Chapter Text
The ace pilot Nathan has just finished a 48-hour short-term dormancy. He walks out of the sleeping cabin filled with liquid nitrogen, heading to the restaurant to take nutritional supplements.
Space travel easily makes people lose their sense of time. The scenery seen through the porthole looks the same regardless of the time, the concept of which blurs into a jumbled mess. Nathan deliberately glimpses at the clock on the auto door before entering the dining area. It is two o'clock in the morning.
He passes through the door and finds his colleague, a young yet talented pilot sitting at the table. The young guy happily shows off a piece of instant pizza to him. Nathan hates the pizza. It tastes flavourless.
Nathan greets his colleague before he puts some instant food from the same batch of the pizza into the microwave, turning on the space radio and sitting down to get ready for his meal.
“Today is a memorial day. Maybe some of my audience remembered in the 2000s of the ancient solar calendar, there was a figure skater, the greatest of all time, born in our human history. His name is……It is his birthday today, a good day to recollect his magnificent performance. Even though we no longer have figure skating, there is no doubt that this Ice Legend is the most dazzling star in the course of human history, never fading away… ”
The radio host uses a lively tone of voice to broadcast today’s episode. Vincent listens for a while and taps a few times on an electric device on his wrist. A holographic image is quickly projected on the dining table; it is the ice legend that was mentioned in the broadcast.
The man with black hair looks slim yet toned in the holography. He stops in a spinning position, stretching his both hands towards the sky. Full of unyielding strength of vitality, he is like a flower growing from ice.
Vincent smacks his lips at the projection, turning to Nathan, “Hey bro, he looks super hot, don’t you think so?”
Nathan stares at him harshly. “Respect! Yuzuru was a great athlete.”
Vincent chokes for a moment and carefully peeps at his colleague. “I didn't say he wasn’t great…It’s just that…well, he was pretty, wasn’t he…”
He uses the word, pretty. In all fairness, Nathan couldn’t agree that the word doesn’t suit Yuzuru Hanyu. The man is undoubtedly pretty, yet there is something more, more than that in him. That is exactly something that Nathan is reluctant to face deep in his mind.
He is captivated by the mastery of Yuzuru’s artistry and skating technique, and meanwhile, he is too ashamed to admit that he has a feeling towards a man who only lived in the past, literally an untouchable phantom. This is beyond any common sense. Only would a maniac fall in love with a dead person.
He wakes himself from his daze, locking delusional feelings away as he has done for many times. He gestures to have Vincent turn off the projection.
“We are about to arrive at the target galaxy. Go to the cockpit to recalculate the course. Don’t waste your time on some legend who would only be remembered on his birthday.”
Vincent glances at him with a pregnant pause and finishes off his whiskey, shrugging. “Only be remembered on his birthday? Nathan, do you know how insincere you sound now?”
Nathan answers Vincent with a pizza package. He slaps him with an empty pizza box.
The destination of their voyage is No.434 galaxy. *
In the early days, many pilots died from the magnetic storms in this area. The area is therefore known as the space cemetery. Years later, people rarely set foot in this ominous area despite the improved manufacturing technology for aircraft.
However, in order to open up a new course, the cemetery area scattered with aircraft wreckage has become the way they have to pass. The task was given by the International Space Union to the two elite pilots who received the highest scores in the assessment. Their mission is to explore the new course and collect important information.
Nathan skillfully pushes the joystick, managing the huge spaceship to slowly yet steadily move forward. He focuses on the monitor that displays real-time images outside the spaceship. The asteroid belt shining on the monitor reminds him of a rumour in his family.
A rumour about one of his ancestors who is said to have died in this cemetery. That man abandoned his family, giving up on his stable job at a ground station and insisting on flying into space. He ended up losing his life to the space he had longed for.
Nathan gets lost in his memory, looking away from the monitor with a cup of coffee in his hand.
Vincent is dealing with some signal transceiver equipment by him. Out of the blue, he grabs his colleague’s arm, driving Nathan back to reality. He sounds as excited as if he had discovered a new world.
“Look, Nathan! There’s a signal for a contact request!” He points at the monitor where a green dot faintly flashes.
Nathan looks at his young colleague in surprise. At the same time, Vincent has tuned to the same wavelength picking up the signal and decoded the message that had been sent out whatever years ago.
Next second, melodious string music fills throughout the cockpit. The music sways widely, awakening the dusty memories of Nathan’s. His hand trembles, spilling coffee all over himself.
He knows what the music is. He truly does. This is Saint-Saëns’s Notte Stellata. To be precise, this is the Notte Stellata that the legend who can only exist in holographic projection skated to; his signature programme.
“Are you okay? Is there something wrong with the music?” Vincent asks him worriedly.
Nathan picks up the cup and places it away. His palm is wet from sweat and coffee and his face is drawn and haggard. He told his worried colleague not to worry about him.
Vincent apparently doesn’t buy his excuses. “Are you really okay? You look kind of green around the gills.”
Nathan sits stiffly in his seat and puts the music on loop. He takes a deep breath, setting the spaceship in autopilot mode. “I’m getting out of the capsule.”
Vincent stares at him in disbelief as if he is looking at a maniac. “Are you out of your mind? Is it because of that piece of music? C’mon, that doesn’t count as a distress signal at all. Okay, even if it does, it was obviously sent off hundreds of years ago. Are you really going after a ghost?”
“Ghost?” He repeats in a daze.
“Yes, a ghost, Nathan. Aren’t you feeling okay?” Vincent tests his temperature with the back of his hand on his forehead.
Of course it can only be a ghost. Nathan realises it with hindsight. Even if that signal is in fact sent by the legend who disappeared without a trace following his retirement, does he still expect to see a living person two thousand years later?
Nathan lowers his head and closes his eyes to escape from reality. He falls into one of his numerous hallucinations.
Yuzuru smiles tranquilly, hands hanging by his sides, like a pair of broken wings. The slender body he secretly portrays countless times in his dreams glides alone on the ice without a destination.
“Yuzu, where are you going?” He yells at the silhouette.
The silhouette stops, looking back without a word and slightly nodding at him.
“Where are you going?” Nathan asks again in frustration.
This time he doesn’t look back.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Vincent wakes him up from dreaming. His junior colleague grits his teeth and has put on a serious face that rarely shows up on him.
“If you must leave the capsule, you have to come back within two hours. The magnetic field here is bloody unstable. Listen, if you take more than two hours, I won’t wait for you.”
Nathan remains silent until Vincent lets out a sigh of relief, mistaking him for giving up on his crazy plan.
He stands up from his pilot seat without a hint. “One and a half hours. I promise you no more.” He puts on his space suit, leaving the cockpit in a hurry.
After detaching from the main airship, Nathan drives a small aircraft heading directly to the centre of the space cemetery. It is a vast and desolate area interspersed by mechanical wreckage, adding a sorrow tone to this already lifeless place.
He tracks down the location of the signal sending point and drives towards it. With several quantum jumps, he finally arrives at an ancient space capsule. He checks the signal receiver before leaving the aircraft and finds out the red light dot flashing firmly on his receiver, indicating that he found the right place. He takes the last chance to double-check his space suit and opens the hatch resolutely.