There were so many stars.
It startled him at first, seeing all the flaring lights suspended in the distance. It wasn't like he'd never seen them before. Earth's night skies were littered with them, but they were cold and distant.
Not like these stars. These were the real ones, the ones he had sacrificed so much to fight for. But this was the first time he'd ever really looked at them. Looked at them and realized how small everything was. All that time spent staring into screens of long numbers and test scores when he could have been looking at the stars. No atmosphere, no smog to hide them, just the crisp, clean emptiness of space between him and them.
These stars were distant, but they weren't cold.
"CC to Reliant, your life support is failing-"
Maybe his mother was looking at the same stars right now, wondering where her son was in all of this vastness. His father was probably in a press conference.
Maybe if he just-
"Abel, say something you-"
-held his hand in front of it, he could hold it all between his fingers. Hold the light in his hands to stop the darkness creeping into the corners of his vision. His hands were floating somewhere beside his head, but they were still too heavy. Even in zero-gravity, everything was too heavy.
"-better not be fucking dea-"
Instead of his hands floating in front of the stars, small spheres of deep red drifted into his vision and blocked out entire galaxies. Like little planets. Shards of glass followed close behind, magnifying and shrinking the stars as they followed the momentum of the bullets.
An entire universe in his cabin.
"All enemy craft neutralized. CC to Reliant, medics are inbound on your position-"
If only the glass of the cockpit wasn't shattered he'd be able to see everything.
"-taking too long. Fuck your medics-"
Maybe his father was right; Earthlings didn't belong out here at the edge of space. They belonged in the neon lights and the overstimulation. But facing absolute nothing was terrifying beautiful. Maybe the next time his father looked in a mirror he'd know the same feeling.
He coughed, a wet sound rattling up his throat. Flecks of red splattered across the inside of his helmet, blocking out most of the stars.
"-don't move, I'm coming around. If you fucking die, I'm going to-"
Maybe a nice, soft job in an office would have suited him better. One where he spent all day in the company of people that smiled too wide and nodded too much. People that never looked up at night.
A shadow passed over the outside of the cabin and the hatch drifted open. The light from the distant stars passed around Cain's black flight suit, creating a false dawn around his silhouette.
"Holy shit Abel-"
Cain grabbed his shoulder straps and shook them frantically, sending the floating orbs of blood spinning into the dark corners of his vision.
"Why the hell did you turn you idiot?! What the fuck-"
Cain's head blocked out the stars but the universe above reflected off of his visor. Swirling masses of stars. Absolutely fascinating.
The low-oxygen warning blinked to life in the corner of his visor.
"Shitshitshitshit-"
There were a lot of things he could have done, should have done, but they didn't matter. Here were the stars and that's what mattered.
"Don't you fucking close your eyes you-"
"Abel?! ABEL?!"
A/N: Oh dear, it seems Abel has piloted himself right down an existential worm hole. Got to watch out for them; the plague of the space age! More as this story develops.