Among Stars

Cygnus Cloud

Days later, they were all gathered inside a room that looked like a giant air bubble floating in deep space. It was attached to a sprawling space station far below it via a long elevator shaft that looked like a pipe. The room was filled with numerous people, perhaps even a hundred. The scientists were grouped together, looking outside.

Positioned for the best view, the bubble-room witnessed the stupendous cosmic phenomenon. The Cygnus Cloud. It was like aurora borealis on a cosmic scale, flickering in every possible color of the spectrum — non-visible colors included. It slowly morphed around ever so slightly, but kept its dominant form — two parts spread horizontally, like great big wings spreading across the whole of space. From the middle, a streak ascends, akin to a swan's neck.

The flickering forms and colors played along the surface of the bubble, and lit people's faces up in all the colors. Many silently watched something unforgettable. Few whispered discussions were taking place. There was nothing like the Cygnus Cloud in Empire space, its existence an enigma that left everyone perplexed.

Mizuni's group huddled together and watched the phenomenon with their mouths slightly open. Together like this, they looked more like a bunch of baby birds begging their mother for food than a group of renowned scientists.

A dark-skinned woman, with her jet-black hair in dreadlocks, nudges closer to Marco, and poked him in the side. Her eyes glowed amber in the light of the cosmic cloud. She had a pair of very tech-y looking headphones on. The nameplate on her uniform that appeared to be identical to the rest of them says, "Dr. Williams." An ear icon with a line through it was by her name on the plate.

Marco turned to her, and his face lit up with a wide smile. "Tami!" he said joyfully. "I didn't even notice you joined us," he said, and at the same time his hands were making signs.

Williams smiled at him. "I wouldn't miss this for the life of me," she signed back and grinned. "Not even the threat of Stein's cooking could keep me away."

Marco cackles, glanced at Stein next to him, and then turned back to Williams. "He really can't cook, no lies there," he signs to her and laughs. "How's your work going?"

Williams rolled her eyes and sighed. "Probably similar to everyone else," she signed and made an exasperated face. "Much remains to be done, and we're just a short distance from Helios-5. Most of the servers are done and configured, as are the workstations. But all the controllers need to be configured, as do the sensor guards," she signed.

Marco nodded at her. "Yeah, we're almost all up to our ears with work," he signed and glanced at Kitten and Fesh. "Though for some of us, the work is only just going to start once we reach Sunstar," he signed.

Williams nodded. "I'm not jealous of Vivienne, that's for sure," she signed. "I have no idea how she's going to get the sensor arrays even working in the middle of the bubble," she signed. "Thankfully, it's not my job," she signed and grinned.

T'hea-ik turned towards Greenwood-Smith and whispered, "Hey Angela, this reminds me of the story you told about the... what was it... the one where the light beings came from the Otherside, and then there was something about mystic cultures and what have you."

Greenwood-Smith turned to look towards him and nodded. "Mh. The Legend of the Firstcomers," she whispered. "It does though, does it? It's like the wings of light from the tale."

"Whatever it is, I haven't seen anything this beautiful before in my life," Abebe said from the side. T'hea-ik and Greenwood-Smith nodded at her.

"Look," Llainessa said suddenly, pointing at the cloud. "There's like this ring-like thing forming there!" he said. Everyone turned to look at the spot where he pointed at.

"That's weird," Fesh muttered. "I wonder what makes it do that."

"Some kind of background radiation? Combined with cosmic winds, and perhaps some kind of pulses from OTH-73 Minor?" Marco guessed. He was still signing everything to Williams.

"Whatever it is, it looks mesmerizing," Jamet said quietly.

They watched in silence for a minute or so while the ring grew slightly bigger and then started to get thicker. Marco let out a sigh and closed his eyes.

"Quick, get Mizuni out of here! She's turning the Cygnus Cloud into a donut," he said and signed.

There was a general attempt at stifling laughter, which had a variety of successes, mostly not very great ones.

Mizuni sighed exaggeratedly and very theatrically threw her hands in the air. "Marco, I swear one of these days I'm gonna do something to you that's not on the scientific agenda," she said and laughed.

Williams looked at Marco with her eyebrow up. He quickly signed to her, and she snickered and nodded.

"Look!" Jamet exclaimed and pointed towards the space station. The rotating arm of the bubble room was just coming into view of the spaceport, and there they saw ISS Infinity docked.

It was the first time they had seen it so clearly from outside. Being able to see the front too was the first time many of them noticed the Polarizer output ports pointing forward like a pair of main engines, but pointed forward. They were connected to the front and side of the Donuts. Infinity glistened white in the starlight.

"It's just such a pretty ship," Kitten said lovingly, watching the ship come properly to the view.

Marco groaned. "Mizuni, I can't unsee it," he said with a pained voice.

Mizuni turned to him and flashed him the widest smile she could. "You're welcome," she said.

"Let me present you the 3rd-grade class on their annual class trip..." Stein said and grinned.

"Oh, ha ha. And you're the teacher." Abebe said.

"I'm going back to find Dr. Oberz. Anyone coming with me?" Jamet asked.

Fesh, Llainessa, and Abebe nodded and started to leave with her.

T'hea-ik lifted his eyebrow. "Where is he, by the way? I haven't seen him in a couple of days," he asked.

"He had it worse the past couple of days," Mizuni said. "Said he can't deal with the lights and sounds at the moment. I visited him this morning, and he was irritated, but okay."

"Maybe we can come here at some other time, when there's not so many people around?" Marco said, nodding.

"He said he's fine watching the cloud from the Infinity's observation deck," Mizuni said. "He said that as long as we're all out, he can finally have some silence. And then he shooed me out of his room."

"Sounds like Jacob," Greenwood-Smith said. "He'll be fine once he'll have a couple of days of silence. The constant noises and flashing lights tire him so much."

Everyone nodded. "I guess we should head back too," Mizuni said and turned to leave. She turned to Williams, smiled at her and signed, "Tami, you coming with me to eat? I haven't had a bite today."

Williams nodded, signed "Sure, Val," and followed Mizuni back to ISS Infinity.