The Blue Edge

The cramped spherical cabin of a spacecraft in Earth orbit, walls padded in pale grey cloth, the woman, a young woman of twenty-six, short light brown hair under a pale cloth cap, light grey pressure suit, plain white round helmet with its visor raised, strapped into a padded ejection seat, one gloved hand on a small control handle, her face in three-quarter view toward a round porthole showing the curved blue edge of the Earth against black space, beside her a slanted control panel soft in focus with small blank dials and a small blue and green globe under glass.