- Posting Speed
- Speed of Light
- Writing Levels
- Douche
- Preferred Character Gender
- No Preferences
He had told his wife he was not coming up here to die.
A technicality perhaps. His imagination of the Irideus Mission was a picture that excluded those final, painful chapters that motor neuron disease would grant him. And yet... one intention Matthias could not deny was that he had come up here to live the life climactic... the boldest, brightest moment before the dark. Whatever waited in the heavens would be an answer, however interpreted.
And so... for a questioner to be offered no answers, but only the chance to ask more questions... was something that could not sit easy. For what is one to think when they are nearing the end of a book and preparing themselves for finale, only to find by magic that reams of new pages have appeared? Would the reader be excited? Frustrated? Or would they despair that they have had their emotions brought to apex and then denied closure?
Is that why so many fear an eternal afterlife? Because they knew they will not sleep, but endure themselves anew?
Locked in his thoughts, the doctor had not seen the microcosmic pantheon of emotions that danced across the mission leader's face in the few seconds before Richard restored normality.
Matthias had forgotten to breathe, and now as Richard approached he took a great breath as if to dispel the pipe-dream Nikolai had conjured. "Yes, Richard, you're right." He busied himself, more intently than necessary, in flipping through the papers on his lap. "The mission timeline is paramount. If we divert resources now we may not make the round trip."
He looked up, slowly, at the Doctor, and saw reflected his own struggle to ignore the elephant in the medical bay. "Nikolai... we need to prepare for EVA. We don't know how lunar conditions will affect the team. You need to be..." He searched for the word. "...clear."
His gaze drifted to the glass, to the shadow, to the lab-grown fingertips, to the sculpted face... to the eyes of the synthetic Ann Whittles. "And as for her part in the moon landing..." Matthias murmured. "... I suppose we should ask her..."
The door override gleamed above Nikolai's shoulder.
A technicality perhaps. His imagination of the Irideus Mission was a picture that excluded those final, painful chapters that motor neuron disease would grant him. And yet... one intention Matthias could not deny was that he had come up here to live the life climactic... the boldest, brightest moment before the dark. Whatever waited in the heavens would be an answer, however interpreted.
And so... for a questioner to be offered no answers, but only the chance to ask more questions... was something that could not sit easy. For what is one to think when they are nearing the end of a book and preparing themselves for finale, only to find by magic that reams of new pages have appeared? Would the reader be excited? Frustrated? Or would they despair that they have had their emotions brought to apex and then denied closure?
Is that why so many fear an eternal afterlife? Because they knew they will not sleep, but endure themselves anew?
Locked in his thoughts, the doctor had not seen the microcosmic pantheon of emotions that danced across the mission leader's face in the few seconds before Richard restored normality.
Matthias had forgotten to breathe, and now as Richard approached he took a great breath as if to dispel the pipe-dream Nikolai had conjured. "Yes, Richard, you're right." He busied himself, more intently than necessary, in flipping through the papers on his lap. "The mission timeline is paramount. If we divert resources now we may not make the round trip."
He looked up, slowly, at the Doctor, and saw reflected his own struggle to ignore the elephant in the medical bay. "Nikolai... we need to prepare for EVA. We don't know how lunar conditions will affect the team. You need to be..." He searched for the word. "...clear."
His gaze drifted to the glass, to the shadow, to the lab-grown fingertips, to the sculpted face... to the eyes of the synthetic Ann Whittles. "And as for her part in the moon landing..." Matthias murmured. "... I suppose we should ask her..."
The door override gleamed above Nikolai's shoulder.