Venus Cloud Divers Club

An original science fiction short story

Photo by Emmanuel Appiah on Unsplash

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Dwelling in a floating city hovering above Venusian clouds sounds like an extreme adrenaline junkie's ideal fantasy. Cutting edge technology is the only thing stopping you from plummeting to your death on a hostile planet's surface. Plunging through clouds laced with sulfuric acid is a gruesome enough fate. If you miraculously survived your trip to the ground, the Venusian atmosphere would simply crush your body like an empty soda can while furnace-level temperatures reduced you to ashes.

Mocking such perilous circumstances explains why a group like the Venus Cloud Divers Club exists in the first place.

I wanted nothing to do with the club. Kendra entertained other ideas. She could handle only so many hours pedaling on the cycling simulator before she grew bored with exploring virtual environments.

“Don't you want to feel the rush of plunging through dense clouds on an alien planet?” Her voice bubbled with an enthusiastic energy. “It's like unlocking a secret advanced level of skydiving.”

I felt tempted to remind Kendra how much I disliked skydiving. Then again, I didn't want her to think of me as nothing except a wet blanket.

Living above Venus should be a fun experience for both of us.

“If you want to give cloud diving a shot, I won't stand in your way,” I said.