STARLIGHT

Floating in the darkness between the stars he was all alone. Nevertheless, even from here he heard their call.

He had always heard their call even at the age of five when his dad took him to Cape Canaveral to watch the rockets launch.
The ground would start to vibrate under their feet, as the roar of the ignition hit their ears.
He remembered how they would slowly lift off the pad, seemingly on fire for the first few seconds, then rising on a pillar of flame into the sky.
He could remember his dad telling him that no matter what he should always follow his heart, if he did, he could accomplish anything.
Even then, he had wanted to be there, inside that ship destined for the stars.

He could feel his eyes drying out, his tears no longer wetting his eyes as they had on that night so long ago.

He was nine now, standing in front of the casket, looking down at the body of the man he had call father.
The only other person to have understood the call he heard every night, the man who had pointed out the constellations to him, the man he had loved.
He sat up all along that night starring up at the star his father said his mother had gone to when he was born. He wept.
That night the calls started to grow stronger, he believed it was because his father was now out there adding his voice.

Blinking the vision from out of his tired eyes, he could still see the shuttle that had brought him here. Floating not twenty-five feet away.
He could see his tether floating disconnected from the ship, his oxygen slowly leaking from it. Disconnected purposefully.
He looked at the objects floating near him, the objects he had left the ship to see, a group of white space suits.
The suits still had the NASA logo and USA patches, but the owners were not inside.
If he had only known the outcome of his choices just ten years ago.

He hugged his girlfriend goodbye before he headed for the plane, it was eleven years later and he was on his way to NASA's training complex.
He knew he would miss her, but the call was too strong to ignore anymore. He also knew she would be there when he finished training.
She would be there waiting for him to return, but she would not be alone; she would wait with the son he would never see.

Would he have changed his mind? He did not think he would after all this is what the stars had promised.
The call promised peace, but most of all it had promised he would be home when he answered.

They had arrived just two years after he joined the academy, landing in their spacecraft
promising peace and joint exploration of the galaxy.
They, the Ipstaormians, for that is what they called themselves, started taking six human crewmembers a year into deep space.
NASA had called it deep space exploration.
They would have named it deep space extermination, had they known.
They had promised peace. They were going to keep their promise for peace, everlasting peace.

He tried to swallow, and blinked clearing his eyes again. He could see them, the Ipstaormians, watching him through the window of the shuttle.
Watching and taking notes, for all this time, they had just been testing the humans.
Testing them to find out their limits. Finding out their weaknesses.

The academy had not been easy, but he had graduated with honors at the top of his class.
He had been chosen to go on one of the deep space missions; he had jumped at the chance to answer the call.
The mission was right after graduation; he never had the chance to see his girlfriend or son.
He promised as soon as he returned he would marry her.

"Not yet," he croaked, fighting back the darkness, trying to resist the call.
It seemed ironic that his whole life was playing out in his mind in just a few moments; he had thought he had accomplished so much.
Now he realized that if he could have resisted that call, he could have accomplished so much more.
Even though he managed to complete his goals that he had set, he knew only regret.
Regret for never actually listening to what his father had been trying to say, regret for the girl that would still be waiting for him, regret for never living.
Regret for never showing his son the things a father would. Most of all regret for not listening to his heart.
However, even now at the end, the stars call was to strong. He could not breathe anymore, and his vision had faded to black.
Through his fading vision, he could see them pulling his body toward the shuttle. His body started rotating.
He saw the stars, their call louder than he could bear.
It was now that he finally gave in and answered the call, a call he had heard for all his life, the call of the stars. The call for peace.