When all you have is a rock
The moon dust settles slowly, thanks to the lower gravity. Noriko Null stands on the green ashes that used to be a woman a few seconds earlier.
<You…you vaporized her> Max says.
<You have a real talent for stating the obvious, mr. Black. Is everyone alright?> Noriko asks.
This is the last straw for Deena. She’s been clinging to Bob, her date and Noriko’s father, since they’ve all been teleported here.
<WE’RE ON THE MOON! WHY ISN’T ANYONE FREAKIN OUT!?> she shrieks.
Noriko is not amused; she stares at her father, stating with supreme annoyance:
<Father, either slap some sense into that woman or I will do it myself.>
<“Father”? What happened to “dad”?> Bob answers, visibly puzzled.
Noriko sighs, massaging her temples: this is a very long night.
<This isn’t the right moment, father. Our priority should be to go back to Earth before we asphyxiate or freeze to death. Vesta, am I to understand you’re the reason we’re not dead?>
The immortal waitress without shoes just shrugs.
<I’d be a pretty bad goddess of the hearth if I didn’t keep my guests warm and breathing, now, wouldn’t I?>
<That almost makes sense> Max notes <Hey, why don’t you use that gizmo to beam us back?>
<I’m working on it> Null answers, concentrating on the sphere in her hands, which looks like a rock. For as long as she can remember, it’s always been on her father’s nightstand and it’s never looked interesting…she never even asked where it came from.
She was able to control it briefly before, using its power to disintegrate the Many; it can’t be that hard to do it again.
There’s a blue flash of light. When it disappears, the Earth is filling the entire sky. And it’s becoming visibly larger each second.
<Honey, maybe you should keep working> Bob suggests to his daughter.
The Earth is getting bigger because Noriko teleported a chunk of moon rock just above the atmosphere. A football-stadium-sized chunk.
The air surrounding the newly formed asteroid starts burning thanks to the friction with the Earth’s atmosphere. The fire moves towards Vesta’s hands, who shouts:
<I can’t keep us alive much longer! DO SOMETHING!>
<I said I’m working on it!> Noriko answers, looking intensely at the rock in her hands. So intensely that her silver eyes are shining: she’s actually concentrating a small fraction of humanity’s thinking power on the problem at hand.
<Done> she says before another bright flash of blue light.
Everyone hits the sand, falling from a couple of feet off the ground. Everyone except Vesta, who is floating in the exact place where she was teleported.
<Where are we now?> she asks.
<Coney Island> Noriko answers, wiping the sand off her face.
Bob Null tries to get on his feet again, stumbling and falling again right on top of Deena. She passed out two teleportations ago.
<Nice work, Nori…whatever you did…> he mumbles.
<I’m afraid we didn’t do enough> Vesta says, pointing at the sky.
The football-stadium-sized chunk of Moon rock is about to fall on top of New York City.
Discussion ¬