Space was seemingly vast and endless.
As Julian's ship blasted out of the launch tunnel and into the orbit, he was hit with the same old feeling he always got when entering space: smallness. Utter, suffocating smallness. Like an ant on a black sheet that stretched forever.
But it was beautiful, in a weird kind of way. Out here, nothing made sense. Stars blinked and sparkled like lazy fireflies. Giant blue nebula clouds swirled far ahead, like someone had spilled cosmic paint and forgotten to clean it up.
Chunks of dead satellites floated past like abandoned corpses. Some were as small as rocks. Some were as big as rooms. All just drifting with nowhere to go. Somewhere to his left, the shadow of a dead planet loomed. Completely dark. No rotation. Just frozen still. Julian wondered what had happened there, but then, he quickly dismissed it.
He wasn't here to admire the universe. He had a mission. The Ice Planet. That was his next stop.
