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Calling it a “belt” might make you think that the Kuiper Belt could have a Millennium Falcon dodging asteroids through it, but not at all. It’s extremely empty. Not entirely empty as it does have uncountable rocky and icy objects, some literally as big as planets (like Pluto, which isn’t even the biggest), but they are each farther apart from each other than Mars is from Earth, on a good day. It’s the scrappy crumbs left over from planet formation, the only thing left before you hit the Oort Cloud, where comets come from. It’s dark and strange and far away.
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↓ Transcript
Panel 1: Maida leans on the counter and casually eats her cookie. Maida: "Um. Is that about Luna?" The screen has images of someone on Luna talking to a cop. News feed: "Officials have assured us that they'll be weeded out from the fugees on their way to Earth. They say it's not as simple as identifyin who's an aberrant, given that many legit fugees can also be heavily..."
Panel 2: Boy: "Yeah. More fugees from the Kuiper Belt. Can ya believe it? Further out than Pluto."
Panel 3: Maida fills a teacup with hot water from a kettle that she'd been waiting for. Boy: "Hey. What's yur name again?" Maida: "I'm Maida." Narrator: "I've worked here for eight months."
Panel 4: Boy: "Yu're not at Zhongshan yet, are ya?"
Panel 5: Maida, blowing on her hot tea: "Not yet. It's weird that it starts so late. All my old schoolmates started uni weeks ago." Boy: "Well enjoy yur vacation while it lyke lasts, eh?" News feed, in the background: "...Another landin site, but no way to track down aberrants. How dangerous are they? We asked Ministry of Homeworld Affairs for comment on..."
Panel 6: Boy, pushing his hair back: "Once classes start yu'll barely have tyme to sleep. I'd quit this job in lyke second if I didn't need the loan it comes wit." News feed in the background: "Many of them only speak obscure dialects or have..."
Panel 7: The boy keeps watching his screen as Maida leaves the break room with tea and cookie in hand. Narrator: "Vacation. RIght."
Panel 2: Boy: "Yeah. More fugees from the Kuiper Belt. Can ya believe it? Further out than Pluto."
Panel 3: Maida fills a teacup with hot water from a kettle that she'd been waiting for. Boy: "Hey. What's yur name again?" Maida: "I'm Maida." Narrator: "I've worked here for eight months."
Panel 4: Boy: "Yu're not at Zhongshan yet, are ya?"
Panel 5: Maida, blowing on her hot tea: "Not yet. It's weird that it starts so late. All my old schoolmates started uni weeks ago." Boy: "Well enjoy yur vacation while it lyke lasts, eh?" News feed, in the background: "...Another landin site, but no way to track down aberrants. How dangerous are they? We asked Ministry of Homeworld Affairs for comment on..."
Panel 6: Boy, pushing his hair back: "Once classes start yu'll barely have tyme to sleep. I'd quit this job in lyke second if I didn't need the loan it comes wit." News feed in the background: "Many of them only speak obscure dialects or have..."
Panel 7: The boy keeps watching his screen as Maida leaves the break room with tea and cookie in hand. Narrator: "Vacation. RIght."
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