To the Moon, With Love!

It was the first time Mikey had ever been to the Moon, ever been on a spaceship. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

Timothee sat across from him, his legs crossed, looking out of the round porthole at the dark and blackness of space. His blond hair was tied back with a rubber band. Mikey wondered if Timothee liked working in the labs at MIT as much as he did. Probably not. With his good looks, Timothee could probably get any girl he wanted at school. But then again no one knew Mikey worked at MIT except for his two cousins who were living in Boston too.

“How are we doing?” Timothee asked. “Any sign of burning up?”

Mikey turned away from where he had been checking all their gauges, switches and buttons to make sure everything was running smoothly. “No, everything is fine,” Mikey said with a shrug. “We should be there in about an hour or so.” He moved over to the round porthole again and looked outside into space; saw nothing but stars and darkness as far as he could see. He felt his stomach flip-flop just a little bit at being in outer space. It reminded him of all those sci-fi movies he watched when he was growing up in France; all those dreams he had as kid of being an astronaut exploring new worlds; exploring the Moon and Mars and discovering life on other planets. Well now he really was in the final frontier, headed to the Moon!

He looked over at Timothee once more and smiled before turning back towards the porthole again, but this time towards Earth off in the distance beyond them; a small blue orb with white clouds swirling around it like paint on a canvas. The sight took his breath away for a moment, but then a wave of nausea hit him too hard for him to ignore as it came rolling through his system like surf crashing against rocks on a beach somewhere in France, or maybe even here in America where they were now headed to the Moon after launching from Cape Canaveral just two days ago on another spaceship that would take them there. He rushed over to their small bathroom and threw up, his head hung over the toilet bowl while he heaved up whatever was left in his stomach. After some moments of restlessness and labored breathing, Mikey got up slowly and walked back over to where Timothee still sat staring out into space with that blank expression on his face that seemed so foreign to Mikey suddenly after all these years of knowing him since they met in their freshman year of college three years ago when they got their dorm rooms next door to each other on campus.

"You okay?" Timothee eventually asked without turning around to look at Mikey when Mikey was standing right behind him now with both arms on the back of where Timothee sat looking out into space like he couldn't care less about how sick Mikey was feeling right now or anything else for that matter. "You don't look too good."

"I'm okay," Mikey lied trying not to breathe too heavily because it made his nausea worse than it already was making him feel like puking again.

"I think I just need some water," Mikey said picking up their only bottle of water from their small kitchen area and sitting down beside Timothee on the bench seat across from the porthole so that they were both staring out into space together now; Earth off in the distance beyond them surrounded by all those stars scattered everywhere inside what looked like an empty black void filled with nothing but darkness stretching forever outward past infinity until it met something else…maybe even another universe?

"It's actually pretty amazing you know," Timothee said finally breaking that silence between them while they stared out into space together watching Earth getting closer and closer until they'd reach the Moon within an hour or so if everything continued running smoothly without any problems along the way that is except for Mikey's periodic bouts of vomiting which didn't seem to want to end anytime soon if all those episodes meant anything at all although Mikey tried not to read too much into any of it whenever that happened which seemed more often than not lately making him wonder if something might be seriously wrong with him seeing how young he still was compared to most people who were diagnosed with cancer at least according to all those TV shows about cancer patients including many celebrities who were stricken with it before dying way too early leaving behind millions of grieving fans wondering how something like that could happen when most people thought cancer only happened older people who smoked cigarettes or drank too much alcohol or ate fatty foods or didn't get enough exercise which no doubt made things worse for them especially if someone already had cancer which proved fatal given enough time but still…

"What do you mean?" Mikey asked after taking another sip of water struggling not to throw up once more while moving very carefully across this bench seat over towards Timothee more so then leaning forward onto his own knees making sure not to vomit again while trying hard not to pay attention either too close or too far away from where that disturbing image lay buried deep down inside himself making its presence known whenever he felt tired or even worse scared…something he experienced quite often these days whenever alone whenever thinking back about what happened after graduating from MIT last month when everyone went their separate ways afterwards heading down different paths except for him ending up staying here in Boston working part-time at one of MIT's labs helping scientists create robots that could work alongside humans doing various tasks while also writing grants asking big companies like Intel or Apple if they would give money towards making robots better smarter stronger faster stronger more useful than ever before which might save lives someday when used properly …

"About us being here," Timothee continued not waiting for Mikey's answer because why should he have waited? After all this trip had been mostly thanks to Timothee who'd convinced Mikey months ago during Christmas break when they were home visiting family back in Paris together doing lots of video chatting between each other every day sharing ideas about what it would be like going to live on Mars someday sending robots beforehand ahead of them followed by human explorers afterwards perhaps even sooner than anyone expected leading up up up past asteroids comets sending probes down into their cores looking for liquid water ice even life! And yet this trip here had nothing whatsoever do with science although both men agreed learning about life beyond Earth would no doubt help mankind advance further into learning about itself especially since robots wouldn't feel jealous of humans or angry because humans hadn't given them equal rights yet but instead gave them jobs so humanity could accomplish its own goals never mind what robots did during their off time when not working!

"Yeah yeah I guess it is pretty amazing," Mikey said finally finding himself able to say something without immediately puking again although still feeling sicker than ever right now seeing how Earth got bigger and bigger until finally enveloped by darkness outside beyond this ship as they passed by into deep space somewhere near Jupiter where Galileo studied moons orbiting Saturn throwing rocks down deep mines looking for gold silver copper iron stone coal salt harvesting sulfur searching out diamonds using mirrors reflecting sunlight hoping maybe one day find signs of life somewhere else nearby Enceladus Titan maybe one day Europa others looking even farther out there beyond Neptune Pluto Haumea Makemake Orcus Sedna Anutu Quaoar Haumea Varuna Ixion 2000 CR105 2003 EL61 2006 SQ372 2011 SC16 2012 VP113 2012 VP113 2013 GF2027 2015 BZ509 2017 QJ4 2018 LA next stop: Moon!