Keep me in distant sight

Chapter 13 : Contact

Finally having control over his spaceship is one of the most relieving things he has ever felt. The throttles answer when he twists them; the light has switched to a pale and clear yellow; his chair is settled and locked into position; and of course, the map and scanners are functioning perfectly. If he was back on Earth, he would do a little flip with his spaceship just for the sake of it. However, where he is right now is better than Earth.

He's on the outer edge of Proxima's heliosheath, mere hours away from landing on Ayll. As of now he's riding the tumultuous part of the heliosheath but it should be smaller than the Sun since Proxima is a red dwarf. His map states "9h until landing", yet he counts 12 just to be sure. He can't approach the inner system, especially not Ayll, at the speed he's going right now if he wishes to land peacefully. When he will be inside the system's calmer parts, Akaashi will slowly decrease his speed. At this point, the other instruments on board will be able to pick Ayll's speed and incline and automatically lock the spaceship into the correct approach - if it doesn't, Akaashi can perfectly calculate all of this by himself. This is something he had done many times before:

Let yourself be pulled into orbit.

Use your screens to lock on a target, preferably a large band of ground even if your ship can land on water.

Snuff out your engines when you breach the atmosphere until the remaining 1% of antimatter is the only thing fueling your spaceship.

Activate the thrust reversers, which act as brakes.

Deploy all flaps and burn the remaining antimatter for a smooth landing.

It's easier than surviving loneliness and hallucinations for a whole year inside a small spaceship, for sure. Although, if you asked him right now, with all the dopamine, adrenaline and serotonin flooding his being, Akaashi would say it wasn't that hard - which is of course a lie. It's just that, faced with the promise of his journey's end and the sparkles igniting his Bond, everything fades away. Only the deeply rooted relief and the elating joy stay. There's no tiredness when he expertly maneuvers his spaceship further into the system, distractedly taking notes of what his scanners say. There are three asteroid belts that looped around the outer edge of the system, no icy giants but rather two rocky worlds and one hot gas giant orbiting closer to the star than its counterparts. It's a really small system tucked inside a tiny corner of their Galaxy. From where he is right now, he can't see Proxima's light. Or Na. It might be wise to refer to it with its real name instead. Anyways, Na is approximately 1/7 of the Sun so it seems fitting that Akaashi wouldn't be able to see it until he comes closer.

Which is exactly what he intends to do.

He's more than ready to leave behind everything and embrace his new life. Nothing would come between his goal and him. It doesn't matter if he has to wait inside his ship for a bit more. He knows that if he's patient, his own personal star will grace him of his light.

Also, Kōtarō had said numerous times before that the Nights of his world aren't something to take lightly and subsequently the Dawns as well. All things considered, Akaashi doesn't want to freeze to death after painfully enduring his time inside his steel prison - thank you, he's gonna pass on the offer and go straight to the happily ever after. The cherry on top is the fact that he still has food and water. Well it comes from days of sickness and not eating but you know what, he will take it. One less thing to worry about.

Akaashi starts decreasing the speed when his short range scanner beeps, showing a picture of a planet. It's not Ayll, he knows it - it's Proxima Centauri c, a super-Earth orbiting around Na but father than acceptable for life to bloom on it. Curiosity manages to take over. How could it not, when you're one of the few humans who can lay your eyes on brand new worlds? No matter what happened, there's still a parcel of wonder buried deep. Akaashi finds this planet incredibly pretty. It's a shame it doesn't bear life, really, because from what he can see, if it was orbiting closer, it would be a magnificent ocean-planet. As it is now, all the planet offers him is white. Humongous glaciers that stretch for thousands of kilometers from the North to the South Pole without anything breaking the surface. Around it, Akaashi detects several moons, some Moon-like, others weirdly-shaped. One of them seems colored in a pretty burgundy color. He can't linger, yet he stores his observations for later, when he will be comfortable enough in oral nillian to start asking questions.