♤ SIO Oneshots & AUs

Home 》 Astronaut Maxx AU

Au/plot: Maxx is a human lab rat (willingly) sent to the moon to see what toll the human body and mind undergoes being on the moon for roughly three years. However, he has a sneaking suspicion that he was sent to see if there's another form of life just a couple hundred thousand miles from Home. But hey, he didn't care as long he was in orbit.

(roughly based on Moon (kevin spacey can choke tho), Apollo 18 and Lonely Dance in a sense. Posting this on Apollo 11's 50th anniversary so yeehaw babes. Part one of what may end up being a fic? Possibly an add-on to the next chapter despite making this ages before idk)

They say we know more about our own Universe than our oceans. We know more about hundreds of thousands of planets, multiple solar systems, we're even finding signs of life from planets millions of light years away. And yet, we're hardly scratching 5% of our seas.

We've evolved from microscopic organisms to fully functioning humans, able to perform many things once considered impossible. We can change our whole world in a split second with a single word or even a gesture. We can abandon our identities and start anew at any given time. It's beyond fascinating what we can do.

Do you think that there's currently life festering at the bottom of the ocean as we speak? Do you think in a few million years they'll begin our process all over again? Would they be smarter than us or the same level of intelligence?

Regardless, there's one thing I'm certain of. The thought of us being the only living creatures in this universe is so isolating and yet the thought of us not being alone doesn't feel me with much comfort either. If it does turn out that we are the only living things in this world, we must have passed some big hurdle for humanity right? Some giant challenge that every other planet hasn't been able to pass, and by some sheer chance we've been lucky enough to make it. That'd be one for the books, for sure.

Or maybe we're too young in the grand scheme of things for there to be life yet? Time may move differently here on Earth than it does in a galaxy hundreds of light years away. We might just be a little early for things to even form.

I'm not sure which is more comforting though. Being aware that we've been lucky enough to survive everything that's been thrown us or that we're just another planet bound to doom itself?

Maxx sighed and gently set his pen to the side, re-reading what he had scribbled down. It wasn't any different from his earlier journal entries, the same spew of thoughts jotted down on paper before he had to start the day. It helped him get his mind in order. The crew back Home had suggested he kept a log of some sort to prevent himself from going crazy.

He moved the small curtains to the side and stared out across the vast expanse before him. Machinery calling craters their home, giant trucks scrambling to-and-fro and broken down com towers littered his view. His gaze shifted from Sully, the current transport truck that was out and about, to the world that slowly spun below him.

He wondered how life was still going on down there. Had he missed any important advancements?  Sure, it hasn't been that long since he left Home, but he still wondered what he was going to come back to. During his first few weeks here, he laid awake in his bunk terrified of how much the world was going to change while he was gone. He'd be like an elderly person trying to figure out what the latest smart-tech does.

He chuckled to himself as he thought of his grandfather's first interaction with their smart fridge. "Now why do we need a fridge that speaks to us, Max? And what do all these buttons do?" His grandfather tapped on the fridge's screen and sighed in frustration. "Why the hell is there Net-flicks on here? What am I gonna do, stand here and watch a movie? I just want some ice! Make. Ice."