OUTWORLD: Flying Fox pt. 1

OUTWORLD: FLYING FOX

DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Sadie Sopwith (female Grey Fox, age 29)

14th MAY 7074, EULALIE SYSTEM, PLANET WOOANG PRIME – CAPITAL OF L-SECTOR

Wooang Prime was a planet, and as such, it was pretty big. A burnished bronzy orb covered in deserts, canyons and mountains, it bathed in the heat of its rather close sun, and its orbit was littered with space stations and ships.
 One such craft was currently making a daring descent. As the ship plummeted towards the surface of Wooang Prime its pilot smiled as, from her viewpoint, cities began to resolve from the clouds. Immense golden towers were among the first structures to show themselves to the observer from beneath the overcast sky, their surfaces covered with windows and balconies so ornate that they appeared to be small buildings themselves.
 “Hello, home,” Sadie Sopwith grinned. A slender young Grey Fox with pewter fur and shining, inquisitive eyes, she was a pilot, and a damn good one. Her ship, the Forever Autumn, continued its almost suicidal descent, bringing more urban sprawl into view from far below. Between the towers, enormous brassy onion domes and minarets topped equally huge buildings, and roadways and streets filled with all kinds of people filled the space in between them. Sadie peered longingly out of the viewport and found herself eager to hear the babble of traders and commuters – the omnipresent hum of a Core world.
 Beyond even all that, though, was a sight unique to the cities of Wooang; enormous bronze cogwheels and pistons that towered over everything else like mountains; gargantuan perpetual motion machines that powered everything from homes to factories. Much like the low mumble of people, the sound of the gears clanking away was ever-present, and Sadie had become accustomed to their sound as well; she wanted to hear it again just as badly.
 Sadie’s eyes alerted her to movement outside. From the golden haze below, two tiny specks rose from somewhere far below and paced the falling vehicle. Sadie recognized them as Wooang Security personnel; these two were wearing wide-winged flight packs and protective suits.
 The comm console bleated for attention, and Sadie took the call. “Hello?”
 “Please slow your descent to a safe speed and follow us in to Landing Field Nineteen,” one of the guards radioed. Sadie wrenched the controls back, killing her dive, and the guard sent another message: “Thank you for your cooperation.”
 “Thanks, and out,” Sadie replied, signing off and aiming her craft towards a blinking waypoint that had shown up on her viewport. The towering arrow pointed to a loading complex near the city centre, and Sadie dove toward it – while being careful to keep her velocity down, of course.

Sadie put the Forever Autumn down at Landing Field Nineteen, which overlooked the eastern quarter of the city, and found that her landing space was right at the edge of the platform. With barely-contained ecstasy she made sure the vessel was fully deactivated before lowering the loading boom and rushing down it towards the nearest railing.
 She grabbed the rail at the edge of the platform and gazed down across the city, taking a deep breath of Wooang air and feeling the hot sun on her fur. It was delightful. In the distance, the cogwheels turned against the glare of the sun, their teeth glinting in the harsh light and casting moving shadows across the skyline.
 Sadie stood at the balustrade for some time, observing everything in front of her. Some odd looks came her way from passers-by, but she simply responded with a bright smile that earned her yet more odd looks. To most people on worlds like this, day-to-day living was fairly mundane and they stopped noticing where they were. Sadie, though – to her, every second on a planet’s surface mattered; as she so often liked to put it, time planetside was a reward for being in space. Her eyes went to the sky, where wide open space drifted just beyond Wooang Prime’s primary moon, and felt elation at being down here.
 As the clouds began to darken and the sun to fade, Sadie realized how tired she was. She found herself sagging on the balustrade, and stood weakly. She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept. Make it now, she thought, and plodded back toward her ship.
 She climbed to the bunk space beside the cockpit, and lumbered into bed without bothering to undress. Her eyes closed and she dozed off, wondering, before she slept, just what was next for her.