What a hauntingly beautiful execution.

Outside the frosty windows, Caden could see the planet of cozy Earth, its mesmerizing blue surface casting a cerulean glow upon the glass. Blankets of wispy clouds drifted about, the soulful glow of city lights were sometimes accompanied by ephemeral shivers of lightning. Beyond that, laid the midnight blanket of outer space, ever so carelessly splashed with pinpoints of stars.

For several heartbeats, Caden’s mind was empty.

A sharp headshake.

Goodness… How could he have forgotten?

The half-synthetic Earth, choked by pollution and corruption alike, was already taking its last breath. The discovery of “stellarite” and its miraculous properties in aerospace a few months ago had only spoon-fed the oppressive fire. Immediately after its first demonstration in a space mission, countless hungry organizations had shot up to seize their potential escape route out of Earth. Or maybe, it was to seize their new source of income. Caden had been among the first to work with stellarite as an astronautical researcher, and yet it would seem that the early bird did not, and will never, get the worm. In this survival of the evilest, he was simply not cunning enough.

Perhaps it was fitting that Caden would meet his demise in the very cosmic realm that he once thrived in.

Worthless rats.

He struggled out of the countless layers of nylon, spandex, plastic, and whatever cursed space material that bound his arms. With a defiant push off the ground, he floated himself upwards.

Silence.

The crew compartment was void of life. Overwhelming emptiness covered the various sleeping bags, lockers, and other drifting equipment. There was something more solid, more suffocating about this loneliness in the chasm of space.

Breaking the stillness with a colorful string of curses, Caden moved up through the hole in the compartment roof and into the flight deck.

“What in the- AAAAAHH!”

A flying clipboard slammed the life out of him.

“What the- I’m harmless!” Caden yelped, spitting out papers from his mouth.

Before him, a young man around his age was clinging awkwardly to the pilot's seat, his glasses unfortunately lopsided after an abrupt scare.

“Who even are you??” He yelled back.

Caden’s frown almost turned his face inside out. He didn’t answer.

The young man inspected Caden more closely, the fear in his eyes gradually replaced by… admiration. “Hold on, aren’t you that one ‘Caden’ from the news?”

Caden continued to frown, although his eyebrows no longer tried to mash themselves together. “Sure, that’s me.”

“Huh, I didn’t know you came with us!” He pushed up his glasses and stared at Caden with a childlike wonder. “Sorry about the clipboard. My name is Theodore, by the way. You can call me Theo, or if-”

“Listen, idiot,” Caden mercilessly retorted. “I wish I could care more, but somebody kidnapped me and put me here.”

The other researcher froze.

Brown eyes widening with disbelief, Theodore raised his concern. “Aren’t you like, one of the best astrophysicists out there? Who would even…”

“Ugh, it’s probably some cursed businessman that I pissed off in the past… I’m literally doing tricks on space rocks but apparently that’s ‘getting in their way.’” A twinge of irritation crawled up Caden’s back. “What even is this shuttle, anyway?”

Theodore floated a few inches back, slowly gesturing at the sets of control boards in the flight deck. “Well, uh… this is space shuttle Aspiration, currently docked at the International Space Station for a resupply mission. The rest of the crew is conducting stellarite experiments on the station and I’m staying here for a shuttle checkup. It’s been pretty loose and free, since we’re privately funded,” he added, adjusting his glasses.

Caden snorted.

This guy can’t be serious. He’s painfully stupid.

Obediently answering questions, dutifully following mission orders, Theodore’s naivety must’ve survived by pure luck. He didn’t question Caden’s identity and never doubted the mission’s goals. Of course, it was crystal clear that this “resupply mission” was just a fancy masquerade for secret stellarite research… In other words, profits. It was something Caden would do himself, afterall.

No wonder they left Theodore behind on the shuttle.

“Do you wanna come along for the checkup?” Theodore asked, eagerly pointing at the door to the airlock. “I’ve read your articles and I’m sure your experience is more than enough. You’ve done several space missions already! The commander’s definitely gonna be satisfied, too.”

“Is that all you can think about? Kissing up to your superiors?” Caden muttered crossly.

“Huh? No, no. I’m not gonna ask for rewards or anything.”

Caden creased his brows again but turned towards the airlock.

The awkward researchers floated downwards back into the crew compartment. An unpleasant silence unfolded between them, strangely making the space seem even lonelier than before.

“Uh… I’m mainly here for my research thesis,” Theodore explained uncomfortably as he began to assemble gear for their extravehicular activity. “I don’t think I have to worry about my grade on it since you’re here, haha.”

He peeked at Caden with a small laugh.

Caden was already pissed off by Theodore’s general behavior.

A good child is someone who does what they’re told and knows not to ask for toys and candy. But what purpose do these puppets serve?

“Right now, nobody knows what stellarite can do. You know you can probably get a good score even if you make stuff up, right?” Caden asked, carelessly rummaging through the lockers. “Unless you’re a goody two-shoes that doesn’t cheat.”

Theodore stopped organizing gear. “Listen, man. I care about people’s safety, so I’m going to do my best on this. And… I can do the checkup alone if that’s what you want. I really don’t get why you keep asking these questions.”

“I’m talking about your grades… not people. But dream on, buddy,” Caden scoffed. “Keep believing you’re the main character.”

Theodore was starting to get upset. His mop of dark hair swished as he turned to stare Caden in the eye. “What’s your problem? Is there something wrong with doing good for humanity?”

“I don’t know what kind of drugs you’re on, but you need a dose of reality.” Caden shot at him. “Have you followed these ideals like a dog for your whole life?”

“It’s just what I’m supposed to do?” Theodore was incredulous, the rims of his eyes white with disbelief. “Have you never heard of responsib-”

Clang!

The shuttle violently jerked to one side, sending Caden and Theodore crashing and tumbling like marbles in a tin box. A horrid, metallic symphony of crunches and crackles and crashes shattered into the world, and within seconds, the screech of the alarm was piercing the chaos like a bullet.

“What’s going on?!” Caden yelped, instantly scrambling for the control boards. The sea of buttons and keys seemed to swallow him like an unfamiliar tidal wave as the entire shuttle fell into a terrifying solo of the wailing sirens.

With a sickening snap, their shuttle broke away from the ISS.

The full orbiter vehicle drifted into the vastness of space as if it were in a hypnotized trance, but Theodore remained desperately glued to the back of the pilot seat. “Space debris probably hit the docking mechanism- Check or something!”

Check what?

Caden whipped back to the control boards, but his mind was dragging through a mud of tangled thoughts. “I’m trying to think-”

“Please! Just-” Theodore whimpered and half-stuttered a list of various buttons to press and screens to view.

Panic rocking his fingertips, Caden’s eyes darted like a frightened mouse around the foreign board as he frantically activated controls. The sinister lights of thousands of buttons blinked at him eerily, but he gritted his teeth and continued his operations.

To his left, Theodore was beginning to direct the reaction control system and the orbital maneuvering system pods. The researcher’s dark hair was plastered to his face in sweat.

If there was any sort of leak on the vehicle...

As suddenly as it came, the alarm shut off. The shuttle reported stability.

Heavy tension that stretched over them like a taut bowstring was released by a sagging sigh of relief.

“Goodness!” Caden peeled his eyes off the screens. “Why did you just cling there like a baby?! You’re a coward!” He shouted at Theodore.

The researcher looked up from his furious slamming of a keyboard. “Huh?! You didn’t even know what to do! Just shut up so we can move this thing back… the other crew members aren’t replying at all.” He peeked out the window like a dog waiting for its owner. “Shouldn’t they have detected the space debris and warned us?”

Caden’s lips scrunched up in a disgusted scowl. “From the looks of it, they probably abandoned-”

With a push of his glasses, Theodore sighed loudly. The young man seemed to have aged exponentially within the last few minutes.

“Caden, the newspapers said so many good things about you… but you’re legit just… useless.”

He froze.

The sheer audacity.

Caden leapt up from his position and seized Theodore by the shirt collar. “And you?! Did you even have the courage to move?!”

“At least I know the controls! You talk real big but you don’t know a thing!”

Theodore shoved Caden off of his shoulders with a glare.

“You see, I actually studied hard in high school, got into a good college, and earned every bit of my worth. I’m sorry if your lazy cheating schemes didn’t help you now!”

Caden slammed his hand into the side wall, nearly fuming with the new rage boiling at Theodore’s comment.

“Just how entitled are you?! Listen, I grew up in a household that didn’t blink twice at my education, and I worked with colleagues that were so jealous they put me here to die in space. So what if I cheat? I’m stepping on these rats because they’ll step on me if I don’t!”

“Is that supposed to excuse your crimes?! People like us fight to get here, just like you! You call yourself a researcher and astronaut but you can’t operate anything! You don’t even care about humanity! You’re a fake, Caden. A fake.”

“At least I’m not a machine! I do this because I like this, not because my parents or my boss yelled at me to do it. How are you a researcher when all you care about is grades? How noble is your little dream if you don’t even believe in it-”

Boom!

A world-ending explosion rocketed the shuttle, this time sending it accelerating forwards. The wail of a much sharper alarm screamed a fatal warning as Caden slammed into the control boards.

That can’t be space debris.

His head struck something sharp. His vision dropped to blackness.

In the midst of Caden’s half consciousness, he heard distant yet frantic shouts, blurring in and out of his thundering eardrums.

“The aft fuselage… orbital… system pods…” Theodore’s broken voice trailed on and off as muffled sounds of wreckage and acceleration stabbed around his brain.

~~~~~

If he not I but I is I and I not he but he is he then how can we?

There is no bad job but love is not fake and love is fake but I can’t good and he can’t. Is love?

Maybe not.

Right thing is rules. Cannot be free but he rules and right thing. I want to be free. Learn free is right thing?

Maybe not.

Dream

They are not good but he think they are good and he helps them but I think they are not good they hate me I hate them dream is not real. It cannot be real.

Then what?

~~~~~

A golden ring of molten fire surrounded the orbiter vehicle like a halo of ethereal retribution as it plummeted towards Earth. There was no wish to be made as this cursed meteor streaked across the fake sky.

For several heartbeats, Caden’s mind was empty.

A sharp headshake.

What in the world happened?!

His eyes tore open but he felt his lungs collapse like a house of cards within his chest. The pressure around him changed and twisted and faltered as if a god was bending the space continuum like a toy.

Ice cold horror wormed into his heart as he fell, fell, and fell.

Theodore’s lifeless body dangled like a broken doll across the pilot seat, his eyes colorlessly dull and his glasses unfortunately lopsided.

Caden’s lips quivered.

Was it the shuttle itself quaking or was it his own nervousness?

He closed his eyes once more.

What made the shuttle fall?

They were each fighting for their own passions and perspectives.

What made the shuttle fall?

In the moment of death, Theodore knew what to do but Caden had the courage to act. Both were at fault but neither was wrong.

What made the shuttle fall?

The entire humanity? The world that made Caden so cruel and Theodore so spiritless?

Caden’s lips twisted upwards in a melancholic smile. Bittersweet.

The remaining skeleton of the lost shuttle slammed onto the sun-dappled ocean surface. Miraculous waves burst forth like the blossoming of spring flowers as the metal buried itself underneath the blue waters. Monumental ripples spread apart the ocean, pulsing.

Somehow, he believed the two of them could’ve been friends.