"Together, then?" Sedna asked, a shake in her voice. She gazed at Neil through tearful eyes, a determined expression on her face, and offered her hand. Neil took it in his own, caressing it lightly with his thumb, over and over, as he had done so many times before. One last time. His eyes fixed upon hers. His last look. Their last look. It had to be; it was better this way, they both knew it, and besides, there was no going back now. Not after all this; after all they'd done. There was nothing left for them now but each other, and to finish this mission they'd planned for years.
The crew of Earth's first orbital nuclear destroyer, the Pride of Eurasia, lay dead, their bodies strewn chaotically all over the ship. The vented atmosphere had made quick work of them while Neil and Sedna took refuge in a couple of pressure suits. The backup life support system had made the ship habitable again, but only for a little over an hour.
They'd spent the first twenty minutes on some improvised electrical engineering. On the console before them, a particularly large button was raised from its housing, haphazardly tangled in a nest of stray wires from which a single twisted pair emerged. It led off the edge of the console, down through a hole they'd drilled through the gravity-plated floor, into the nearly-empty weapons bay below. Just one payload left to deliver, now. The rest... they had fulfilled their purpose.
The remaining time had been spent otherwise. They were only human, after all.
Neil seemed to ignore her question, though he hadn't. He stood, tears flowing from his eyes, transfixed by her beauty, unable to speak. He wasn't ready. Just a few more seconds of this moment. Sedna stared back into the depths of his soul. The last loving gaze. The very last expression of the very last human emotion that would ever be. Love.
The CO2 alarm pierced the silence; there was very little time. Sedna didn't wait for his affirmation. Instead, she spread his fingers with hers and drew their palms tightly together, and began counting. She'd always been the practical one.
"Three..."
A few strands of her raspberry hair fell over her left eye. Neil smiled; how could he not? He loved when her hair did that. How lovely, to see it one more time.
"Two..."
Sedna caught his smile and could not help but to form her own. She loved that mad grin of his.
As her lips began to form the last word, Neil jerked their interlocked hands downwards onto the button. He'd always been the impulsive one.
There was a flash; the last payload in the weapons bay erupted immediately, and tore through the entire ship in a fraction of a second.
And then they were gone.
The scattered remains of the Pride of Eurasia orbited the dead, irradiated Earth.
All was quiet.
At last, there would be peace.聽馃崑
