She likes it outside, tethered to the ship, the cosmos laid out before her.
Hers is not the first generation to glory in microgravity, to swim in darkness terrifying to her planet-born ancestors.
She knows the predicted ailments of planetfall. Brittle bones, organs crushed by gravity, life beneath an atmosphere-muddied sky bisected by a horizon.
She identifies the star growing brighter every year. The hope of generations, endpoint of an historic journey.
Metal spins away from the hull and gases vent. Soon engineers and navigators will learn her sabotage has delayed planetfall by decades.
She will not outlive her home.
A. P. Howell’s short fiction has appeared in Underland Arcana, The Antihumanist, and In Somnio: A Collection of Modern Gothic Horror. She tweets @APHowell and her website is aphowell.com.
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