I Will Love You Forever

Chapter 1, part 8: Holocaust

“Want a cold one?” Lu shouted, as Ken finally turned all the way around.

He gave her a lecherous look. “Yeah, but then I want another hot one.”

Lu laughed and threw her arms wide. “Hooray! Come and get it, babe!”

As Ken began to step toward her, his eye caught light coming from his right. He turned that way just barely in time to catch sight of the approaching holocaust.

* * *

The probe ejected most of its outer core as it closed the final few hundred meters. It calculated that the pieces would all fall into the vegetation area, and could eventually be recovered. It managed to withdraw the rest of itself into the relatively tiny inner core to prepare for impact, but even as it did, it realized that the clearing was occupied. Two of the natives—humans—were in it, and the probe’s consciousness realized it was going to fail in its primary mission, because it was going to kill them both as its first act on the planet.

It sought for something that would allow it to keep from starting its contact in the worst way possible. A single solution occurred to it. There was only a small chance of success, but the probe executed it without any hesitation.

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