Ami: "We may be in different worlds, but we share the same moon and stars."
This is a sci-fi love story, dedicated to those people who had to depart...
Can you still see the stars in the city's sky? Have you ever imagined that your imagination could transcend what meets the eye? Slowly soaring towards the outer reaches of the solar system, you will encounter Mars first, followed by the asteroid belt teeming with activity, and then the radiant Jupiter and the ringed Saturn. Continuing further, there's Uranus, and beyond Uranus lies the deep blue Neptune, followed by the Kuiper Belt. Farther still is the Oort Cloud, a journey that takes at least 20,000 years...
This is a pilot's logbook from the era of interstellar exploration. During that time, fusion technology has become practical, and humanity has embarked on voyages into the frigid expanses of the outer solar system, exploring the Kuiper Belt. Earth remains a stage for political and economic struggles, while the explorers are busy bees of that era, pioneers venturing into various planetary belts, far removed from human civilization. This story encompasses love, longing, psychological descriptions, speculation, as well as themes of loneliness, social anxiety, and PTSD.
If you're a tech enthusiast, you'll find foundational elements of interstellar travel here: astronomical units, speed and time, the asteroid belt, Kirkwood gaps, Trojan groups, the Kuiper Belt, Lagrange points, orbital resonance, gravity assist, centrifugal force, the structure and construction materials of interstellar space stations, fusion engines, magnetic confinement, propellant propulsion, and other technological concepts.
[COMPLETED] "Love can be cruel," he mutters. "I thought it would be the reason I would propose, but it's not. Love never wins, does it?"
Cruel. Devious. Twisted love.
Love can play games, and we just happen to be the pawns. We play our moves strategically like a game of chess, until it comes to this moment. We can let the world separate us, stop us, pull us apart. We can let this old love between us fray at the edges.
If love is a game, then Cato and I are destined to lose.
"You're right," I whisper. "But love still exists. Even for a moment."
His knuckles brush against my waist, before he decides to pull me flush against his chest. We're close, and burning, and his breath feels like electricity on my skin. In his green eyes, I see remnants of the heavens, the northern auroras flashing illuminating inside of them.
He holds a new world inside of him, and I long to be the first to discover it.
Cato's nose brushes up against mine, the space between our mouths fading like stardust. "Even for a moment," he murmurs my words against me.
At once, our tensions release.
─── ·𖥸· ───
One half of her heart belongs to the man from the stars. The other belongs to the man of smoke and ash.
Maureen Harradan lives at the bottom tiers of society. Scorned by anyone above her, she finds her fate entwining with Cato Leveque, a wealthy astronaut returning to Earth with new discoveries and secrets. When rumours spread of Cato's uncertain scientific plans, Maureen finds herself working alongside Thomas Smyth, who runs one of the most powerful criminal operations in the city. She must choose which man to believe, and put her entire reputation on the line while running from an unwanted past.
Will Maureen's heart choose to follow the man of the stars? Or will she find peace from the criminal of the streets?
─── ·𖥸· ───
Started February 22, 2022
Completed July 9, 2022.
90,000+ words