Saturnian
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Jill and Barry browsed the net, looking for the destination for their next vacation. There were far too many options for them to chose from. With the range of travel available, they were guaranteed to find something. At least, that was the idea.
“Okay, so that’s another place gone.” Jill said with a sigh. She waved her hand over the display and the images changed. “Oh, how about this one? There’s a new resort around Saturn that just opened. It’s getting great reviews.”
Barry groaned. “Saturn, really?”
“What’s wrong with it? We can go atmo-surfing, explore the rings. All kinds of stuff. The kids’ll love it.”
“Our bank account won’t.” He grumbled. “Going that far out is just so expensive. Sure it’s nice, but we’ll be strapped for money for months afterwards.”
“No, we won’t.” Jill said with a small shake of her head. “We’ve been saving up for long enough that we can splurge on a really nice trip. An off-world stay for a few days won’t break the bank.”
Barry tapped his watch, calling up it’s holo-display. He navigated to the bank’s site, and then to their bank account. They did have more than he thought they had, and a glance at the resort’s info site did confirm his wife was correct. That did not mean he would give in though.
“Well, what if I just don’t want to go there?”
She sighed. “Okay, fine. Where do you want to go? You’ve already shut down the inner planets. Please don’t tell me you want a asteroid rental or something.”
“No, of course not.” He took a deep breath. “Look, I know we’ve been looking forward to a big vacation, but why do we even need to go off-world? Can’t we just, you know, stay on Earth? Take a tour of this planet instead of going off to another one. There so much we can do without leaving the atmosphere.”
“Yeah, I know that, but still. I mean, it’s all the same stuff just in a different place, right? Same plants, same animals.”
“And all the stuff in off-world resorts are imported from Earth, Jill. Look, we can go tour Europe or something. It’s a lot cheaper than going all the way to Saturn.”
“Well, what if I just want to get off-world for a bit?” Jill asked. “Barry, I’ve never left Earth. Not once. I just…I want to get out there at least once, while the kids are still young and we can have some fun as a family. It’s not about the exact location or the money or anything like that. I just…I want to see the stars from a different angle. I want to go somewhere where I can float, really float. Not just the simulated 0G chambers we have here. I want to see a different sky, different moons. I know it costs more, but it’s…” She paused and took a deep breath. “It’s just something I want to do while we still can.”
Barry looked at his wife. She was serious about what she said. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He could not believe he was about to say this.
“Fine. We can go to the Saturn resort.”
Jill was beaming. She wrapped him in a tight embrace for a moment before heading back to the screen. She poured over the screens, looking at things they could do and see. Barry just sat back and watched her work. He just hoped this vacation would be worth the cost.
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Did I have to make this a sci-fi thing? No, no I did not. But I did it anyway, so there.
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