Cathie hated the cold. She wasn’t built for it like the humans were, with their warm bloodied limbs. (Rating: T, Genre: Sci-Fi)
“So. Fucking. Cold,” Cathie rubbed her hands together before shoving them back under her coat. Even in here, in the tiny cabin of their rover, the cold was still biting. Maybe they could turn the heating on again.
“Cathie, we’re on Anro-1, what do you expect?” Dave’s voice came from the pod next door to her. Each scientist had their own pod, and the drivers had a separate one again. Something to do with the weird ass atmosphere on Andro-1, and the fact that not all of them breathed oxygen.
“You’re a goddam mammal,” Cathie replied, shuffling closer to her heater. Damn warm-blooded creatures with their ability to keep themselves warm.
She flipped one of the heating lights on, turning her face towards the heat. That was nice.
“Your species come from one of the most inhospitable planets in the system,” Dave replied, “Andro-1 is practically a holiday for you.”
“Cold,” Cathie spat back. Just because her evolutionary benefits meant she didn’t die going outside in the cold, it didn’t mean that she didn’t feel it. There was a reason her ancestors lived in burrows deep underground.
“Whatever,” Dave said, “we can’t afford the energy, so put another jumper on.”
Such a mammalian response, just put on more clothes. That required her to already be warm.
“Let’s just get on with the damn mission,” Cathie muttered back. She stuffed her feet into her woolly shoes, specifically made for her kind. They emitted heat gently, enough to keep her blood warm but not enough to make her get frostbite when she went outside.
“You’re the boss,” Dave replied.
Whatever. Cathie thought. Just because she had been promoted the humans in her team seemed to take greater offence to it. Especially Dave, who for a human was about as stubborn and egotistical as they got.
They had a job to do, humans and Hancas alike. They needed to understand the disease that was killing their homeworld, and that meant coming to the place where it had first spawned.
Cathie pressed the button on her dash, driving her part of the pod forward.
Into the jaws of death we go, she thought.
Alex.J.Cobalt 