Work Text:
It all started with those humans, the James Webb Space Telescope-that was its name or at least that's what they called it- was ready after only nineteen years after it's ideation, they seemed to care so much for it that after all that time it had forgotten why every so often they would make hyperspecific changes upon its appeareance and structure. It enjoyed their company, the way their warm hands would cherish each piece of it, the way their chitter-chatter filled it's sensors with information no one but it knew it could assimilate, their whole being always dwarfed but never intimidated by it, they had given it a human name like they did to all their creations one way or another, they adored its mirrors whether it was to look at themselves or to superimpose their eyes upon its surface once it was in space JWST didn't know maybe they just liked to imagine themselves as it.
The day had started with a last check-up and a polish of all its reflective surfaces, gift wrapped for Vector Ariane V to hold as she led it into the vastness of the universe, the last sound it heard was a noisy crack following its shell's deparure. It's solar panels opened tentatively but to its surprise there was no wind drag to stop them it tried unfolding the antennae just like it's humans had described; the process was effortless. suddenly there was no more thrust, Arianne V had abandoned it.
"It'll feel like seeing your child walk for the first time." coldness spilled onto it's sensors as the early morning frost settled a truck pulling it to the launch pad , its humans all stood to watch along the road overlooking its departure "Good luck, James."
The Moon wasn't a new concept to it even though it had never observed her- she was sublime. Most scientists talked about her as if she were the most important satellite in the universe, and maybe to the Earth and her inhabitants it was, JWST looked upon her brownish surface, white streaks littering her face gray spoltches marking her craters and impact points, a warm light washing her in a golden glow, there might have been a reason for the humans to look upon her so fondly every night and if JWST could compose prose maybe it could scratch the surface of what her tempting pull made it feel.
JWST wanted to let the mission go, to succumb to the gravity like the Soviet's Luna did, to shut down its systems and abandon this nineteen year old mission and impact upon Moon's soft dust, in that moment JWST resented its creators for not installing touch sensors, for launching it so far from her.
Moon still visible, her siren song no longer reaching JWST. The thermal shield stretched with a slight resistence, the deafening vacuum muting the usual sound that came with that particular action, the now unfolded secondary mirror reflecting the sun's rays, JWST basked in his warmth marvelling at his power, feeding on it like a starved vampire would grateful.
The hexagons fitted into their respective places, the last adjustments made just before the first signal arrived to it's software and with it memories of a predestined path, after all that time spent floating there it was: The Second Lagrange point Orbit welcoming it in the most merciful way the void could do.
Sparks flying from the insides of its wires, sensors adjusting to see what most humans outside of the labs scornfully described an empty void, there in the blackest part of the space it lived the beauty and pain of birth, the sky glittered with nebulaes and explosions all around it hourglasses made by small forming stars, splitting the sky in four.
There were poetries to be waxed about the colors of the space it studied, there were odes to be sung about the neverending orizon, space felt different than it did on Earth, it felt alive, present, ever moving and beautiful, something about JWST's circuits was attracted by everything around it, some times it would cross paths with the Hubble sharing between them the truth of the universe like a secret they couldnt hide from, stargazing upon the merging of galaxies and the Pillars Of Creation, maybe their time together wouldn't last but they would cherish all the times they met, chasing interstellar dust pointing at impact like a human would to a weirdly shaped cloud.
Hubble and JWST would lose each other time and time again just to orbit back toghether, missing each other for months just to compare sights and discover the places they visited alone toghether, universes' pictures now finally having another jigsaw piece to complete the picture, the design fitting perfectly after so many years of waiting.
Maybe they were just two constructs floating through space, maybe they were two clashing titans.