Pip was already at the Pebble Ring Observatory when the sleep-orbit lights began to flicker. She stood on tiptoe beside the brass telescope, her red scarf tucked tight under her chin, watching Sol and Nera check the dark ring walkway that looped around the dome like a silver necklace.
“See?” Sol said, tapping a tiny wrench against the rail. “Still steady.”
Nera peered through her silver goggles at the floating viewing platforms outside. “Steady does not mean safe,” she said. Her pencil was already behind her ear, ready to mark a map.
Pip wanted to help them. She wanted to be the one they noticed when the paths needed guarding. So she took a careful step toward the dome slit to see better.
Then every sleep-orbit light went out at once.
The walkway vanished into black. The platforms outside did too, as if the moon had swallowed them. Only the faint hum of the big orange-and-cream planet below remained, and the brass telescope glinted in the dark. A soft scrape came from somewhere along the ring, where a loose pebble rolled without anyone seeing it.
Sol went still. Nera lifted her head. Pip looked from the telescope to the dark doorway to the ring and back again.
If she stayed here, she could keep close to the telescope. If she ran with Sol and Nera, she might help guide them through the dark. And if she tried to reach the controls, she might be the first to find the broken lights.
But the walkway was gone from sight now, and something had already started to drift loose.
What happens next?
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