I took a breath so I could speak. “Against you, I’m defenseless.”
Astrid’s smile was wide and genuine, completely sincere, and as she leaned in to kiss me, the only warning I had was the rising whine of a speeding hovermotor.
Tilly slammed into Astrid with the force of a shark hitting a seal. Astrid went flying, but landed on her feet with her hands up, gloves off, claws out. Tilly slewed around to face Astrid, placed herself between me and the Emperor, and growled.