INTO MAKEMAKE'S CRATER

May 26th 2011, 12:01 by E O Hatterpol | 403 AU FROM SUN

"WAIT," I said, "I can answer my own question."



"Back at Neptune, I learned about how Triton is thought to have been forcibly pulled by Neptune from the Kuiper Belt.  I did a lot of reading before the pirates showed up, so naturally I continued on and learned all about Pluto, plutoids and dwarf planets.


"Whatever chunk of rock we're on right now, it's sizeable enough to rule out its being an asteroid," I said, putting an imaginary pipe to my space helmet.


"But it's not a planet, because it's clearly not big enough to clear its orbital pathway of debris.  Given its grainy red soil, that bastard pirate's name & our location in the Kuiper Belt, I'm going to guess we're on... Makemake!"


"What good does that do us?  To know where we are?" Ravisius asked.


"I don't know, man, information is knowledge, dude," I said.  "At least we aren't too far from Earth."


"Think they went up there?" Ravisius asked, pointing to the trail of spaceboots in the red sand.  One trail had been left by a peg leg.


"Where else do you hide the entire crew of a galaxy-class starship?"


"Come on," Ravisius urged, walking up the hill. "If we're going to save the Flybrary's captain & her crew, we have to go in after them."


"Easy for you to do," I mumbled.  "Magical men made of books don't bleed when a brigand's cutlass cuts them deep."


I gripped the leather strap of my fourteen-volume bookshield, pulling it close to my chest, and set off up the jagged crater after him.