'rThe space between stars is best described as-' "Bullshit" Ida finished for the paper as she wiped cat boogers off her tablet screen. She held eye contact with her cat as she cleaned her hands on the top of her bedspread. Bolo deadpanned her back his look made it clear the sneeze had been very intentional. A direct result of his dinner being less than a handful of dry pellets bc the shops were out and with the first winter storm set to hit a few days from now the panic buying had stripped the isles bare of any basic essentials. Nevermind that any winter percipitation they did get would probably only last a day, they lived just west of Satan's asshole, so sweater weather today more than likely meant shorts tomorrow. "I will go first thing in the morning." She told Bolo, tossing the disgruntled feline a bit of bacon from her own spars dinner. Honestly, she thought in the back of her mind, unless this storm turned out to be anything like the one they had in '93 there was no need to hoard supplies. " now that was a bad one." She said outloud to no one but in the direction of her disgruntled tabby. Ida looked back at the paper she was reading circling the misplaced 'r' at the start of the opener that was undoubtably a typo the gradstudent either didn't notice or was too busy to go back and edit. Definitely not because they were too lazy to go back and fix the mistake themselves. no one was in a gradutate program and half assing their work. She scoffed, and re-read the opening line again, stopping in the same place once more. The space between stars was bullshit, and making her living off rewriting nepo babies' grad work so little . Johnny could take over Daddy's company and play Fisher Price My First Fortune 500 Company was making Ida bitter. "If you hate it so much quit." The voice in her head told her. She stared down at Bolo contened now and fake sleeping against her knee, definitely not drooling and making air biscuits just above Ida's foot she had tucked under her on the daybed. If she quit she would have to leave and if she left she would fail. She didn't think she could take that kind of failure. It wouldn't be so bad right? Another voice said in her mind, it not like it would be the end of the world. "Yes it would" Ida said outloud scratching her precious Bolo'shead. Not only the end of this world but the end of Ida's career. Command would never give her a mission again after the stunts she pulled on this one, that and they didn't have cats on her planet.