Beyond Sol

Chapter 19

Kaitlyn Allan shuffled in the school bus seat, gazing out the window to the still dark winter morning sky. Stars still glimmered down. She fixed her eyes on a certain star. What was its name? One might ask. It was KLMA-3.
The bus halted and the doors swung open. "Here!" The driver shouted against the rustling of kids. Kaitlyn quickly packed up her binders and made her way out. She hurried down the steps and then peeled her eyes back to KLMA-3.
"Gazing at the stars? Nerd." A boy said, walking ahead. A few of his friends laughing. Lucas Allan walked up to her.
"Hey, it's alright. We all miss dad. Think of it this way. Eventually he's gonna find his way to Alpha Centauri. And then he's gonna come back. We'll be watching when he lands at Blackcrow." He said, opening the door.
"I know-It's just I only ever got to meet him when I was a baby. What was he like?" Kaitlyn asked.
"Oh Kaitlyn. Dad was wonderful. Dad was the best person I've ever met. I remember when you were born just a week before launch day, dad was devastated. He almost gave up the mission for you. You were dads everything." The pair walked through the twisty hallways of the school.
"Whatever, I'll talk to you after school." Kaitlyn swooped into her classroom, sitting down and gazing at the board.
"Today we will be talking about..." The teacher wrote something down. "Interstellar travel." The teacher glanced at Kaitlyn, nodding gently. "Who here can tell me about Interstellar Travel."
"Yeah, I can." A kid smirked in the back. "Kaitlyn's dad boarded a suicide mission and ain't gonna come back!" A few kids chuckled.
"Shut the hell up Jaxon."
"What the hell are you gonna do?" Jaxon says, Kaitlyn throwing a jab at his chest.
"You little devil!" The pair started to fight, the teacher attempting to intervene.
"Stop! Just, stop! Jaxon, that was inappropriate! Kaitlyn's dad is none of your business!" The teacher shouted.
"Yeah, whatever." The kid snorted.

"How was school?" Lucas asked, sliding into the seat.
"Fine. It was just fine."
"Stop being grumpy. What's wrong?"
"Nothing-This kid was just making fun of me because of dad."
"Well that wasn't alright. What was he saying?"
"I think he said 'Kaitlyn's dad went on a suicide mission and isn't going to come back' or something like that"
"Hey, I love you. And dad loves you too. "
"I know, I love dad too."

"What the hell do you mean talk to my daughter?!" I shout, pacing the cafeteria.
"Your wife spoke to NASA, Kaitlyn was having a hard time at school, some kids were making fun of her because you were out here," Amelia said.
"That's just mean." Muhammed sighed.
"That's why Carter's gonna be talking to her. For the first time in what? Thirteen years now?" Eliza asked.
"Almost fourteen, I count the days." I say, still pacing the room.
"It's in fifteen minutes."
"FIFTEEN? CHRIST." I scurried around.
"Calm down ye' big baby!" James shouts.
"Shut up!"

I hovered my finger over the left click button, which was right over the "CONNECT TO STREAM" button. I pressed it down, a spinning circle spun around the screen. "CONNECTING." It read. 
"No I don't know mom!" Kaitlyn shouted. Kaitlyn was focused on something off screen rather then on the screen which I was on, completely oblivious.
"K-Kaitlyn?" I say, Kaitlyn quickly snapping her neck over. She was more speechless than one to well...talk.
"H-H-Hi Dad." She stuttered, starting to tear up.
"Hey honey."
"Hi!"

"So–Where are you?" She asked after hours of talking.
"I'm on the Spectrum."
"But where's the Spectrum?
"Near KLMA-3C."
"Okay one second..." Kaitlyn applied a special filter to the end of the telescope, sliding in gently. The filter was supposed to turn KLMA-3 from a view of six hundred years ago, to a live view using mapping systems. "Is KLMA-3C the third closest?"
"Yeah, it is." Kaitlyn angled the telescope to KLMA-3, using the optic to line up the views. KLMA-3 appeared as a bright star, shining into the eyepiece.
"Third right?"
"Oh my god yes!" I laughed. Kaitlyn lined up KLMA-3C in the eyepiece and zoomed, the Event Horizon started to appear.
"Dad, what's that? The big ship?"
"It's a super long story. I can't tell you. But the Spectrum is inside it. Here, we can undock."
"O-Okay."