Pirra pulled the trigger, and the massive weapon in her hands kicked surprisingly lightly against her shoulder.

The cartridge it held, larger than a man's fist, flew out, not moving quickly, but soaring due to the low gravity. The firing range could not be in the rotation area, not simply for safety but because the spin would impart odd behaviours in a launched shell.

It didn't come back down in the tunnel, easily achieving escape velocity; and soaring free until it hit the target coming from the ceiling. It then exploded.

The burst was as colorful as a rainbow, a small fireball in slow-motion, as the plasma cloud expanded, quickly losing its energy. It sounded even more fearsome, the whoomph of the gas and roaring of the super-heated air making it sound like a mighty predator.

And the target, once a smiling stick-figure, was gone. Only a stump of it remained, still smoldering.

"Crash the sky!" she burst. "That was incredible!"

"Right?" Davo said excitedly. "I have to tune it down for the micro-grav, of course, but the launcher works even up to 2g, getting a decent distance. The shells are heavy, but - you saw the effect!"

"I did," she said. "Can I shoot it again?"

"Hell yeah!"

Davo helped her load up another canister. They were big and clunky, but she saw that he'd painted on each of them some witty comment; the current one said "take that" on it.

"Okay - fire in the hole!" she yelled, and clicked the trigger again.

Another smiling target disintegrated with a fiery roar.

She whooped, and Davo laughed. "I call it the Phobos Panther," he told her. "Ah, I can't wait to try it out in some real gravity! But the permits to transport something like this are, well . . . let's just say they're pretty long."

"I bet," Pirra replied. "I can't imagine anyone could even claim a need for self-defense in this system. And, you know, it's a bit overkill."

"What do you think of the ergononomics? I tried to focus on that in this iteration."

Pirra held the weapon out, giving him some thoughts on what she liked and where it might be improved.

She didn't want to add, and Davo did not ask, if anyone would actually find some use for it. The weapon was . . . not practical, not by any stretch.

The plasma shells were too large, and plasma itself had minimal military value. The heat potential was good, but it spread out too fast - not to mention how easily it could be deflected with simple magnetic fields.

She was glad he didn't ask; she did not want to have to let him down.

His research field of plasma weaponry had been considered a dead-end for centuries, even among humans. Among her own kind, she didn't even know the last time someone had seriously entertained the idea.

The fact, though, that he was building weapons had never sat well with Alexander.

She thought his view was naive. War had not occurred within the SU since its founding. And conflict with outsiders was extremely rare in their history.

But it had happened. And she was Dessei. Violence was not wholly unknown to them. It was just never directed outward.

"You take a shot," she said.

Davo refused, but she insisted, and he took it, trying to hide his eagerness. He'd said he only had a dozen shells he'd painstakingly fabricated over the last three months. She knew that meant he likely hadn't shot it much.

He was like a kid with a new toy as he took aim. The gun kicked, and the shell exploded. This one disintegrated two targets.

"What a beauty!" she remarked. "Reminds me of the aurora I used to see on Enope."

"Oh? I thought it was less angled than Earth. Didn't know you guys got aurora!"

"I saw them from space!" she said, trilling a laugh. "I was from a moon, too. And I could see the poles glowing when we were on the dark side through a telescope. It was beautiful!"

Davo clicked his tongue. "Amazing - getting such a view. I hear it's a lovely world, I'd love to go see it someday."

"I'll be glad to help you see all the best sights," she said. "I hope you like beaches."

"I'll survive," he replied with mock gravity. "Mostly archipelagos, right?"

She nodded, as he loaded up another shell. "This should really be the last one. The rest I should save for some more studies. Here, you shoot it!"

Pirra let herself be convinced, and then took aim. This shell flew out, but did not explode on contact, instead one end opened and it began to spin, spraying hot plasma and charring the walls.

Their eyes went wide, they waited for any sound of fire alarms, alerts, the hiss of gas escaping - anything.

Nothing terrible came, and they laughed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Okay," Davo said. "That one doesn't count, one more!"

*******

When Apollonia woke up in her small, but comfortable, room, sunlight was streaming in through the window.

She jumped out of bed, showering and pulling on a fresh outfit, she tapped the 'summon' button on her tablet a dozen times to bring the drone - which should have a nickname, she thought, and decided on Beauford before reaching the door. It sounded like a very Earthy name.

Beauford was waiting patiently, hovering just outside.

She paused. He looked different, she thought. The shape of the covers over his thrusters.

"Are you Beauford?" she asked. "I mean - the drone that's been with me this whole time?"

"I have switched out the bodies I control three times since we met - when we reached the Orbital Ring, during the descent to Earth from orbit, and just this morning. I am, however, the same artificial intelligence that you first met on Korolev Station, and you may call me Beauford if you wish."

She hesitated, taking that in.

"All right," she said. "Come with me, I want to go outside."

The storm had cleared, and the sky was nearly empty, only tiny whisps of clouds streaking across it far up.

As she looked up, her eyes watered, the light far brighter than she was accustomed to.

It took her some time to adjust, and as she did, she began to grasp the immensity of . . . sky.

It was absurd; she'd grown up in space, which was truly infinite. But she'd really only ever been in tunnels and rooms and at most a docking area with a high ceiling.

She'd never been out . . . in the open. Not truly.

Her knees buckled under her as she saw just how the horizon seemed to extend forever. Nothing above her head, and she felt sickeningly dwarfed by it.

The blueness of the sky was more vivid than she could ever have imagined, and through tears streaming down her face, she just stared up into it.

"Your eyes may be harmed if you look at the sun," Beauford told her. "Please refrain."

"I don't want to look at the sun," she said, squinting hard. "Just the sky."

"Anablephobia, or fear of looking up at the sky, is a very real thing. If you are experiencing anxiety, then please look down at your feet and-"

"Shush," she told the drone.

It fell silent, and she continued to stare up at the sky for a long time. Occasionally people went in or came out through the doors nearby, and some watched her curiously. But she didn't care, because she was seeing the sky.

Someone came up next to her and stopped, triggering her to potential danger.

Looking down, she saw it was the same young man who had been on her trip down to the surface.

"My first time seeing the sky, too," he said. Tears were coming out of his eyes, but from his squinting she thought it was from the brightness more than emotion. "How can you stand how bright it is?"

"It hurts," she admitted.

He shifted uncomfortably, and she knew that he was having second thoughts about coming to talk to her, now that he was feeling that strange aspect of her presence.

"I, uh, wish you the best," he said, stepping back.

Or maybe, a part of her wondered, he was just awkward and nervous.

"Hey," she said. "What are you gonna go see?"

"The Grand Canyon," he said, smiling. "It's the biggest one on Earth!"

She nodded, though she wondered why he'd want to see more rock when . . . well, rock was the most nature they usually got to see in space. Though it was pretty much lifeless rock. Maybe on Earth the rocks were more . . . alive.

"Do you want to come?" he asked. "Would be nice to see it with somebody."

She studied him for a long moment. He looked around her own age, so it wasn't that weird. But he had a boyish naivete that seemed too genuine.

Still, she was not about to go off with a stranger on a strange world.

Though part of her was a bit flattered.

"I'm going somewhere else," she finally said.

His face went crestfallen, but he accepted what she said with merely a nod. "Okay. Best of luck in the future . . . Oh, I didn't get your name."

"Apollonia Nor," she said. "But . . . you could call me Apple."

"Oh, that's cute - Nor, that's a real spacer name," he said, perking up. "I'm Matyáš Svoboda of Ceres. My name is still pretty stock Earth, my people only left about a hundred years ago."

"Why did they leave?" she asked.

"Just . . . wanted to see space, I guess. I can't understand it - but they did it, and now it's the first time I've been on-world."

He shifted on his feet. "I've got to go. What, ah . . . what station or system do you live in? I can only send regular slow-wave messages that take a few weeks, but maybe I could write you?"

She felt her cheeks flush, and she must have stared at him like he was crazy, because he quickly began to back-track.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," she said. "Matyáš? All right. But I don't live on a station, I'm on a ship - the Craton."

His eyes widened. "The Craton?"

"You've heard of it?" she asked.

"It's one of the most famous ships. The first made in a Cratonic asteroid - oh stars, what's it like?"

She considered. "It's nice, I guess? But I don't have much for comparison. I lived in a crappy colony out on the fringe before that, so everything about the Sapient Union seems pretty nice."

The young man was looking at her with awe, and it made her look away, her cheeks feeling warm.

"You don't mind if I message you?" he asked again.

"No," she said. Her eyebrows crunched together in thought, and she then asked; "but honestly, aren't you uncomfortable around me? Most people are."

"I don't know," he replied. "I thought it was just butterflies because you're pretty."

She laughed, too harshly perhaps, because he looked hurt. Part of her wanted to apologize, but she also felt a resistance inside because he was frankly being a little too sensitive.

The door opened, and someone called him, beckoning. "We're getting ready to board!" they said.

"I need to get going," Matyáš said to her. "I'll message you later," he promised, turning and running off.

Apollonia watched after him for a few moments, before turning to Beauford, who she thought was watching her a little judgmentally.

Shaking that off, she put her mind back on the matter at hand.

"I want to go see that forest," she told it.