“Earth.” Krantz spat. “What a toilet.”
“Watch it. That’s home you’re talkin’ ‘bout.”
Krantz shifted his weight to lean on the console and stared out the portal at the grey ball with the black tight spiral wisps coming off at the poles. The equator was darker grey, shadowed a ring of debris.
“Yeah, 320 years ago. It went to hell fast after the hypergate accident destroyed the moon and everyone left. What the hell did we come back here for anyway?”
Varney flipped a switch and the portal turned opaque.
“Something called Dr. Pepper. It was a drink or something in a pressurized metal container. No one thinks it’s worth the offered ten large for a trip to this backwater sector just for that, but I figured since we’re passin’ through, we’d pick a little extra bounty up on the trip.”
Krantz scratched his chin and counted.
“It’s been 311 years, not 320.”
“Just numbers. All the years in those ice crates makes for a lossy sense of time. Let’s get to the bridge and start the landing cycle”
“And get home,” Krantz added.