"NO!" Andrijan barked, a torrent of vulgarity to crude for any language filling the cockpit as Curtis cackled wickedly. Moore slumped back into his chair, stricken, shaking his head before slowly turning back towards comms screen as if it would show him his salvation from this conversation.<br/><br/>"As a matter of fact, I do have thoughts on that very thing!" Curtis said grandly, grinning at Maggie. "You see, I like to think of a planet and her moon as a 'mated pair'."<br/><br/>Andrijan writhed in his seat in agony. "Shut up, chodu bhagat! You're making me crazy!!!"<br/><br/>The cockpit erupted in another chorus of laughter. As much as the men in the cockpit abused one another, it was all in good fun. The cockpit was rarely devoid of at least one wry smirk, and they often laughed together. They were boys, not men, enjoying childish humor in the most good-natured way possible. It was clear the respect each one had for the other, and how close they'd grown over the past few years.<br/><br/>This time, however, one of the voices in the chorus was absent. Moore stared at his console for a moment, opening his mouth as if to speak, but hesitating, taking a few more moments to examine the data before looking out the window, a quizzical expression on his face.<br/><br/>"I remember my first binary system," Curtis recalled. "Blue giant with a yellow dwarf satellite. Was pretty, but it didn't have the accretion disc like this. The impermanence makes this just so breathtaking."<br/><br/>"I remember my first," Andrijan chimed in. "Two yellow dwarfs. Very far apart on an uneven orbit. You could hardly tell it was a binary system except once every 200 years." He grimaced. "I plan to go back in 35 years, once I've retired. See the two suns at their closest. It'll only be there for 6 months before they slingshot away from each other again. Should be a hell of a show!"<br/><br/>Slowly, alarm seeped into Moore's expression. "Guys?" he asked. "Where's the refueling station?"<br/><br/>Andrijan's recollecting smile faded, and he looked at the charts in front of his station. "It's--..." he hesitated similarly, the joy of the beautiful scenery and the crew's incessant bickering fading from him slowly. "It<i>should be...</i>" His mouth was left agape. "Curtis? Ping it."<br/><br/>Curtis turned in his chair, running a sublight sonar, scattering waves of ultraviolet light in all directions around the ship. An array of complex sensors waited for those photons to return to the source. A small, red bracket appeared on the heads up display, highlighting an object several clicks away. Andrijan squinted, leaning closer to the glass to try and see it.<br/><br/>"Is... is that it?" Curtis asked.<br/><br/>Another identical blip appeared on the screen, marked in the red brackets, far off to their starboard. Andrijan's eyes narrowed as he looked between the two.<br/><br/>"What the hell?" Moore whispered, as if afraid to break the intense silence that fell over the cockpit.<br/><br/>Within seconds, another mark appeared, followed by another. New brackets began to appear rapidly until there were ten, thirty, a hundred. They littered the screen.<br/><br/>"Holy shit..." Moore murmured, breathlessly, beginning to realize what had happened. "It's<i>everywhere.</i>"