This is What Practice Gets You (Moon)

Hotwire pressed a couple buttons on his communicator surruptitiously as they left the museum.

"Hmmm. Let's see. Five minutes out." He whispered to himself before turning to Ella. "This way. The place we're going is kind of off the beaten path, so we'll need special transportation to get there."


He walk with her along a couple streets until they got to an alley. "Ok. This way." He directed walking her a bit into it. It was totally empty, the road behind them was empty as well. No pedestrians at that. All of a sudden a whooshing sound would roar overhead as the T-Jet soared above the alley. The cargo bay would open and Hotwire's motorcycle would drop down.With another thunderous roar, the jet shot off, before banking back towards the bay and the tower. Hotwire tapped on his backpack and it began to expand, unraveling into his suit that covered his body. He would then mount the cycle and throw a helmet to Ella.


"Get on."

As he revved up his cycle, he checked his watch. 3:40. Bu the time they got to their destination it would be getting dark. They could thank the early sunset hours of the winter for that. With a kick off the ground, the cycle shot out into the streets of jump. 5 minutes later, they would pass through the outskirts. Then... the roads out into the world around them.

"Don't worry. Shouldn't be too much farther."

Slowly a large dome shaped building would come into view. The old observatory. The sun would just be hitting the horizon over the flat land outside jump city, and with the distance from the city center, a few stars were already starting to poke through.

"Sorry for not saying much. I haven't been here in a couple months, and I was a little rusty on the directions. This is the observatory. I thought it might just be a good idea to relax and watch the stars. And ya know. Just talk. Or something."


Smooth.

"Believe it or not, I like to navigate by memory if I can. I mean, GPS is nice and all..." He said his uniform folding back into his backpack. 

"But sometimes it just pays to lay back and do things the old fashioned way you know?" He said laying on the ground.

He remembered before the nanobots... he wasn't that particularly adept at science. It was just another thing he learned in school other than maybe a fun sci-fi series here and there that had a modicum of science fact in it. But those were very thin connections.

But now, he was advanced. Probably the one of the most advanced integrations of man and machine on the planet. His entire brain had been replaced by the flow of quantum energy. Machines of the world around him became just an extension of who he was. Yes. His whole world view had changed.

But at the same time, it hadn't changed at all. This was still the same Harmon who loved to go out with his telescope and watch the stars and planets in his back yard. And here he was with a pretty girl who was willing to join him. Yeah... for all his challenges and tribulations... he considered himself lucky.

"I, well, ok. Right up there is Venus. And what I personally find to be the easiest to spot constellation is Orion the hunter, right there." He said pointing to a set of stars. "Those three stars right there for his belt. Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. Those two stars above it, Betelgeuse and Belatrix make his shoulders. If you follow that star there out, you'll see a column of stars there, that's his bow outstretched."


"You'll see there's a set of stars there all in a clump. Those are the Pleiades. In Greek mythology, they were seven sisters whom Orion pursued. Zues turned them into doves, and then into stars to allow them to escape his pursuit." He explained.

"Of course, Zeus was kind of a jerk, and eventually put Orion up there as well." He joked. "But fun science fact, by the time the stars of Orion shift in the direction of the Pleiades millions of years from now, the positions of the Pleiades will scatter."

"Yeah. Big Mr. Lightning bolts kinda messed up a lot of peoples lives in greek myths." He pointed out. He figured he had talked enough, so he motioned to the sky. "What about you? What do you see?"

"Yeah. There's definately something to be said about that." He said sitting up. "I mean. I know I've been tricked by a pretty face before." He pointed out before muttering. "Heck, she came from space come to think of it..."

"But you never really do know with people. Sometimes they have the ability to really dissapoint and sometimes they have the ability to really amaze you." He said turning to face Ella and froze. Sure, it may not have been a full moon, but Ella in the glow of the moon just stopped Harmon where he sat. She was gorgeous. Absolutely drop dead gorgeous.

"I- uh... this is... whooooo boy-"


And he had been doing so well!