Amphitrite 2: The Black Planet: Hard Science Fiction (Planet Nine) by Brandon Q. Morris

Author:Brandon Q. Morris [Morris, Brandon Q.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hard-SF.com
Published: 2021-01-23T23:00:00+00:00

December 31, 2078 – CS Victory

Finding the tent had been the most challenging part, mostly because he’d expected it to look quite different. It was the size of half a basketball and about the same hardness. An instruction sheet was stuck to four adhesive points on the bottom. Doug tried reading it, but it appeared to be a translation from Chinese whereby someone had literally translated each individual character with a dictionary. It was rare to come across anything like that these days. Any machine translation would be better. The ship had offered to retranslate the text for him.

Now it was time for Kiska. As a precaution, Doug closed the hatch between the workshop and the control room. The cat was asleep on the microwave oven, the end of her tail still twitching. She couldn’t escape him. He’d repaired the crack in the helmet of the suit he’d adapted for her. He’d even tested the whole spacesuit under pressure.

Doug had devised a strategy for getting Kiska into it, which he hoped would result in fewer scratches. His primary aid was a thin, textile sack that had been used to store rice. It had contained 50 kilograms of rice, so it should withstand an angry cat. Doug hovered at the ready, holding the open sack in his hand. He pushed off gently with his toe and slowly approached the microwave. Kiska didn’t seem to suspect anything. Her right paw twitched. She was probably dreaming of hunting mice on the moon.

Now! Doug pulled the sack over her from above. She was startled and tried to flee, but only succeeded in falling deeper into the trap. He quickly closed the top of the sack and tied a double knot in the cord. Kiska soon realized she was trapped, and she didn’t like it. She moved around madly in the sack.

Doug made sure it couldn’t come open, then he let it float away. It looked like an alien was trying to escape from it. It kept bulging out in different directions. The noises Kiska was making could have been from an angry alien organism. Doug felt sorry for her, but there was no other way. At some point, she’d grow tired and give up.

The cat fought against captivity for 20 minutes, then finally she gave up. Doug could hear her panting. She must have completely exhausted herself. He wished he could spare her the next part, but they still had to relocate. He moved the sack into the suit. Kiska allowed it to happen. He carefully loosened the cord around the neck of the sack. Kiska still didn’t move. One, two, three! He pulled out the sack, took his hands out of the suit, and closed the helmet.

Kiska chased his hands, but she was too late and crashed into the transparent plastic. She bared her teeth, but he could no longer hear her through the well-insulated suit. He turned on the helmet radio via the controls on the arm. He heard Kiska snarl a few times in his headphones, and then she went quiet.

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