Melvinborg sped through the air at breakneck speed, the rocket careening through the clouds, below him his apartment, his neighborhood, his city disappearing. His grip on the steering mechanism was a little white-knuckled, his dashboard a contrasting cheery array of LEDs, and his heart soaring with determination.
A myriad of satellites were perched in invisible orbit like birds on a wire, and as he sped past, he saw a variety of purple lights blinking at him- the friendly, neutral color of communication, a quick 'hello!' as he began his journey. Interstellar communication had gotten leagues better, and the nearby airspace really wasn't so lonely anymore. He whizzed past the air station, a few stray rockets from different independent explorers like him housed comfortably in its magnetic field. Now that he was finally out of orbit, he could calm his pace a little bit. He unbuckled his seatbelt, floating as if a petal on water, suprisingly light and graceful leaps. And heavens, did he have fun with it! Bounding about, feeling the freedom of space- though he had taken multiple trips into space before, it still was a rare treat, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Alone in his ship, he let his guard down, feeling like a kid once again. It was this kind of spirit he was going to need so desperately, for a mission like this.
Just for the sake of feeling less alone, he decided to tune his radio to the Communications section. With the clickity-clackity turn of a deliciously antiquated knob, the gentle static fuzzed in, a little warmer than usual (likely the gentle hum of the stars). "Hey, anyone online?" A voice shimmered through the speakers...
"Oh, fantastic! I'm doing quite well, thank you," he spoke into the intercom. "I'm on my way out of town- well. Way out of town, I suppose." The voice giggled a little. "And," he added giddily, "if you're oh-so-terribly-curious, I'm actually trying to-"
A wave of electrical fuzz washed over the sound, and before he could begin his monologue, the connection was lost, leaving him a little disheartened. Oh well.
"ETH3R, how far until our destination?" he asked his scientific companion. "We won't hit the hyperspace barrier until we get out of the solar system and its regulations, which should take about 15 minutes and 49 seconds, so accounting for that...... you've got nine hours, thirty-seven minutes, and 11 seconds until we reach the orbit of the nearest black hole, MIRAWIDIE-14."
Damn. He scrunched his nose. It sounded like a long time, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that bad, eh? Nine hours until his life changed, hopefully forever, hopefully for the better.
He settled into the lounge chair he had so-smartly included, ready for his journey, still keeping his general cover of ultimate in-control nonchalantness but secretly alight with anticipation. He hadn't penned yet what he was even going to say or do to his younger self- that would require a LOT of self-reflection that he was absolutely not willing to do. Obviously, expecting him to be absolutely perfect at every turn already would lead him to the same colossal burnout crash that Borg had experienced as he had metaphorically dragged himself across the bloody, gravelly pavement of life to make it into adulthood. Obviously, he was a lot better off now, but... he wanted to save himself the pain, if he could. But god, introspection isn't easy to do when there's so many layers of perfectionism and shame, mm?
He didn't realize that to face himself, he would have to face himself.
His thoughts couldn't keep him for long, though, because ETH3R gently encouraged him to buckle himself back into the commander's seat so that they could engage their hyperspace drive. "Ah, what would I do without you?" he asked affectionately, to which the robot replied "Let's hope we never have to find out." The shadow of Neptune was shrinking behind them, and as they began to launch into hyperspace, the reflections of the stars went from dutiful pinpricks to huge bearded comets to crystalline slices, slight differentiation in color, creme and periwinkle and peach and white cascading past in beautiful shooting lines as they went faster faster faster faster FASTER-
And then, almost as suddenly as it began, they slowed back to a gentle lull, but the sky was almost entirely changed, Around them was a menagerie of dust, nebulas in every color and then some, stars of all sizes adorning the sky. Sparse enough to still have that sense of coldness, but everything was so much more colorful- it was like stepping into Oz. Little tears gathered in Melvin's eyes- there was no sight like it, and he would never get used to experiencing that glory.
He settled in comfortably for the ride, gazing out the window at the breathtaking monuments, strolling through them on his way to his future.
