Challenge #00673 - A308: A Sight to See

Earth is one of a very few planets with a moon large and close enough to cause full eclipses. This will change as it gradually moves further away, but until then it’d probably be something people travel to see.

The ship full of tourists was directly under the moon shadow, of course. In a few minutes, it would be, once again, able to view the spectacle.

Lots of habitable planets had moons, of course. Some had sister planets to share their orbits. Which lead to some interesting alliances when each species discovered space travel.

Earth’s natural satellite was one of the few that caused eclipses.

Jarbis looked up through the protective plating on her life suit.  Through its obfuscating layers, the sun was a simple, yellow circle next to the dark shape of the moon. She’d seen it twice before. And in reverse as the ship skipped rapidly towards the next observational point in a sub-orbital hop. And yet, it was still transfixing. Awe-striking. Marvellous.

There were people up on that satellite, she knew. People clustering on the near side to watch the moons’ shadow pass over the globe above them. It was not as majestic as watching the sun turn dark in the sky, but connoisseurs came to marvel, regardless.

“Are you all right?” said one of the human guides. The name-tag read Wilson. “You’ve been clinging to that railing for hours.”

“I need it to stay steady,” said Jarbis. “My kind are not made for craning of the neck.”

“There are lounges for that,” the human indicated them with a sweep of her arm. “You can watch in comfort.”

“I will stand in the face of danger,” Jarbis recited, “and by standing grow stronger.”

“Okay. I’m just going to stay by you in case you fall over.”

Standing in the face of danger, indeed. The folks at home would never believe her when she told them she’d stood and watched the sun turn dark in the company of a deathworlder.

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