They were sitting and softly crying. No real reason other than being overtired and homesick, first time traveling so far, even for work. Then a skitty crawled in their lap and began to purr, and they began to feel a little better. -- BKF
First-time Spacers are fine until they're suddenly not. It's all fun and games until the homesickness hits like an apophis-class asteroid. As Trainee Engineer Nauf just found out while staring at the stars.
Ze had just found the sun for hir own homeworld.
It was a tiny speck in the velvet darkness of space. Nigh indestinguishable from a mote of dust on the viewing pane. In circumstances like that, it was only natural to be viscerally aware of how far away 'home' was.
Nauf knew intellectually that ze could go back. It would take some months in transit, but ze could be back home in time for the holidays. Emotionally, on the other hand...
Everyone and everything ze knew was in orbit around that teeny, tiny dot. Ze could cover it all with the tip of hir pinkie finger. This was the furthest ze had ever been from hir home... and ze was about to go further.
In the darkness of the viewing lounge, Nauf sank to the floor cushions. Tears stung hir eyes and obliterated hir home sun, as well as obscured the rest of the universe. That was, somehow, less important than losing sight of home.
The heartache hurt, but not enough to sob.
In the dark with just the stars for company, it was easy to feel completely alone in an uncaring universe. At least, it was until something soft and warm bumped up under Nauf's hand. Warm fur. A small animal. A rumbling noise much like an ancient internal combustion engine. Small points of pressure as the creature clambered into Nauf's lap.
Nauf dashed enough water from hir eyes to realise that a part of the pest control system had crawled into hir lap. Ze scratched between its shoulder blades and was rewarded with ecstatic kneading and an even louder purr. This had to be the friendliest kitty in the universe. It was rubbing hir and squirming in every evidence of feline joy that Nauf existed.
It was very hard to feel abandoned by the universe when a part of it was smudging for affection with every atom of its body.
"Good kitty," Nauf managed, getting both hands involved on all the best scratching points. "There's a very good kitty."
[Photo by Sharon Waldron on Unsplash]
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