𝔇𝔞𝔯𝔨𝔖𝔱𝔞𝔯

Respirator. Breathe in the canistered air. Pulmonary bliss. Eyes remain shut tight, refusing to behold the abject bleakness of the sterilized and blinding whiteness that surrounds me.

Here in the darkness it is safest, here the sights come from within. Memories drift and wane, converge and eclipse- circling the drain of a once brilliant star that has collapsed upon itself to form a black hole- its brightest moments cast during perihelion now swallowed by the event horizon.

Really? A telescope? For your birthday?

Mother's voice. I can almost feel my head earnestly nodding. Twinges from phantom limbs of my mobile, younger, exuberant self.

Well, I suppose. If that's what you really want… I bet you'll be an astronaut when you grow up!

Hurtling, orbiting through nothingness, the flicker of plasma in my peripherals- and that childhood dream nearly feels that it has been attained.

Have I ever told you about my favorite star?

Echoing. Traversing an unfathomable distance to greet me on this end of the solar system. My own words beckon me back, they pull me down to the dew-laden grass of a summer night so many years- nearly a lifetime ago.

Viv turns toward me, propping herself up with her elbow and cupping her chin with her palm.

…Tell me…

She is the first- and last- person to ever dazzle me the way the heavens above do.

It is a smaller star, a part of the Serpens constellation, named Gliese 710… It's quite far away, over 60 light-years past our Solar System…

And what makes Gliese so special?

Breathe in the sweet, crisp, summer air. Pulmonary bliss.

It's said that Gliese will someday perturb the Oort Cloud… Though that wouldn't be for over a million years from now.

And what will happen then?

The most beautiful thing… When it finally happens, it will be the single most disruptive force in the history of our Solar System…

That doesn't… It doesn't really sound beautiful?

I smile.

It will be though… When it finally happens, when Gliese finally makes contact, it will send billions of comets soaring through our Solar System. Billions. Enough to shower us for millions of years…

Her hand reaches for mine. Warm and reassuring. A jolt of electricity through my entire body. A surging, pulsing warmth, a feeling unlike anything that I have ever felt before.

I want to hold on, to stay there for eternity. Though I know I must let go…

And I return to the vastness of space. Accepting of the impact, the sheer inevitability I have been drifting toward.

I imagine that she is there with me as I…

Breathe…

For the very last time

Collision.

Painless- even as my memories, my being, my essence- as I become a billion pieces of light. Dying neurons fire off like millions of dazzling shooting stars, burning away

…into nothingness