Planet Earth is blue 1

Mars shot by so quickly I barely noticed it. I thought for a moment I had shaken off the pursuit but, looking behind me, saw their leading lights closing in fast. Drawing up energy again, I sped onwards towards the asteroid that was crossing my path. It was unfamiliar – nothing more than a tumbling lump of basalt around the size of a small mountain. I squeezed into a fissure on its dark side, the dead stone rough and cold beneath my hands.

There were one or two other rocks floating in the vicinity and I could see my pursuers flitting amongst them. A little further still Ceres, the largest asteroid in the belt, was moving slowly across Jupiter’s glow. Its familiar contours reminded me of the times my grandfather had taken me there. It’s strange to name a dwarf planet after the Roman harvest goddess but, as we watched Mars rising and the faint sunlight picking out the ice forests, there seemed some sense in it.

When the coast was clear, I emerged cautiously from my cave. But they were waiting. Dark shapes rose around me and a sharp blow to the back of my head sent the stars wheeling.