Space Coordinates

Space Coordinates

The gas giant globe they were now orbiting, the third they had scanned in search of an ancient geological formation in the origin of the Cloud, was not the one they sought.

The navigator studied the set of coordinates, as the captain and the Earth conferred quietly. As he begun to enter the coordinates, however, his index finger betrayed him and missed one digit. Just a slight error in typing into a pad registered in his unconsciousness before he could read the mistake.

Dancing couple and Coordinates. Illustration: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

His brain automatically paused and told him to look again at was he was doing. He saw the error immediately, but also noted that the coordinates were not exactly wrong, they were simply farther down on the list of their intended targets.

Anxious for this to be over? – he teased his one mind, but the longer he stared at the coordinates he had entered, the more something in his stomach tickled.

(Extract from The Rain, the famous SF novel by Elena and George B.)