The rain made coming into work a chore, which Arthur despised. His job was one of his favorite parts about his life, and he detested when things made him change that feeling. He was single, and his parents lived on the other side of the country, so besides the occasional trip to the bar with his friends or visit from his sister, his work was the most exciting part about his life. To most people, what he did would be considered boring. He often spent hours sitting in the same spot, going over large quantities of data, looking for anything out of the ordinary.
He studied the stars, and almost every day he dreamed of swimming amongst them. He liked to believe that the engineers would discover a way for him to travel through space to his favorite regions of the galaxy within his lifetime, but he knew it was extremely unlikely if not impossible.
After traveling down the slippery highway to the Science Center, he threw up his umbrella and ran into the building. He silently pleaded to the heavens that the rains would stop by the time he was meant to go home. He hated driving in the rain. It only reminded him of his childhood, and sometimes that wasn’t something he wanted to remember. Arthur loved looking at the rain, but driving in, walking through it, was a completely different experience. Every rain drop against his skin felt like a cold bullet.
The office he had at the Science Center was decorated with pastels and images of the Milky Way, all to inspire him and remind him of the place he loved. He didn’t think there was anywhere on Earth as beautiful as the places he saw in his line of work. Of course he thought the beaches in North Carolina and the sunsets of Australia were gorgeous, but nothing compared to the mysteries of the outer reaches of space. All he wanted was to explore and learn more about what was out there.
Arthur walked to the lab where he spent most of his work days and sat down in his custom-made swivel chair. He may have loved his job, but if his chair wasn’t up to par he became restless and cranky.
He pulled up documents on his computer and booted up the information he’d need for the day. Images from his research flashed across the screen as they loaded, and Arthur was momentarily lost.
“Isn’t the Andromeda galaxy the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?” he whispered. It wasn’t clear if he was talking to himself or to his colleagues.
“Only you could stare at a cluster of stars in space like it was the most beautiful thing in the world,” someone said.
Arthur looked up at them, confusion clear in his eyes. “You don’t think space is beautiful?”
His colleague shook her head. “Beautiful? No. Vast and terrifying? Yes, of course. But I don’t know if I can say that something so unknown can be beautiful. We hardly know what’s out there, and I don’t feel inclined to comment on the aesthetics of something like that.”
“That’s a fair point.” Arthur was silent for a moment. He couldn’t think of a rebuttal, but then again, he wasn’t much of the arguing type. People had their opinions and he had his.
One of the sensors started beeping erratically, something that never happened. Arthur and the other astronomers starred at the device quizzically.
“This has never gone off before,” the woman from before said.
“I-I don’t know what to do,” Arthur said. No one did.
“I honestly don’t even know what this machine does,” a man slightly younger than Arthur said. “Should we call someone?”
Everyone shrugged.
“Let’s just ignore it,” Arthur suggested.
The woman rolled her eyes. “That’s definitely not an option. Clearly it means something.”
“Aliens,” Arthur mumbled.
No one said anything.
“I was kidding.” More silence. “Guys?”
“You could be right,” the woman said.
“No,” Arthur responded. “No I couldn’t be. That’s not—It’s not…”
“You’re always saying we don’t know what’s out there,” she said.
