Celestial Reunion: Michael's Space Odyssey

The room was dark as I opened my eyes. The lights around me flashed sporadically through the darkness, but it was enough to see where I was.

"Hello?" I called out, but there was no response. I took a deep breath and tried again, this time a little louder. "Hello?"

The screen in front of me flickered on suddenly, making me jump. It was filled with a picture of the man who had spoken to me earlier; his face filled the screen and he smiled at me.

"Hello Michael," the image said, "Are you alright? Are you comfortable?"

I nodded my head slowly. He seemed kind enough, so far. "Yes."

"Good," he said, smiling brightly at me from across the void. "I'm glad to hear that." He paused for a moment while another screen behind him showed what appeared to be an alien world. The colors were too vivid and everything looked wrong somehow, like it wasn't real but more like someone had just taken objects and tried to make them look like they were part of a natural environment. I watched intently as colors swirled around each other in some kind of organized chaos, but it all just looked... wrong...

"So," the man continued, "You are in your new home now." He gestured towards the screen behind him as if I could see what he meant. "There is much here for you to explore." He pointed towards the floor beneath us, where large holes seemed to appear and disappear every few seconds. I kept my eyes focused on them instead of looking back up at him before he spoke again.

"We have many wonderful things for you to experience here," his smile grew wider as he spoke until he almost looked creepy, "but first we need you to go through some training." He looked down at a device in his hand before returning his gaze back up at me. His smile faded away and he looked serious for a moment before continuing on quickly, seemingly trying to mask the shift in mood by talking fast.

"You'll learn how to use your room here and how to communicate with people all around the station." He made a flicking motion with his hand towards himself before continuing on as if nothing had happened. "I will be your teacher while you're here; you'll learn things that will help you understand just how important your job is." Keeping his eyes fixed on mine he reached up and turned his head slightly to one side before looking back up again at me with an excited expression on his face.

"I'm very excited about teaching you Michael," he said loudly, almost shouting even though we were in separate rooms thousands of miles apart from one another, "are you excited too?"

After taking a deep breath and doing my best not to let my eyes drift towards the strange holes below us I nodded my head once more in response to his question. There was something about this man's voice that made it hard for me keep my attention off of whatever it was trying so hard to distract me from focusing on him; I had expected him to sound happy or excited or perhaps even proud when explaining all these wonderful things that lay ahead for me but instead he sounded... sincere..? A part of me wanted nothing more than for him to stop talking so I could ask questions about what was happening right now but another part realized that it would be ridiculous to interrupt someone who seemed so eager to talk about all these wondrous things while also trying frantically not lose focus on what was staring directly at me and distracting every ounce of willpower within myself from paying attention properly...!