Kosmonauts

Chapter I: Launch

"Are you ready, comrade?"

I nodded anxiously. Being strapped into a massive vessel with five thousand other barely-soldiers and launched into the atmosphere was never a fun event. I yearned for the day that space travel would become more affordable, so that I didn't have to endure this tight-packed rat travel.

I nodded somberly.

"Yes, comrade."

The burly mustached Russian flashed a toothy grin as he finished strapping me into my seat, which gave me no elbow space as they jutted into the sides of the other grumbling soon-to-be spacemen.

"Good luck, then! Don't die on the trip, comrade Maxim!"

And with that, he climbed out of the giant vessel, as the rocket began to prepare for launch. I wondered to myself just how much fuel this rocket needed to propel us into space, and feared the small possibility that this ship, along with all of its passengers, would explode into a fiery ball of flames and plummet back to Earth.

To fight off the rising anxiety building in my gut, I took deep breaths and closed my eyes, as the countdown reached the end.

3... 2... 1...

(Music: "8080", by Priroda)

Space.

A beautiful, celestial sea of cosmic bodies and burning stars.

I marveled at the sight of the stars from the small port-hole pressure-paned windows of the spacecraft. How lucky was I, among the countless billions of the past, to be so close to these magnificent stars?

I, along with several others, climbed out of the vessel and entered the space station, marveling at its modern and sleek look.

"Hello."

I turned my attention to see a young woman, with auburn-blonde hair and shifting bluish eyes, wearing a white button-down shirt and brown slacks. She nodded respectfully as I turned my attention to her.

"You are the new Kosmonauts, Da?"

I nodded in kind, pulling lightly on the tight military uniform that seemed to suffocate me more than denote my status.

"Da. And you?"

She smiled, and gestured for me to follow her. We made our way through the spacious station, and I saw all manner of things; Barracks for the soldiers, closed-off laboratories where other scientists were conducting experiments entirely unknown to me; Large reinforced windows with a view of Earth, along with the plethora of enemy spacecraft and stations that orbited around it. Officers ran about with paperwork and assignments, marking down the most minute movements of the American and Chinese forces.

It depressed me greatly that I would soon be venturing out into that orbit and fighting against others in the great expanse of this beautiful universe. As much as I despised the Amerikantsy and Kitayskiy, the last thing I wanted to do at this moment was kill other people under the magnificent gaze of the cosmos.

"I am an observational astronomer." The woman spoke up, as we made our way into her office; A large observatory with devices I couldn't name, and a massive telescope that pointed out towards the innumerable galaxies and glinting stars. "I study the movement of stars, and record information about the observable universe. That is, when I'm not being ordered to observe the movement of our enemies."

She chuckled to herself, and for some reason I found that to be far cuter than it should have been.

"But... I love my job. I can't stress enough how happy I am to be here. I almost got passed up by some high-ranking pridurok who knew nothing about stars and everything about mindless slaughter."

She sighed, and turned back to me.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I should introduce myself."

She extended her hand with a warm smile.

"Valeriya Tarasova."

I shook her hand gently.

"Maxim Zhuravlev. It is nice to meet you."

She nodded appreciatively, then brought me to her telescope.

"I don't want to bore you with astronomy yerunda. Here, look through this."

She gestured to a part of the giant telescope, a small tube with which I assumed one peered through. I obliged, putting my eye down to the scope to look-

"Huh!"

(Music: "Counting the Atmospheres", by Jessica Curry)

It was... beyond magnificent.

I could see a galaxy up close; Oh, the wonder! What fascination filled me! Its cosmic tendrils, the unmistakable shining from the center of it; What WAS this?!

It was as if I was glimpsing one of the countless galaxies that dotted the pitch-black sky; Seeing the purple and blue hues that swirled around the center, the spiral formation, the cosmic dust that was so massive in size, yet so tiny that my eye could make out every part of the phenomenon-

"H-!"

I couldn't resist the emotional turmoil that overcame me; I remembered, only months ago, working on the pig farm with my father, looking up at the sky where I would be going after being drafted.

Why was I so... lucky? To see this? To experience this?

"Thank you, comrade Valeriya," I muttered amidst stifled sobs. The sight was overwhelming to me completely and utterly. It was as if I had peered into a magnificent world, of which I was but a small part of.

Valeriya seemed to smile even more, as if overjoyed by my reaction.

"There is no need for thanks." She assured me. "It was my deepest pleasure to let you see the beauty of this universe."

She went back to the telescope to make adjustments, as she told me of the many things she did; Documenting redshifts (her explanation of this left me befuddled, but I was amazed nonetheless), analyzing infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths from deepspace, measuring the masses of planets many years away from us.

"Some of these planets and stars are so far away," She said to me. "That they cannot be measured by relative years- that is, the normal years we have on Earth. We use light years to measure their distance; Meaning, how quickly we could get there if we traveled at the speed of light."

"Amazing." I muttered in sheer awe. "We can travel at the speed of light?!"

Valeriya erupted into a hearty laugh as she heard my words.

"No, no, comrade Maxim. It is just one of the fastest possible ways to travel in our universe- or it was until we discovered STIM'ing. Light is the fastest-traveling speed in the known universe, and so we measure the distance of cosmic objects from us by light years."

I shook my head in wonder.

"It is no wonder you are the scientist and I am the soldier." I joked, and she let out a nervous chuckle.

"Da, well... you are always welcome to chat with me anytime about space."

I blushed at her proposition, and felt a feeling of euphoria fill me; That I would get to see the beauty of this existence, and with a beautiful sculpture of a woman no less...

"Ah," I grunted aloud as one of the terms Valeriya had used came to the forefront of my mind. "You mentioned this 'STIM' thing. I have heard the word thrown around all the time, but no one knew what it was or how to explain it. What is this 'STIM'?"

Valeriya smiled, turning from her station to address me fully.

"It's a bit hard to explain. It stands for "Space-Time Interstellar Manipulation". I myself do not know everything about it except the general concept."

She began organizing her work station idly as she explained it to me.

"Some American named Montaug discovered it a few years ago. Basically, it is a substance, or group of particles, of some sort which allows us to transport ships instantaneously from one location to anoth-"

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