Oli, A Very New Moon

by Carl Derham

  *

  On the bridge of the Throgloid ship, the Captain had finally defeated his two challengers. With his Grax and a pulse rifle in hand, was hurrying out of the bridge to the nearest escape pod. As he tore down the corridor, pushing his startled crew out of his way, he could hear the countdown of ‘Auto destruct in 20 craggs…19…18…17…’

  He began to revel in his glory. Even though he was probably going to die, so was the ugly creature and all his imbecilic little friends. With no sensors available to him, he had no idea that his ship was moving away from the planet and heading for the star. The drone disconnected the towing beam, just one hundred thousand kilometres above the corona of the Sun and Oli brought Cranus to a dead stop. They watched as the Throgloid ship continued its journey towards the sun, rotating diagonally as it drifted out of control. It began to glow and leave a trail of wispy red vapour behind it. Then the shape of the ship disappeared in a fireball which was finally swallowed up by nuclear furnace of the Sun. After a few seconds, the screen lit up with a flash that made even the surface of the sun appear dull by comparison and a huge arc of plasma spurted millions of kilometres into space, causing the most spectacular light show as it was deflected around the ship. On the bridge of Cranus, there was silence.

  “Robbie…Robbie?” Oli waited, staring in disbelief at the screen. Robbie wasn’t just a computer, he was his friend. They had fun together, liked the same music and what about poor little Pardy? How was Oli going to break the news to her mother? In fact, how was he going to get back to Annenia without Robbie? A solar flare erupted from the surface and Oli scoured the star for any sign of the little ship. Minutes passed and Oli lifted himself out of his seat and walked to the screen. The shields on Cranus allowed him to peer directly into the flaming heart of the sun. He kept looking back towards the drone, hoping for some encouragement, but all he received in return was the emotionless stare of his mechanoid companion. Oli could feel tears starting to form in his eyes as he accepted the obvious truth that nothing could have survived that explosion. As he searched the morphing corona for debris, another giant curling solar flare erupted in the middle of the screen and out of it, performing a spitfire victory roll, came the little ship, still glistening as though it had just been through a car wash and not a graviton explosion in the corona of a star.

  Oli leapt in the air, with both arms reaching for the ceiling.

  “Robbie!” he shouted. “You’re okay!”

  “Well of course I am Oli. Sorry if I was a while in there, but Pardy insisted on watching a solar flare from the inside of a star. You weren’t worried, were you?”

  Oli turned to face the drone and even though it lacked a face and the musculature ability with which to project emotions, Oli could tell that their thoughts were unified.