0.22 AU — 17 minutes to Comet Intercept
The Sun filled every viewport, a blinding coin rimmed with pink fire.Contrapunctus skimmed its outer corona, patched heat-cocoon crackling and flexing like a badly tuned drum.Each prime heartbeat of Dawn-Core bled through the hull: 5-11-7-13-19-23-29, a lopsided scale no physicist could graph.
Maya shouted from thermal control, sweat floating in silvery beads."Radiant flux at one-point-three megawatts per square! If the next patch peels we'll toast faster than Lin's socks."
Lin, braced at the nav ring, dead-panned: "My socks were sacrificed so yours might live."
Aiden fired a micro-thruster burst. "He's right, Maya, honour the socks."
Nephis, upside-down in the sail struts, muttered, "Less sock poetry, more shadow stitching." He nested a new cloak band over a clear-thread seam; it hissed, charred, held.
Cassie floated aft, lantern lens speckled with sun-glare."Telemetry shows Helios-Shiver's coma flaring ahead. Jets clocking six hundred metres a second."She looked at Aiden, grin crooked. "So — fancy parking in volcanic snow?"
"Love a good sauna," he answered. Their helmets bumped in a zero-g high-five.
Contact: Glitter Storm
They punched through the comet's halo — a region of diamond-bright shards and pink CO₂ snow.Contrapunctus slewed; impact pings hammered the shield.Glitch squealed from its hammock pod.Solayna gathered the child, projecting a Möbius map: at the comet's waist, a mirror torus three metres wide, half-buried in fresh ejecta, spitting perfect pulses that tried (and failed) to drown the Cadence.
Maya's jaw clenched. "That prison's riding a gas jet. Any closer and hull temperatures jump another thousand."
Lin tapped the console. "Slingshot plan: dive through the jet's dead zone at the base, dump Aiden, Cassie and Solayna with the eclipse pod, loop back on the far side."
Aiden raised a brow. "You plotted that while arguing about socks?"
"Multi-tasking," Lin said, faint smile.
Eclipse Pod Drop
The eclipse pod — little more than a clear-thread bubble with attitude thrusters — latched under Contrapunctus's belly. Cassie clamped the lantern to an external hard-point; every random flicker would serve as visual beacon.
Nephis sealed the hatch and met Maya's eyes."If the shield tears—" she began.He pressed foreheads, a rare indulgence. "I'll sew faster."
Inside the pod Cassie strapped beside Aiden; Solayna floated near the hatch, Dawn-Core tucked under her arm.Through the blister window the torus prison flashed silver, pulsing that suffocating symmetry.
Aiden muttered, "Time to vandalise perfection."
Jet Dive
Lin's burn timer hit zero.Contrapunctus rolled belly-first, dropped the pod; three seconds later main engines flared, hauling the ship away along the planned arc.The pod plummeted through incandescent gas; heat alarms screamed but the clear-thread bubble diffused the blast like glass fog.
Cassie hollered over the din. "Range fifty metres — torch ready!"Aiden tuned Dawn-Core to the ugliest whistle he could imagine — part kettle, part broken harmonica.Cassie smashed the lantern lens with her gloved palm, fracturing it on purpose; shards sprayed, scattering chaotic beams.Solayna slammed Dawn-Core against the glass wall, letting the off-key pulse flood the prison.
The torus buckled. Perfect pulses skipped — gap — jitter — break.Silvery surface shattered into useless glitter.Inside, a clear-thread shard, older than Glitch, spun free — half crystal, half swirling charcoal cloud.Cassie lunged, snagged it. Aiden hit reverse thrusters.
Retrieval and Reunion
Contrapunctus swooped back, hull scorched but intact. Nephis extended a cloak-lined capture boom; Maya guided it with centimeter precision.The pod docked; hatches cycled. Air reeked of burnt sugar ice.
Lin unstrapped Aiden first. "One day you'll rescue something without breaking lanterns."
"Where's the fun?" Aiden retorted. They traded shoulder bumps — brother code for glad you're alive.
Cassie presented the new shard — smaller than her fist, swirling imperfect.Glitch drifted over, tapping it like a sibling. Both emitted a glorious off-beat chord that rattled plates.
Solayna's face glowed brighter than they'd yet seen."Two voices complete a chord, but more weave a choir. The Loom thanks you."
Sunward Exit
Contrapunctus fired tail jets, sliding onto a high-energy arc that would fling them out of the Sun's grasp and toward deep space. Heat shield panels sloughed molten streaks, but held.
Maya collapsed into a hammock. "Next destination?"
Lin floated a new star map. "Quiet Weave glyphs mark an object past Jupiter — a hidden moonlet in permanent eclipse."
Nephis folded cloak ribbons, eyes on Maya. "More holes to sew."
Cassie popped a pouch of actual cocoa, shoved it at Lin. "Your turn."
He sipped, coughed. "Tastes like burnt socks."
Aiden howled with laughter; Dawn-Core chimed twenty-nine-thirty-one.In the cockpit Solayna listened to her choir of imperfect shards find harmony in the noise of engine rumble and sibling squabbles.
Contrapunctus sailed on, chasing the next place where perfection threatened to smooth the universe flat — and where, inevitably, the Guardians would arrive to scribble delightful chaos across the stars.