Ad Astra - To the Stars

To the Stars

       "Oh, not again!" Saahn's pod spun around, and it took the ship almost a whole minute to readjust itself before he went sailing into a piece of drifting debris and turned the spacecraft right side up. Now stable, he tried the manoeuvre again, putting the pod into drive velocity and zooming towards the Eta Asteroid Ring over the city. This time, instead of his shaking hands forcing the pod into rotation, the ship collided with a stray asteroid. The impact sent the craft and Saahn down to the ground, barely giving the system time to reset itself. But it was too late, and the pod hadn't even started to rise before it dug into the dirt, hit a rock, and ejected the prince, who went sprawling in a tangle of long, black hair. He sat up with a groan of pain. "Ungh…"

        This counted for the second crash tonight. Maybe the gist of flying a Size 1 pod wasn't going as fast as possible through whatever he wanted. If Saahn could learn to master drifting, maybe the rest would come on its own. The spacecraft was made of a durable alloy, and as Saahn managed to push it onto its bottom, he saw that it was dirty but undamaged. A gloved finger started the engine, and the pod rose silently. Wearing a nervous expression, Saahn peered through the crystal pane at the sky. If he went up high, no one would know the underage prince was riding a spacecraft unsupervised. He hated the thought. On the other side, should Saahn go up too high, if he got in trouble, he'd be on his own.

        Determined to learn to fly, Saahn commanded the pod to rise, and rise it did. Even though he knew the Size 1 craft would automatically initiate life support once it left the Riis atmosphere, when the system did engage, he grew uneasy, seeing the yellow notice on the mainframe. Endless black stretched on and only stopped where an odd planet or asteroid collection spun like blown leaves in water. From his studies, Saahn knew the stars he was seeing had gone past light years ago and had left an imprint in space.

        He put the craft into drift once again, and the stars became glowing lines when the ship took off. Saahn could see in his rear view mirror that Riis was shrinking. The pod weaved in and out of space debris far easier than blasting through a ring at higher speeds. As Saahn learned how to turn the ship more easily, he could advance to drive velocity and control was his for the taking. Excitement took over the anxiety, and he realized flying was, in actual fact, fun. Everyone Saahn knew would say they thought space was cold, bleak, or dark, but the star lines seemed to illuminate the dark matter around him like the district lights at night. In the spirit of his flight, he imagined taking the little spacecraft out of Riis territory and to the neighboring planets or get as close to the Riis star, Heen, as the ship could.

        But he couldn't. He'd already been gone for over past his bedtime, and his guards would soon be looking into his chamber. Regretfully, Saahn turned the craft towards his home planet, sailing away from the stars. Before the pod touched back to its landing site, the prince adjusted the engine speed and shifted from drive velocity to drifting then to landing. Now the engine was off, and he stepped out. His black eyes scanned the nighttime sky for a moment before he ran on to his room, imagining what solar systems had been within flying distance. What stars lit those systems? Stars whose impression in space would be all he saw of them? Or maybe he would be able to visit them before they died and became stardust. Saahn pulled himself up with the knotted blanket hanging outside his window. Inside his chamber, he removed his royal cape and began changing quietly into nightdress. So far, no one had noticed his disappearance. This was good. It meant this outing was possible. If luck was on his side, during the next night, no one could stop him from taking the Size 1 spacecraft back into the so-called void of space and seeing starlight again.