I decided to fly to the moon. I landed there, stayed for a while, looked around. The craters, the clear skies, the blue planet, the bright sun - I saw all these things and it was all new. Not necessarily awesome, but a new experience nonetheless. But I did not want to spend my whole space trip on the moon (I forgot to mention that my trip was actually limited in time). So I decided to explore more of the solar system and headed towards Mars.
I didn't feel like exploring Mars too much, so after orbiting around Mars and both its satellites once, I headed towards the asteroid belt. It was really intriguing, small particles flying around each other. Flying a ship through it was really a great thrill ride for a thrill seeker like me. Almost through the belt I was deciding my route towards Jupiter, I see a comet entering the solar system. It was really bright, and attracted me towards it. But I was in a way intimidated by it. I obviously wanted to visit it, but I thought that it was a big bright comet and I didn't have the capability to land on it.
So, having decided to go against my heart's wish, I kept flying towards Jupiter. But somehow, as I was heading in that direction, I got closer and closer to the comet. That made me feel better, but I stuck to my route. So as I was orbiting one of the satellites of Jupiter, the comet sent me a message saying "Hi!". I was excited to hear from the comet. So I replied back instantaneously. And then we started talking - while the comet was still flying towards the sun and I was flying through the satellites of Jupiter. But we were just talking once in a while. General hi, hello and how's it going.
Then when I was just about to exit the orbit of Jupiter to head for Saturn, the comet asked me "I am going for a drive around the sun. Do you want to take a ride with me?" I was really surprised and glad because I never thought the comet actually noticed me. I always thought that the comet talked to me out of common courtesy. So I grabbed the opportunity and decided to make the most of it. The comet was actually really friendly and not at all as intimidating as I thought it was. I landed my spaceship on the comet and went out. I was always so insecure about my abilities, that I was surprised to find out that the comet was actually even remotely interested in spending some time with me. But from that time on, time seemed to just fly.
So forgetting about my plans. I just kept going with the comet. The thing is that we were not doing anything special. We were just hanging out, looking at the stars, listening to music on my iPod, stuff like that. When we were close to the earth's orbit, we also caught some satellite television and watched some TV shows and some football. And all this while we completely lost track of time. We flew from Jupiter , all the way past the asteroids, past earth, Venus and even around the sun all the way to Uranus. We even passed really close to Neptune's ring, but we were just too busy doing nothing to notice it.
The comet told me about its life. How it has been through the darkest parts of the galaxy all alone and also through really beautiful and bright star systems. The comet told me how every thousand years it crosses the Orion Nebula and that it is just beautiful. We went through all its photographs in all different parts of its orbit. It was really overwhelming to know that a comet like this which has been all over the galaxy and seen the most amazing views can still be interested in spending time with me. Maybe the comet was the most sweetest thing and took pity on me when it saw me going around the solar system all alone and decided to give me company. And for that I consider myself super lucky.
But like every thing, this had to come to an end. We had just crossed the orbit of Venus and flying towards earth's when I had to get off. It was hard to let go off it. I just wanted to with the comet while the comet flew through the galaxy and even just to be with the comet. But I knew that I had to get back to my life. And the realist inside me got the better of it. We said our goodbyes and headed our ways. Obviously the comet couldn't come with me to the earth. It had places to go, things to see, dark places to light up.
After I landed on earth, I still heard from the comet. I would sometimes take a peek at it through a telescope and we could send each other some messages. But now, as I am seeing it fly out of the solar system, I am wondering if I will ever see that comet again. I certainly hope to, and I will certainly wait for it to come back. This is a certainty that it will come back, just that I will never know if I will ever see the comet again until I see it. Till then I guess I will have to be content thinking that I was one of the many lost souls this comet lighted up. And believe me when I tell you, this comet was one bright one and you will have no idea how many parts of the galaxy this comet lighted up. I just feel honored to meet something like that.
