Nathan Wolfe sat on the couch, reading his new favourite book: A History of Space Travel. It was meant to be his birthday present from his dad, but Nate found its hiding spot a few days before. By the time his dad found out, Nate had already ripped it open and begun to read. His dad let him have the book early in the end. He wasn't one to sweat the small stuff.

The book was, as one could guess from the title, about Nate's favourite topic: space. It detailed the whole of space travel, from the Space Race in the 1960's to the faster-than-light travel that had made the world he knew possible. Currently, he was reading a very interesting chapter on the generation ships, massive self-sustaining ships that humans had sent out into space before faster-than-light travel was invented. Tens of thousands of them had been sent into the black before FTL travel made them obsolete, but not all of them arrived successfully. Many were still unaccounted for, more than a thousand years later.

Nate had just begun reading about those that were still missing when his father walked in, hanging his bag on a peg by the door. Nate jumped up from the couch ran to his dad, hugging him as tightly as he could.

"Dad!" he half-yelled. His father had been out for the past week on a long-distance hauling trip, but had managed to finish in time to get home tonight, on his birthday.

"Hey, buddy, how are ya?" His dad hugged him back just as tightly. Nate let go of him and they both rose to their full height. At twelve years old, Nate hadn't hit his first growth spurt yet, and as such he stood at a bit under five feet. His father William, on the other hand, was a solid six foot three, his build muscular from almost two decades of working on ships. The transport ships the trading company provided weren't exactly new, and something was bound to go wrong during the longer hauls. At some point, Nate's dad had grown tired of waiting for a repair ship to come by and learned how to fix a ship himself. It saved time on runs and the trading company appreciated it quite a bit. At least, that's what he had told Nate.

"I'm okay, Dad. I love the book so far! It's super cool!" Nate said. Will smiled at that.

"Great to hear. You ready to go?" he asked.

"Yeah, I am!" Nate stopped, thinking. "Where are we going?" That earned a laugh from his dad. He'd been hinting at a birthday trip for quite a while now, but no matter how much Nate pestered his dad he wouldn't give up any details about it.

"I'll give you a hint," William replied, leaning in to whisper into Nate's ear. "It's not on Lave."

Nate's eyes lit up like lightbulbs. "We're going off-world?" he half-squealed.

"You got that right, buddy. I've found something I know you'll love, so I'm taking you out there for your birthday," his dad said. Nate practically jumped for joy.

"Well, what are we waiting for let's go!" He ran to the mudroom to grab his shoes.

Nate sat in the cockpit of the Cobra Mk III his father had rented, drinking in every detail about it. To his left was his dad, sitting in the pilot's seat. The Cobra was sitting on the surface, on a landing pad not far from their house. The systems were finishing starting up and William turned to his son.

"All strapped in? Ready to go?" he asked.

"Yup! I can't wait!" was the eager reply.

"Alright, then! Here we go!" Nate's dad released the docking clamps from the pad and the they were off, the power plant sending a low hum through the whole of the ship. He eased back on the stick to point the ship towards the sky and throttled up just a bit, getting the little ship clear of the pad. Once far clear from the ground William aimed the Cobra towards the first system on the route and started charging the Frame Shift Drive. Nate's eyes went almost comically wide as he took everything in.

"That's so cool! Is it like that every time?" he asked his dad.

"Pretty much, yeah. That's not the coolest part of it, not nearly," he said. "You ready for your first jump?" Nate didn't say anything. He just nodded.

"Hold on tight then!" The ship's computer started the jump countdown.

4…

3…

2…

1…

Engage.

Nate stood in the cockpit a few jumps later, his nose practically pressed to the glass. In front of him was probably the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He didn't even know what it was. In front of the ship was a pinpoint of white light. Two cone-shaped jets emanated from either end, blue near their origin and fading to a pale purple the further away they were. It reminded Nate of shining a flashlight through a smoke cloud and being able to see the beam. To the right of the first was another pinpoint, more distant and the blueish-purple streams from it more wispy.

"Dad," he said, after a moment of silence, "what is that?"

His father turned to him with a smile. "That," he began, "is a neutron star: a ball of neutrons as small as an asteroid but more dense than anything in the universe except a black hole. They're probably the most extreme things in the universe. And, in my own personal opinion, the most beautiful. That one to its right is a white dwarf star. Not as amazing, but still pretty cool, I'd say."

Nate was speechless. He'd have to agree with his dad: it was probably the coolest thing he'd ever seen. How long he stood staring at the stars he had no idea, but at some point his dad walked over and hugged him from behind.

"Happy birthday, Nate."