Chosen

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Jack Sparrow

"Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them." -Rabindranath Tagore

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 I thought space was magnificent just from pictures and videos. Those images are hideously incomparable to the scene displayed before my eyes.

 The black space lights up with dazzling stars. Illuminated stars shine like freshly shined jewels. The sun gives them a lustrous glow that no manmade light could ever replicate. I used to think stars were beautiful from where I could see them lying in the grass in my grandparents' backyard, yet now I believe they are absolutely the most striking feature. From my view I can also see the moon. I am fascinated by the once small mass in the sky that is now large and detailed right before me. I am just as breathless seeing the earth as I am the moon.

 The earth looks like a canvas with a faultless swirl of blue, green, white, and brown acrylic paint painted by the true da Vinci. It has mesmerizing beauty that captures every eye. Swirls of white clouds crawl over the round surface as an elderly man would stroll through the park. A bluish-white radiance surrounds the planet in a breath-taking joie de vivre. I never knew how truly our planet was until gazing upon it from thousands of miles away from its terrain.

 Everyone floats around the cockpit windows as we strain to get the best view of the vast galaxy. Everyone holds onto something or someone to stay grounded or from an awkward position. I basically have my arms wrapped around my dad who holds onto one of the passenger's seat to stay grounded. Fitz keeps an arm on my shoulder to keep him from floating away. He gasps quietly at each new spectacle. Even Director Coulson is fascinated at the view. Agent May doesn't appear to make a big deal out of the spectacular view as she focuses on controlling the space shuttle, but you can see the fascination in her eyes.

 "Look at this, Stevie, last time we ever thought about space travel it was classified as science fiction," Bucky murmurs, "Look at us now."

 "It was only a matter of months for me," Tony chuffs.

 "What?"

 "Well, it would be great publicity and great PR," Tony replies, "I was working on a project. The whole thing was in development."

 "You're unbelievable," Natasha scoffs.

 Everyone continues to peer out of the window and into the eye-catching scene before us. I have never thought about space travel in my life as it seemed farfetched that it would ever happen for me. Now that I am in space I cannot believe that I could ever miss this extraordinary observation of the universe that engulfs my tiny little home. And to think that the phenomenons of space stretch so far out than what my limited sight can see only blows my mind.

 We all gasp as a meteorite rolls past us. The danger of being in space all of the sudden becomes apparent. We are at the complete mercy of the astrophysicists who coordinated our flight. If Agent May loses focus for ever one second, a ginormous rock could wreck into us and send us as dead men to float around for an eternity. If our shuttle suffers any freak mechanical problem and for some reason between Bruce, Tony, Fitz, and me we can't fix it, we are stranded for a slow death. There is always the possibility of the Black Order's ship opening fire on us too. Director Coulson informed us before we launched that our spacecraft did have a few defensive retaliations, but not enough to take down their ship if necessary.

 The reality is that we do not have a backup plan. There is no alternative if things go south. We really do have all of our chips on the table. We go big or we are going home to meet our maker. Honestly, I am okay with death. I have never been scared of it; I do not fear or dread it. I am confident in what lies in the afterlife, so I am not afraid. I held hands with death in Berlin and that did not change me of my view. The only thing of death that frightens me is how my mom and Alex would grieve. I never want to do anything that causes the ones I love grief. It would kill me to disappoint Tony or cause him heartache.