One Perfect Sunrise

"Dear, what are we doing here." Kate is beginning to get anxious.
"I told you honey, it's a surprise, you'll see in..." Nick checks the clock,"in about fifteen minutes."

Kate sighs and slumps in her chair, staring at the view-screen in front of her. She checks the navigation terminal. Their ship is still in orbit around some barren asteroid out in the Verge Vector. May as well be the Middle of Nowhere. They have been floating along in space for the last half hour or so. Nick has insisted on taking this detour on the way back from their honeymoon on Altaris. When he suggested it, she figured the trip might yield something exciting, like an old derelict or minefield from the Crymeon War, or at least an odd shaped asteroid, but when he anchored the ship in orbit and turned off the view-screen filters, all she saw was the void of space.

Nick and Kate have known each other since secondary school, even briefly dated near the end but had gone their separate ways come graduation. She was off to college and he became involved in politics. They kept in touch in the interim years, but mostly lived their own lives. Then around six or so years later, their paths had crossed again. This was at the end of the Crymeon war. Victory was in sight, thanks in large part to the engines developed by the company Kate was working at. Nick was there to work the floor and get some good press for the government. As he was making his rounds, a friend of his reintroduced the two and once more they hit it off. Long after the party was over, the couple was still talking. Soon the war ended, they became engaged, and around a year later, they were married and shuttled off to Altaris for their honeymoon.

Memories of the last year fly through Kate's mind as she sits there, staring into the void. She checks the clock, ten minutes have passed. Nick is getting fidgety, she rarely sees him this nervous. She thinks back to that night, over a year ago now, as they sat together at dinner, looks of fear and love flashing through his eyes, and again this look, the night before they were married.

He turns to her and smiles. He reaches into the compartment behind them and pulls out some hot drinks. As he prepares them, Kate once more looks into that void, something has begun to bug her about it. Shouldn't there be more stars there? Nick hands her a drink. He looks at the clock. "Showtime," he says, and clinks his glass to her's.

Suddenly, a bright crescent of light forms in the window, concave relative to their position. Slowly the curve of a star can be seen rising above this dark hole in space. Then off to the planet's side, another star rises, then a third. Nick smiles as he hears Kate gasp. Nick has spent his free time over the last three months researching and planning this trip. Which star system to best observe, when the planet would eclipse all three suns, and where to orbit in order to have the perfect angle.

The cabin is silent as the suns finish their rise, Kate takes in a soft breath, prepares to speak. "It's... perfect..." Her hand finds his. The cabin is silent again.