: Prompting Needed_

Glass Ceiling

From Daily Quordle 318 (12/8/2022) PROVE, BLISS, AWARD, OFFER

Aryth broke the tip off the spire with a satisfying snap that she felt through her glove. As the point crumbled into fine, salted ash in her hand, she shifted her fingers so the particles could catch in the faint wind and drift behind her. Despite her appointed catalyst machines completing the job in the way the promyther command had planned, she swam in a pool of... malcontent?

Unease?

Disappointment.

That was it. She was disappointed. With this job done so quickly and concisely, what was she now to do? Go on with her life on one of the Galacian construction crew ships and keep facilitating their assessments? Now that she had a taste of what it meant to be part of the promyther side of the operation, she did not want to entertain the idea of going back to staring at rocks and readouts. She would have to speak to Ferrin about a more permanent position.

The air moved around her in a swift, shallow breeze like the gasping of a dying man. The lack of actual gas left on the surface meant that she could barely hear the cries of those who had – miraculously – stood against the glassing cataclysm. Her own breath rasped against her ears in her helmet as she took slow breaths from her reserves. She glanced up at the dark field of stars that spread from the far-off stumps of the remaining mountains to the glassy stretch of land beneath her spiked soles. Those native to this planet who were alive to witness it could still see their central system star, of course. But with little-to-no atmosphere now that the cataclysm had been completed, the unimpeded solar rays were now able to pummel the surface. All the more to shake loose the detritus, she thought. She glances down towards a sudden movement on her foot. A blackened curl of a hand was feebly trying to grasp the seam where her boots connected with her suit. Aryth followed the arm to a face that was half char and half thickened hide of some sort. One clouded eye over a gaping, suffocating mouth glared at her, accusingly. Or was it pleading? She frowned. Terra's natives' facial expressions were never easy to read. As humans like Aryth who had been raised on the Outskirts, expressions for the sake of communication were all but rendered obsolete when most wore polarized helmets for most of their waking lives. Well, save for the years spent on Consortium vessels. Even then, the words one said were the ways most civil people communicated.

She activated her comm system. "I can offer you no solace or help," she said to the husk. She stared apathetically into the eyes of the being that could neither hear nor see in return. "However, I offer this to you as an award for being such an easy planet to glass." She kicked once with a sharp jerk and focused on a similar sensation as the hand and face shattered against her foot. Another cracking sound jolted through her as her heel cleared, and she tilted forward, her footing unsettled. She turned slowly to avoid slipping on the glassed earth below and caught sight out of the corner of her eye a large outcropping of rapidly cooled rock giving into Terra's gravity. Its twisted points of frozen magma fell from its precarious base then ponderously ate into the blasted earth below. More concussions rocked through Aryth's boots as the mass settled with a muted squeal of what would have sounded like glass on glass, were the atmosphere still intact. Out of the five resurfacings she had been on the ground for, she had to admit that this was one of the more striking cataclysms she had been a part of. The near vacuum was exquisite.

She glanced at the chronometer on her arm. The carrier would be returning to her position soon. With more care than before, she snapped another point of the spire of cooled magma next to her and stored it in her pocket, making sure to seal it. At least she could still prove to the promyther committees that this was still the most effective way to start the strip-mining procedure on this class of planet.

Her inner comm system hissed. "Adjunct-promyther Aryth, this is Shunder's Bliss. Prepare for retraction." A large black and angular mass of smooth metal blipped into the air high above her. For a moment, the wind became more than a gentle memory of life as the sudden appearance of the craft shoved what atmosphere was left on the surface into a faint frenzy. Bright blue streaks of light sliced through the space between the hull and Aryth then struck the ground around her to form a square of self-sealing retraction energy. Once adhered to the polished surface around her, the beam lifted her up towards the ship. Her boots' soles slid out from the blackened surface of the Terra as she slid upwards. She gave the blasted magma fields below her another look before turning to face the retraction bay.

I have to transfer, she thought. In no future did she see herself as happy examining the rocks from a cataclysm when she could be at the point of the resurfacing instead. Never again. She activated her comm system once more. "Regent-promyther Ferrin, this is Adjunct-promyther Aryth, requesting an audience with you at your earliest convenience."