I was not disappointed by the outcome. It was absolutely delightful. It felt like coming home, if home happens to be the TARDIS filled with friends old and new.
“So this is the bunker?” Clarence said. “What about the bike?”
“If the main hatch opens I’ll pull it in. If not, it’s safe. No one steals a bike on Io. The dragons are all a little too big.”
“First time for everything,” Julia muttered and actually earned a few shared chuckles. She felt safer already with a roof overhead.
Freefall. Icy, enervating, lacerating winds flipped her far away from Clarence. She fell forever, screaming, dying, and then straps dug into her diaphragm, squeezing what breath remained from her lungs. She drew a breath in barely and then another. Jupiter and Io had stopped swapping places. She looked up and saw her parachute had opened.
Her brother was grinning. Despite her intention to remain jaded, Julia’s rebel breath caught. Here she’d thought their views would be restricted to the portholes pocking the side of the shuttle, but there was far more now to see; not only the vast expanse of stars glinting like diamonds by the thousands but the rim of massive Jupiter. And Io: terraformed.