An hour passed with little conversation between them. Derek focused on the three little green dots that represented spaceships traversing the sector he was responsible for. One had blasted off the moon’s surface a half hour earlier, another was lunar orbit and the final one heading to Lunar City itself.
Natasha threw a paper plane at him.
Derek didn’t even look. “What are you like? You’re supposed to be the old and responsible one.”
“Ya cheeky git. I’m not even forty!” She pouts her lips. “How is your lady friend anyway?”
Derek nods his head from side to side. “I knew I should never have that.”
“Ah, don’t be like that.”
“She’s fine as far as I know. You do realize we’ve never met. I’ve no idea what she looks like or anything.”
Natasha smiles. “Well, you should go meet her. The two of you seem to really click.”
“I’ll probably never meet her. She’s always mentioning how she’d love to stay in close Earth orbit.”
“Her loss.” Natasha insists.
An alert appears on both of their screens.
“What’s Alert forty-one, Derek?
“Solar flare, high probability. Send the warning to all ships. Then we need to get underground. We have ten minutes.”
Mark's Writing Corner 