Daniel sat alone in the pod, trying not to move as he stared into the vast nothingness before his eyes. The blank stare was not returned by anyone or any one thing, but echoed endlessly through unknown billions of miles in empty space. There were no knowing looks, no signs of understanding out among the tiny stars that surrounded him.

As his craft turned on axis, the familiar blue glow began to peek around the edge of his viewport. The glass bubble he sat in began to take on an eery sheen; the dark jumpsuit he wore didn’t seem to notice the change in light temperature, but he did. He noticed it every day. Every day, just like the day before, right on schedule.

Upon discovering he would not be returning to that blue sphere, Daniel had spent every moment of each “earth hour” sitting in his glass bubble. From up here, the colors and shapes seemed to blend together in one spot, then stretch apart to cover huge areas in another. He wondered what his friends might be doing, how his family was faring, where every relationship he had might be placed on the great wheel of time and togetherness at that moment. It saddened him that he could not ask, trapped in his craft without means of knowing how they were doing. He was forced to watch and sit quietly – no amount of noise or hope for closeness would help him up here.

Confronted with such enamorate beauty, there was simply no way to focus on his own struggles for very long. As he was chided into reverent silence, a single tear formed at the edge of his vision, blurring the brilliant planet slightly. He let it stay there for a few moments, listening closely as a rush of endorphins told his worried brain that there were bigger things to ponder right now.

He didn’t agree…but the mind has a funny way of knowing what the body might need more than stress. He sighed, stretched his neck, then turned away from the beautiful view to face his ship. For the first time in his life, Daniel knew time was on his side; but he would have traded a dozen years to be back on earth, finding out how everyone was doing, working to say goodbye properly so he would never have to leave again.

Time did not agree, however, nor did the many needs of his ship. Glancing back one last time at the blue sphere, he wiped the single tear from his cheek: time to get back to work.