She finally let go of the hot coffee cup, if it could be called that. Ouch, she thought. Starbucks coffee effect. One would think that the people responsible for creating a whole moon base runnable by one person, for creating space suits that kept you warm out on the surface, for creating effective radiation blockers, would be able to make a passable sleeve. She caught it before it hit the ground, the low gravity giving her plenty of time to make a grab. It wasn’t a proper cup—it was a special one, designed with a lid and an automatic seal to keep astronauts from splashing themselves in different gravity—and it wasn’t Starbucks, but the analogy held its meaning, even 250,000 miles away. Tomorrow, she would be the farthest from Earth as she’d ever be, at 252,088 miles.
She continued down the hallway, the monochrome white and grey palate broken up with bright neon lights imbedded in the floor leading to various different rooms. She followed pink, coming into the control room at last. Setting down her coffee on a touch sensitive control panel that should’ve been far above being used as a coaster, she looked at the image on the main screen. Clear as a window, there was Earth, spinning majestically away from her, a green and blue sphere. Only halfway out of the dark, she could see the lights of civilization.
They must look up and think of the universe. They must envy me; hoping for adventure and seeking greener pastures even here, where there’s no green but what we bring.
They don’t know what it’s like to be on the moon alone, to be the only human around for a quarter of a million miles. They don’t know that I look down and think the same things. Wonder the same things.
They don’t know how much I envy them.
She sighed slightly and sipped her coffee. She would be home in a year. One year--and then real Starbucks.
You can visit Ren's book review blog here.
You can visit Ren's book review blog here.
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