Xi-Mallow 434 is an Atira asteroid that orbits near the Aten Asteroids.
Background[]
Xi-Mallow 434 is a small rock with very little gravity. While its orbit is near the Aten asteroids, it is technically an Atira and not an Aten since it never crosses Earth’s orbit. The asteroid's orbit doesn't even make it out as far as Venus. The asteroid's rotation is locked, one side always facing the Sun and the other always facing away.
Xi-Mallow 434 has been under UNN military quarantine for 160 years.[1]
At the bottom of a natural fissure on the dark side of the asteroid is an airlock, the outer doors half open, the steel frame set into the natural rock is polished and smooth. The inner doors are open too.
Inside is a wide chamber. The walls had been insulated, but the foam has broken down over time leaving long strips that had drifted to the floor. The bare stone in the chamber is polished and worked. Inside, 13 figures in old red vac suits sit in a semicircle under an old black Martian cargo container.
References[]
- ↑ The Expanse Short Story "The Last Flight of the Cassandra"