Dance Among the Stars

"It'll be best if you go in backwards."

John Stark stared out at the vast expanse of space.  After seven years of training, here he was.  At last, he was finally ready to fulfill his lifelong dream to dance among those stars; to become a test pilot.

"John?  Can you hear me?"  His mentor's voice snapped him back to reality.

"Uh, yeah.  I heard you.  Something about going backwards..."

"Yeah, about that.  Plowing the ship strait in will cause a shock wave.  That would puncture the Surface Tension and start a ripple effect."

John stared at his teacher.  "How come you never told me this before?" he inquired.

Dr. Ozzy shrugged.  "Never occurred to me."

*

Slowly, slowly...

The ship inched it's way out of the stardock.  Crowds cheered as the Skydance burst forth from it's hanger, distancing itself from the station so as not to harm it when the ship went into The Blue.  On one side of him, the Deep Space Station 7, it's chrome body looming at him, spinning wildly; on the other, the vast expanse of space, endless, silent, waiting.

The cheers would have comforted John, but as everybody knew, in space, nobody can hear you cheer.  Or scream.

And now the stardock shrank away from him, until it was merely a bright speck in the distance.  As his teacher had told him, he was flying backwards.

"Captain Stark, do you read me?" the cockpit radio blared.

John scrambled to grab the mouthpiece.  "Rodger, DSS 7, I read."

"Check that, Captain, you are clear for Blue entry."

John grabbed the lever as he had so many times before, inching it slowly forward.  The engine's hum turned into a whine as the ship entered The Blue.  The training simulations had tried, but nothing could prepare him for the shock.

As the ship fell though the Tension, his view became distorted.  Colours danced wildly around him.  The sound of the engines came in waves, waves...

All around him, the empty black of space was turning blue.  The stars' lights turned to fiery halos.  The ship's movement became erratic.  The static of the radio became a beautiful harmonic chord that human ears were never meant to hear.

He was in The Blue.

*

Stark booted the navicomp.  In the thousand years or so since they had been invented, computers had come a long way.  However, they still took a frustratingly long time to start.

"Welcome to the Vektor Systems navicomp Mark 11.  Please state your destination."

John reeled off the coordinates.  "Virgo Local Kyklos Orion Sol Terra."

The computer was quick to reply.  "According to the UPD, our current location is Virgo Local Kylos Orion Polaris Alpha.  Plotting course..."

Inside the vast mass of the navicomp, quibit relays switched on and off at near the speed of light.  Fiber optic pulses zipped from end to end, computing which stellar currents to ride...

"Course plotted.  Prepare for propulsor activation."

And off the went, dancing among the stars, jumping from current to current, moving many times the speed of light towards their ultimate goal:  Earth.

Milky jets of light shot past them, forming a tunnel through this blue expanse...

And that's when the alarms went off.

*

"Captain Stark!  Do you read me?  We have a problem!"

Lumar communications was very expensive and sucked up a lot of processing power, so this must be important.  "Yeah, I read.  What's going on?  Everything is going haywire over here!"

The man on the lumar sounded very stressed.  "Captain!  It's the vacuum lock!  It's failing!"

John was confused. "Why is that bad?"

There was a scuffling sound on the channel.  Suddenly John heard a familiar voice.  "Johnny boy!  There you are!  It's Dr. Ozzy."  A feeling of relief rushed over John.

That feeling was quickly shattered.  "Listen, you're in terrible danger.  The vacuum lock is the only thing between you and The Blue.  If it fails, there's no telling what will happen."

Captain to the core, John was not ready to give up.  "Is there any way I can fix it?"

"No.  But you can try and escape before The Blue enters the ship."

John scrambled to the navicomp.  "Computer!  Where's the nearest safe exit point?"

Parts clicked and whirred as the computer gave it's answer.  "Virgo Local Kylos Orion Alpha Centauri Beta Gamma.  We are 70 lightyears away, giving an ETA of 10 minutes."

"Will that be enough time?"

"Hard to say.  The Blue moves erratically.  If conditions hold - yes.  But we may hit a current.  That would be bad."

"OK, plot a course there.  And hurry!"

And now the dance grew more frantic, as the ship leaped great distances, from star to star, current to current, wave to wave.  The tunnel grew longer and thinner as The Blue approached the Skydance.  How appropriate that name was, thought John, for this ship.  The first of it's kind, doomed on it's maiden voyage, a modern Titanic, sinking into The Blue.

"Captain.  We will have to breach the Surface Tension very quickly if we are to survive.  This could cause a Ripple Effect.  Are you sure you want to do this?"

John was slow to answer the navicomp.  "Yes.  But let me talk to DSS 7 first."

"Opening channel..."

*

"Dr. Ozzy!"

The sound came in distorted waves now.  They were going too fast.  "Ye...aptain...is it..."

John kept going anyways.  "Listen, you need to put up wave barriers around Virgo Local Kylos Orion Alpha Centauri Beta Gamma."

"But...shock waves...will kill you..."

"The ship will survive, and so will the inhabitants of the sector.  You need the readings from this ship to prevent this from happening again."

There was a silence on the lumar.  "Alright...be careful...maybe...will survive..."

John plowed the ship strait toward the Tension.  Around him, colours danced, stars shined, currents moved, waves crashed...

And suddenly John felt as though he was part of something bigger than anyone could imagine.  He felt as though an ant must feel when a human looms over it: frightened, yet exhilarated, knowing that his true life was about to begin.

There was silence as the stars danced on.

*

Alpha 24, 2999
Dear Mrs. Stark,

We regret to inform you that your husband, John Arduino Stark, passed away in the line of duty aboard the Galactic Space Ship Skydance.  Please understand that his job as a test pilot was high-risk, and that he sacrificed his life to prevent the tragedy that caused his demise from ever happening again.  John was a brave man, and will be missed.

With my deepest regrets,
Dr. Jocasta X. Osymandias.

*

Leaping, flying, moving, dancing.  From dark patch to bright light, colours bursting, into The Blue.  Everything moving, in circles, eternal circles, in their eternal dance.  And somewhere up there was John Arduino Stark, his dream finally fulfilled, dancing with the colours, the waves, the currents.  And that was his fate, and he was happy.

To dance among the stars.