You should always have a side project! Even if you are an executive!

Do you remember those days when you were a student or a junior and had so much time and so many ideas? When you were trying to learn and create something that would improve your professional skills…

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Virtue

Dead silence. Like the void of space rotating outside, it was as if sound could not travel through this ship that sailed on a stellar wind. A spaceship, far ahead of following fleets that would save the species from death upon a congested planet, that was very different from the others in only a sole reason other than its exact place in space and time: this ship had only two people on board. One was asleep. The other was currently standing on a platform on what resembled a large glass egg in the anterior direction of the mile-long vessel. And he was dead silent.

The date of his home planet would put this around the 4,000th year of recorded civilization. It would be somewhere in the dry season, where the seas receded into clouds that would take a fifth of a year or so more to break into the wet season. This, on his home planet, would be followed by the fertile season, which would itself be replaced by the decay season before returning to a new dry season. Time beyond the rough guess of the season was almost impossible to calculate. Instead, all ships now stuck to what they called ‘Stellar Time,’ which began as the first spaceship launched from its original world. That date was 407:124:15, and would become 407:124:16 in just a few more seconds. But time did not matter on this ship either, for there were only two passengers and both their lives were dictated by the sleep schedule of the other. One must always be awake and looking out the front of the ship. This ship was Virtue, and its rules were different than those that governed the rest of the fleets.

And there he stood, waiting in a glass eggshell cradled in the womb of the stars for inevitable destruction.

PINGGGGGGGG echoed through the halls. Another meteorite had struck somewhere along the hull of Virtue. He opened a monitor in front of him and inscribed a line onto the screen.

“One. Two. Three. Four,” he counted. PINGGGGGGGG as another meteorite struck. He crossed the first line with a second, turned around and shuffled out of the egg.

He walked half the length of the ship without hearing any sounds other than his movement. At the exact center, he stopped at a hole in the floor. He knocked just inside the hole, sending an even louder echo through the ship that rung like a dinner bell and reminded one of a simpler time.

Through the hole was a small room that housed a single bed. It was in this bed that Virtue’s other passenger awoke, and in doing so send the smallest of sounds through the ship as they touched the floor. She climbed a ladder and reached the main level.

The two looked at each other. She gave a nod as she would every time they switched roles, but this time he grabbed her and looked right at her.

“Two,” he said.

“How far apart?” said she.

“Four counts”

“Four? We’ve never had four.”

“We will send a signal,” he assured. It was a moment of paradoxical significance. For one, there was only one thing to ever discuss with each other, thus rendering his statement redundant due to circumstance. Yet this was the only interaction the two could have together, and such prior conversations had proved uncomfortable. There was something that made communication between the two so challenging. They were only required to speak at moments like this, so they only spoke in moments like this. Though both of them were the only ones in a very unique position, they found little common ground between them. Instead it was far easier to maintain a routine that had them look past each other and remain inside their own minds rather than venturing out to reach another. Every time they spoke a piece of them was sheared from their own mind and body and deserted in the space between them.

The two of them continued the half-mile walk to the posterior end of Virtue. Here there was also a single monitor, but this one was not a blank screen. Instead it displayed two buttons. She reached out to the button on the left and pressed it. He then pressed the button to the right four times. He didn’t need to press the button on the left again, for she had already done it. They looked at each other and shared a moment of catharsis.

“Would you like to go, or should I?” he asked.

“What if, this time, we went together?” she replied.

“Can’t. Against the safety regulations. You know that,” he grimaced.

“Haven’t you ever wanted to try?”

Her question hung in the space between them like all the other shared moments. But this one was different. It carried weight, had mass all to itself. They were both drawn to it, brining them both a bit closer together.

“Yes,” he said.

The two went back to the center of the ship. This time it was above them they would look, where a ladder led through a porthole. The ladder was very long, and as both climbed they slowly floated along as the induced gravity began to minimize. This was a magical moment that accompanied all excursions outside the ship. It was one usually experienced alone. But an unspoken connection made this time even more weightless than the others. Shared sentiment had the opposite effect of their earlier words, this time making them feel lighter with some beautiful repellant force.

They donned suits to brave space beyond. It was far easier to put them on with assistance, making both of them wonder why at least putting on the suits wasn’t something they did as a pair.

kkskk — “Testing communication” — kkskk. His voice rang through the radios inside the suits. Even advanced technology wasn’t enough to remove some static between them.

Down in the egg the same communication fizzled out to no one.

kkskk — “I can hear you” — kkskk Her voice came through with equal interrupted clarity.

With everything confirmed to be in order, it was time to open the hatch. Both set out into the open nothing.

To describe this experience is as difficult as it is to breath during it. These two had had enough time to acquaint themselves with the great blackness as much as anybody could, and still the awe of the unfamiliar landscape was something to behold. Once again they shared a moment. It was so uplifting that even the frantic spinning of the craft beneath them was barely noticeable. They floated, souls locked, for just a few seconds before their discomfort with intimacy returned.

They tethered themselves to the cable that ran back to the hull of the ship; at this distance it was impossible to tell if the ship had been damaged. They climbed the cable one in front of the other, but every now and then he would look back to her just to see what she was doing. At this point the time together had far surpassed any other time in either of their memories. Perhaps this was the very first time they had found company on their lonely voyage. How strange to think of all the others who continued on as they once did on their home world, jovial and acquainted with their brethren. A natural instinct was beginning to shine through between he and she. They had something…what was it?

They had work to do.

They came closer to the body of the ship. Its white exterior was quite beautiful even though there was little more than starlight upon it. Both of them had become accustomed to such low light. It was now, though, that the hull of the ship became visible.

It looked like an elongated golf ball. It was so covered in dents from debris there was hardly a space that remained untouched. So many dings and dents, it almost seemed impossible to decipher one strike from another. It was like looking at the face of the moon.

kkskk — “Do you see anything?” — kkskk He asked

kkskk — “All appears nominal” — kkskk She replied, kkskk — “I don’t see any new strikes” — kkskk

Perhaps there were no new strikes. No, this ship had been battered and beaten ever since its first venture beyond the gravity of its world of origin. Strikes upon the ship were nothing new, nothing new at all. This was just another routine check like many other solitary ones before.

kkskk — “So we should resume normal operations…” — kkskk He said.

But resume normal operations would be impossible. The two just stared at each other. To confirm such a statement would put an end to this moment. The emotions they bathed in would be drained from the tub, forever lost in the sewers of their thoughts. This moment could not end. It would not end. There had to be more…

kkskk — “…” She left the channel open but said nothing for some time. “Yes. … I suppose we must” — kkskk

And still neither of them moved. They simply floated as they faced each other.

She grabbed the cable and turned herself back to the porthole so far away.

But he would not let her go alone. No, instead of single-file he climbed up beside her so they could still each other.

They shared a moment together. Another moment, that would likely be the first of many, And they began climbing back down.

They re-entered the ship. They climbed down to the primary platform, this time one-by-one due to the constraints of the tunnel around them. Together they sat in the center of the ship.

PINGGGGGGGG — another object hit the ship. No one counted. PINGGGGGGGG — yet another struck, and neither did anything. Soon the craft was ringing as meteor after meteor battered the craft. Neither of them moved, neither of them counted. They simply reveled in the beauty of the space between each other.

You should always have a side project! Even if you are an executive!

Virtue

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