The gentle giant floated through the waves, basking in what little light remained. Smaller companions darted about. He paid them little mind, although he dimly understood the symbiosis between his species and theirs. They lived off his detritus while keeping him free of the occasional parasites and other obstructions that could cause him harm.
Still, some unforeseen dangers could arise, for their little community eventually attracted predators who wanted to feed on them and disrupt the delicate balance that they had evolved over such a long time. When this happened, both the leviathan and his friends would defend each other as a matter of life and death.
“Vir, have you ever seen anything like this?”
“Don’t think so, Kajus. But these asteroids out here sometimes take on all sorts of odd shapes. I think it’s these gravimetric anomalies, twisting them all up.”
“It’s beautiful… reminds me of some of them sea creatures on that last planet we visited.”
“Heh. I paid more attention to the local hostesses than the sea creatures. Come to think of it, so did you.”
“Well… yeah. But I can still appreciate it, ya know.”
“Sure you can. I’m sending the survey results to you in a side channel. You work from the upspin side and I’ll start my strip miners downspin.”
“Alright. Hmm, lots of smaller ‘roids here, too. Orbiting a little quicker than I’d expect.”
“Gravimetric anomaly, remember? Keep your shield booster handy, these exhumers have enough tank on them to deal with any little collisions.”
“Okay, starting targeting routines now. Resolving a little slow…”
“I told you to stay upspin. Quit targeting my end of the asteroid. Plenty to go around, Kajus.”
“Huh? I haven’t engaged anything… hey! Did you see that?”
“Asteroid shifting. Probably not structurally stable. Hmm. These smaller outliers, their orbits. Unpredictable…”
“Same over here… shields having trouble with impacts. Vir, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know. If this goes on, we might have to pull out. I bet the corp would pay a good bit of ISK for our sensor data. Let’s hang in a little longer.”
“No way. My tank can’t handle it. I’m aligning, getting ready to engage warp.”
“Kajus… I’m scrammed.”
“By what? Nothing showing on my overview.”
“The big ‘roid. Maybe some little pirate installation in it?”
“Damnit, I’m scrammed too. Going to try to get out of range. Into armor now.”
“Cap drained! Get your pods ready!”
<static>
The flashes of light winked out as quickly as they appeared. And the local clone stations never received so much as an emergency transmission.
Safe again, the leviathan resumed his slumber.
Image credits Battle for Terra and Mynxee
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