A Moment in Space

"Just how bad is this?" Claire asks, absently chewing at one of her nails. She stares at the screens just above them, sliding levels and numerical data that she can't quite read changing constantly in front of her.

"It could go either way right now," Bill says in a strained voice, a slightly higher pitch than usual. "It's not headed directly our way, if it decides to -"

"Alright, who ate my cereal?" Lloyd yells, cutting him off. He walks into the command room waving an empty bowl around.

"Not now Lloyd," Claire says dismissively, arms crossing as she turns to glare at him.

"Yeah, Lloyd, we've got bigger problems here," Bill says from his chair in front of the big computer screen.

"Yes now!" Lloyd says back, a slightly crazed look in his eyes. "One of you's been eating my food this whole trip! But this is the last straw. My cereal? The last bowl? I was looking forward to that! You have no idea!"

"Yeah, no idea why you're so obsessed with children's food from 20 years ago." Claire quips. Bill lets out a snort.

"No! You two don't get to do this to me! You always dismiss me, totally disregard my emotions. Well, not today. Today I'm finally getting to the bottom of who did this because it does matter! I matter!"

"Damn it, Lloyd, we're working. Can't you rant someplace else?" Bill calls over his shoulder.

Lloyd's mouth falls open for a moment, at a loss for words.

Claire chuckles at the look, "if you're done, then, Lloyd." She points at the door.

For a moment he's confused, looks back at the door, not understanding. He looks back toward Claire, the finger she's still pointing, at the look of annoyance clear on her face. He frowns at her.

"No! You're not ignoring me today! That was my last bowl of cereal. The last one before we leave this stupid rock, desert planet. I was really going to -"

"Shut up, Lloyd! We're probably not even going to make it off this awful planet. Not like this." Bill is frantic now, his words and his movements, fingers flying over the keyboard.

"That's right. You might as well forget about your cereal. We're not going to make it another week."

"Of course we are! See, there you go again, making my problems smaller than yours! There's plenty of other food, this isn't about that. This is about my food. My cereal!"

"This isn't about food at all, Lloyd!" Claire says sternly, raising her voice for the first time.

"Yes, it is. Of course, it is!"

"No, dumbass, this isn't about you at all. We have more important things to deal with." Bill keeps typing, checking screen after screen.

An alarm blares suddenly. Loud and piercing. A red light blinks along to the screeching sound.

"What the hell is that?" Lloyd yells, barely audible above the alarm.

"What we've been trying to tell you, Lloyd!" Claire moves toward him, trying to be heard over the alarm, "one of the sand beasts has found us."

"How? I thought this place was specifically protected against that?"

Bill laughs wryly, “shows how much you’ve been paying attention.”

“We can monitor sand beasts, but we don’t know much about them. And how can you protect against something you don’t know anything about?”

“Well, how far away is it?”

The alarm stops just as suddenly as it started, leaving a deafening silence behind it.

“According to the instruments,” Bill calls, “it’s right on top of us.”

Then the lights go out, plunging them into total darkness.