Therida and Nate

Elliot, Nate and I were tight but there was tension made worse by Elliot telling Nate one night at dinner that he hadn't trashed his illegal brain load equipment like he'd promised back in the belt. The arrangement had gone from casual to serious in the time it took to quit the belt and we wanted to stay together when we got back to Mercy Station. All of that stress is why we can be forgiven for rushing to the window in a breathless cluster as soon as the Therida hit the sensors our fingers pressed against the death-like frost of the observation window. We watched the massive being twirling and twinkling against the darkness and started calculating how much space we had left