"Pegasus" is a short story about friendship and trust set in the high-octane world of super-soldiers and paramilitary organisations. Our usual mission partner is a woman named Sarah, whom we meet in an evaluation early in our training. We grow closer over the course of our missions together, until we reach the scene that opens the story: Sarah asking us to give her the "redline", a suicide pill that will give her thirty minutes of super-super-soldierness before killing her.
There's not a lot of wiggle room when it comes to the plot line. We've got to arrive at the same spot in the end, after all. But I know there are lots of even more varied paths by which we could arrive at the same spot, each casting a different light on what's going on; we're simply limited to this one. Which could be all we need, if this were more of a puzzle-heavy story, but it isn't.
The tale's told quite well. I wish there were a bit more meat on it, but perhaps a longer story about friendship might begin to grow too touchy-feely, especially given the future-militaristic setting. I wonder, too, if more might be said about the Pegasus organisation itself. There is an opportunity to confront them over their treatment of Sarah, but I couldn't bring myself to follow through that conversation tree. It felt like a betrayal of Sarah's trust, which I think must say more about the story than any comparison to breakfast could.
Oh yes. Breakfast. I think if this were breakfast, it would be a banana-strawberry protein smoothie. Quick to consume, packs a punch, yet somehow doesn't feel like you had a full, proper meal.