Author: Kenny O’Donnell

Touchdown. The ship rumbled. The landing gear drilled into the asteroid, anchoring his one-man yacht. The asteroid, only a kilometre long and half as wide, was too small to hold a ship without anchors. His joints popped as he floated from his chair in micro-gravity. He grabbed a handle on the bulkhead and swung himself down the central ladder into the airlock.

Eighteen months of drifting on a course he programmed atrophied his muscles. He had only enough strength to put his atmo-suit on. A suit older than the ship itself. Emblems of empires, insignias of a fallen army marred by time. A relic, like himself.

He chuckled. He always knew he would die wearing this. He thought it would have been decades ago. When war was so much simpler. When death was real and not some fairy tale of a forgotten civilisation. A fantasy perpetuated by an empire that cheats death.

He clamped a tether to the yacht’s hull and let go. The asteroids gentle spin took the ground from his feet. After a few yards the tether pulled taut and like a fish caught on a line he jerked into a slow spiral.

It was sunrise every few minutes as the star came into view with every rotation. Saturn was in view, almost in line with the rocks axis. She was no bigger than his fist. He had fought for her once, many wars ago. Fought, killed for her moons’ resources. Won them too. For the empire. The one who lauded him as a hero, the one he was now hunted by.

Their hunt will be over soon enough. His last breath would be the end. He wouldn’t abort his ships transmission this time. The data packet would send on an open channel. Proof that his now war crimes were once orders of the Empire.

He enjoyed the poetry. His final breath will destroy an empire which he slaughtered millions for. One he was once proud to be a part of. But he had waited long enough. Now he was ready. He wasn’t going to rush it. This was on his terms, not theirs. He tapped the controls on his arm and instructed his suit to inject him with morphine.

Stars twisted above him, around him. The darkness of space grew darker. Once he was gone he hoped it would be a little brighter.