Among the Stars

Ten

The preparations for Milo's flight had been hard, including a short two day stay in the isolation chamber and an especially for him designed diet, but all of that mattered next to nothing to him compared to what he was going to do today. After being obsessed with space for as long as he could remember, today was the day he would actually travel it. However, not without a purpose: he would fly to earth to visit Logan.

Now he was sitting in his spaceship, alone, and the realisation hit him: he was actually going to make his dream come true. The dream that had seemed so unreal and unachieveable at first, now it became reality. The grey interior of the small spaceship wasn't particularly aesthetic, to Milo's disapproval, but he'd cope. His imagination would be enough to keep him pleased until he'd finally arrive on the blue planet of his dreams. Besides, his one-man spaceship had a big window on the front, right above the control panel behind which Milo was seated and another one above his bed.

Milo never really knew what to think of goodbyes, he didn't have much experience with them, but right now he really needed to say it. The worst thing was that he wasn't planning on returning anytime soon; it might as well be a permanent farewell. Perhaps the hardest farewell was the one he told Rei. They had been friends for such a long time and maybe they wouldn't see each other again.

"Take care," Rei'd said to him, trying to keep his cool persona intact. Milo could still see the salty liquid in his eyes that was on the edge of spilling over.

"I will," he'd replied and pulled him into a hug for what was probably the last time.

As the ship took off and Milo stared into the black distance, he decided that he hated goodbyes. Naturally, his parents had even cried more than Rei and Milo knew that they didn't agree with this. All parents want to protect their child and keep them safe and so did Milo's. Milo himself knew it was for the best though, he would be able to make a new start on a new world and Logan would help him.

This was what Milo hold onto during his ten day voyage to earth. The nothingness that was space was even worse than he thought it would be. Even the isolation chamber couldn't have prepared him for this. It wasn't that much the boredom that he couldn't cope with, he had spent years having no friends. No, the worst thing happened when he looked too deep into the black parts between the stars and found there were even more stars. It made him feel so insignificant that he thought he'd go crazy if he didn't quickly visualise Logan's soothing image in his head.

Space was different from what he had imagined and Milo had a hard time filling his days. His spaceship flew at 4 times the speed of light, so everything around him was one big black blur. This way, he couldn't see much of the stars around him. Only when Milo went to sleep, he put his ship on autopilot and it would slow down, so he could look at the stars when he laid in bed through the window above him. Though, often he closed his eyes quickly (to not get another existential crisis) and fell asleep to dream of Logan.

The thought of Logan really was the only thing keeping him sane, until the blue sphere that was earth appeared in the distance. He had flew by impressive gas planets, marvellous nebulas and giant suns, but nothing looked as beautiful as the planet that was right before his eyes. From now on, this would be the place he called home. This was the place where he would meet Logan and spend the rest of his life with him.

It was almost time for Milo to go to sleep, but earth was so close that he couldn't find himself to care about resting. All he wanted was to reach his landing place, everything else could wait for now. So he neared the planet's atmosphere and braced himself for the turbulence that would ensue as soon as he'd descent to the surface. From the height he was now, Milo could make out different cities, rivers, deserts, and rainforests. Such a beautiful sight Milo had never thought he'd ever see.

The flight downwards (after Milo had put on the invisible mode of the skycraft) was rocky, but he managed, because from close up earth was even more precious. The so called roads, rails and planes were impressive and for a moment Milo wished he could stay in this dream-like state forever. Everything looked so futuristic, but at the same time not at all. Earth really was something different and new.

During his time training to become a space traveller, he had skillfully learnt how land, but doing it for real seemed somewhat more difficult, causing Milo to have a hard time keeping the ship stable. His coördinates were locked on a strip of nature in the big city of "London", called Holland Park and it appeared to have darkened on the place already. The view from the front window was marvelous as Milo flew narrowly across high buildings, a bell tower and bridges over the broad river; everything was brightly lit with all kinds of coloured artificial lights.

Milo neared the ground quickly as he approached his goal. This was the trickiest part: not hitting people, trees and moving vehicles as he almost hit the ground. The last few metres seemed like an eternity to Milo, before finally, his spaceship touched earth with a shock and he furiously tried to slow down by pulling the brakes. Only the realisation of "I have finally reached earth" went through his head before he doze off to sleep.