Brilliant Gibberish

Into the Great Beyond

The small, enclosed space felt smothering to Don. It stole his breath and robbed him of his faculties. His helmet was airtight and claustrophobic, but he knew that barring a major systems malfunction he should be fine. He had trained officially for this moment for a long time, though to him it felt like his entire life had been preparation. He had grown up idolizing NASA's greatest heroes, and remembered with perfect clarity his experiences watching the moon landing. Now that it was his turn to find and secure the same glory, he couldn't help but feel inadequate in his own estimation. His stark, white surroundings felt sterile and did little to ease his tempestuous mood. The control panel he was tasked with operating beeped and flashed with disturbing regularity.

The agonizing wait which preceded countdown was drawing to a close. The familiar, famous, almost cliché countdown sequence began, "T minus ten, nine, eight..." Don broke into a cold sweat, not entirely believing his current situation to be real. He closed his eyes, and breathed deeply. By the time he had regained his composure, the booming voice had reached, "three, two, one," Don began furiously tapping buttons, pulling switches and relaying commands.

"Liftoff."

The force of a thousand hurricanes exploded beneath his feet. The gargantuan craft rocked like a ship tossed by the waves of the sea. A sudden, unwelcome voice appeared in Don's earpiece, and startled him terribly.

"Loud enough for ya?"

With the last of his strength, he summoned his faculties and responded "Yeah, it's loud enough alright."

He looked out the window and watched the blue sky stream past. The ground sprinted away from him, trying desperately to run as far as it could from the craft and the men who occupied it. His harness absorbed much of the pressure, but the enormous g-forces bearing down on him were difficult to ignore. They made it hard to pay attention to the mesmerizing scenes which he streamed past, but he made the greatest effort to do so.

The ground had long since faded away to a speck on the horizon. Buildings, cars, jobs, people and the petty lives they led felt so insignificant 10,000 feet in the air. Perhaps they were on solid ground as well. His fears, joys, ambitions and jealousy didn't seem to matter much among the clouds. The rush of air and exultation were like nothing he had experienced before.

It wasn't long before they cleared the atmosphere. The friction tore at the sides of the rocket, and a shuddering creak emitted from Don's left. For a brief, terrifying moment, it looked like they were going to be torn apart, but the metal plates held firm.

Don returned his gaze to the Earth, and caught his first glimpse of the planet from orbit. The blues of the oceans overwhelmed most of the planet's features. Their great height erased any of the Earth's imperfections, leaving only beauty in their wake. Thousands of glimmering lights dotted the surface of the planet's dark side, the blending of millions of light bulbs, streetlights, candles and fires. There were kings and princes who had lived their entire lives without seeing this sight. He knew there was no logical reason why he should, but he felt immensely superior to them in that moment, miles above their heads and obscured by the clouds.

 Don had never seen much of the world, never been very far from home and had never hadany desire to do so. But that moment awoke in him a passion andthirst for exploration that hundreds of trips around the world andabove it could never quench. Perhaps it was because he was foreverchasing the feeling that overpowered him after that first glimpse ofthe Earth from above. But no matter how far or how long he looked, itwas never quite the same. And it never would be.