#ISS transit

[benthesoldiersjeanshorts]

[quiltofstars]

The International Space Station crossing the Moon on September 28, 2023 // Sabine Leidinger

[rafeeen1]

ISS tranzit a Nap előtt

Avagy ahogy elszáguld a Nemzetközi Űrállomás a Napkorong előtt. 

Bizony van olyasvalaki aki képes ezt weboldalba önteni, kiszámolni, hogy hol lesz az a hely a világon, ahol az űrállomás elszáguld a Nap korongja előtt. Ilyenkor persze egy SZŰRŐVEL ellátott távcsővel nézve egy apró sziluettet át elsuhanni az ember a napkorong előtt... szó szerint. Egy ilyen tranzit FÉL MÁSODPERCIG tart. 

Lefotózni sem egyszerű, mert most vagy reflexből, vagy folyamatosan kattogtatni a gépet. Ráadásul tűz a nap és egy nagytávcső néz oda, tehát kellenek szűrők.

Én egy olyan setupot építettem, mely igazából nem fényképez, hanem videót vesz fel és azt nyers képkockákban viszont lehet látni, Üdv a bolygókamerák világában. Persze le lehet fotózni DSLR géppel is, akár azzal videózni is.

Bolygókameraként egy ZWO ASI290MM lett használva egy 120/900-as SkyWatcher távcsövön. Szűrőként lehet napfóliát is használni, a végső maximumként Herschel prizmával sikerült 0,06ms-os záridőt elérni 0 erősítés (gain) mellett.

Mindenképp jó buli, hiszen a derült éjszaka kevés és az ember nappal is akar távcsővel babrálni, hát kénytelen rászokni erre... :) 

[felidaefatigue]

my. tit. Hurts.

[whatyou-know]

Gonna be honest TNC: Freefall might be my fave txt album every song is fucking good like to me each song could've been the tittle song bc they're that good and as im being honest I have to say the order from each song to the next I mean the transition is not that good mostly for do it like that, regardless of that what a fucking legend of an album

[ew-selfish-art]

Dp x dc AU - If the Internation Space Station orbits the Earth 16 times a day, then so does the Watchtower.

Danny’s on track to move out of his parent’s house and move to Gotham for college (He swears that Sam bribed the board to let him in- and she wasn’t even going to that university!) but the dorms don’t open for another three days and he cannot wait to escape. Seeing his parents try to perfect yet another weapon to use against him while he changed out the ecto filters on the portal was too much. He’s completely over the idea of staying when he already has everything packed and ready to go.

The solution? Take all his boxes into his haunt in the Ghost Zone, leave them there and then spend some time in camping in space. He’s already explored the Infinite Realms enough to be bored of it for a minute (not to mention he wants to avoid getting more ‘favors’ to do from Clockwork) and hell, he just wants to see some stars.

He grabs his tent, a sleeping bag and all the food and things he could need and brings it into the atmosphere with him. Keeping it all tethered to him, Danny stays in a fixed position above Gotham (Cause that’s where he’s going next, duh) and treats himself to some quality Me-time.

Only problem is that several times a day he has to make himself intangible while he lets satellites and things pass through. Easy enough and honestly pretty interesting to observe as a wannabe engineering student.

He doesn’t know when exactly it happened the first time- but it turns out the Heroes of Earth all congregated in a satelite office building? It was bigger than the ISS! What the heck!?

Going intangible but not invisible, the JL spot Danny and are incredibly confused how an ‘Alien’ teen just happens to appear in their meeting rooms disappearing at the rate (slowly but surely) of the Watchtower moving through space. Was that camping gear? How was he roasting a marshmallow? Did propane camping stoves even work in space??

16 times a day they get the opportunity to ask Danny a few questions. He mostly ignores them or gives them joke answers. Eventually Martian Manhunter phases through the Watchtower to join him.

They talk about how hard transition periods in life can be and having strained relationships with family. J’ohn returns to the watchtower on its next cycle and reports that the kid is just fine, being an adult is just a hard thing to do.

[spacewonder19]

ISS transiting the Full Flower Moon © astronycc

[nasa]

What’s It Like to Work in NASA’s Mission Control Center?

In the latest installment of our First Woman graphic novel series, we see Commander Callie Rodriguez embark on the next phase of her trailblazing journey, as she leaves the Moon to take the helm at Mission Control.

Flight directors work in Mission Control to oversee operations of the International Space Station and Artemis missions to the Moon. They have a unique, overarching perspective focused on integration between all the systems that make a mission a success – flight directors have to learn a little about a lot.

Diane Dailey and Chloe Mehring were selected as flight directors in 2021. They’ll be taking your questions about what it’s like to lead teams of flight controllers, engineers, and countless professionals, both agencywide and internationally, in an Answer Time session on Nov. 28, 2023, from noon to 1 p.m. EST (9-10 a.m. PST) here on our Tumblr!

Like Callie, how did their unique backgrounds and previous experience, prepare them for this role? What are they excited about as we return to the Moon?

🚨 Ask your questions now by visiting https://nasa.tumblr.com/ask.

Diane Dailey started her career at NASA in 2006 in the space station Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) group. As an ECLSS flight controller, she logged more than 1,700 hours of console time, supported 10 space shuttle missions, and led the ECLSS team. She transitioned to the Integration and System Engineering (ISE) group, where she was the lead flight controller for the 10th and 21st Commercial Resupply Services missions for SpaceX. In addition, she was the ISE lead for NASA’s SpaceX Demo-1 and Demo-2 crew spacecraft test flights. Dailey was also a capsule communicator (Capcom) controller and instructor.

She was selected as a flight director in 2021 and chose her call sign of “Horizon Flight” during her first shift in November of that year. She has since served as the Lead Flight director for the ISS Expedition 68, led the development of a contingency spacewalk, and led a spacewalk in June to install a new solar array on the space station. She is currently working on development of the upcoming Artemis II mission and the Human Lander Systems which will return humanity to the moon. Dailey was raised in Lubbock, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. She is married and a mother of two. She enjoys cooking, traveling, and spending time outdoors.

Chloe Mehring started her NASA career in 2008 in the Flight Operations’ propulsion systems group and supported 11 space shuttle missions. She served as propulsion support officer for Exploration Flight Test-1, the first test flight of the Orion spacecraft that will be used for Artemis missions to the Moon. Mehring was also a lead NASA propulsion officer for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and served as backup lead for the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. She was accepted into the 2021 Flight Director class and worked her first shift in February 2022, taking on the call sign “Lion Flight”. Since becoming certified, she has worked over 100 shifts, lead the NG-17 cargo resupply mission team, and executed two United States spacewalks within 10 days of each other. She became certified as a Boeing Starliner Flight Director, sat console for the unmanned test flight in May 2022 (OFT-2) and will be leading the undock team for the first crewed mission on Starliner in the spring of next year. She originally is from Mifflinville, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from The Pennsylvania State University in State College. She is a wife, a mom to one boy, and she enjoys fitness, cooking and gardening.

[fallout-lou-begas]

As a comic artist myself (read @ikroah), something that I keep stopping to admire about Dungeon Meshi so far is its use of vertical bleed in page composition. It's usually just used for extra room on complicated panels, or for emphasis, like this spread demonstrates quite well:

And usually these vertical bleed panels are just one or two per page, but sometimes they'll be the main type of panel on a page. On the page below, you can see the way that the vertical bleed both exaggerates the descent in the top row of panels and gives extra room for very narrow "camera angles," and then crucially, the vertical bleed on the bottom row of wider, more square panels balances the overall composition. If you remove the bleed from the bottom panels, not only do you crucially iss out on half of Laius' pose, but the whole page seems like it got misaligned at the printer:

Vertical bleed panels will very often be used as the first or the last panel on a given page because they can have a transitory effect between pages or scenes, especially when used to introduce a new location or scene. These two pages from the first chapter, and then the two pages that immediately follow the page above, demonstrate:

And horizontal bleeds, while less common, are also present (see the above page on the right, and the top page on the right). This next page has a particular use of a full horizontal bleed combined with vertical bleeds that really impresses me because of how elegant it splits the page composition artistically and tonally, with vertical bleeds on opposite corners of the page for balance. You can see how without the full bleeds, not only do those panels feel way too tight individually (even the first one, where the bleed was mostly empty space anyway), but the whole page gets a lot more claustrophobic. And while it's not bad, it's definitely a bit more staid and boxy than the dynamic, full-bleed version in the actual comic.

The shape of Senshi's knife and the (implied) trajectory of the mandrake head are incredibly subtle eyeguides built into the artwork!

One final note about full vertical bleeds is that their use often reminds me of the way that newspaper comics will elide panel borders entirely for similar utility: more space in the individual panel, more interesting composition overall, and that effect it has on establishing or transitioning to a scene. Here's come Calvin & Hobbes strips that do it, for example:

And while full bleeds (except occasional splash pages) are much less common in my own mother tongue, classic superhero comics (mostly due to how they were and to a degree still are printed, I figure), you can still see some of these principles displayed in this sample of incredible pages from one of my favorite single comic book issues, Amazing Spider-Man #229.

[theofficialastronomy101]

The Space Station Crosses a Spotless Sun

Such an extremely rare shot

Explanation: That's no sunspot. It's the International Space Station (ISS) caught passing in front of the Sun. Sunspots, individually, have a dark central umbra, a lighter surrounding penumbra, and no solar panels. By contrast, the ISS is a complex and multi-spired mechanism, one of the largest and most sophisticated machines ever created by humanity. Also, sunspots occur on the Sun, whereas the ISS orbits the Earth. Transiting the Sun is not very unusual for the ISS, which orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes, but getting one's timing and equipment just right for a great image is rare. Strangely, besides that fake spot, in this recent two-image composite, the Sun lacked any real sunspots. The featured picture combines two images -- one capturing the space station transiting the Sun -- and another taken consecutively capturing details of the Sun's surface. Sunspots have been rare on the Sun since the dawn of the current Solar Minimum, a period of low solar activity. For reasons not yet fully understood, the number of sunspots occurring during both the previous and current solar minima have been unusually low.

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: The Surgery

James H Longmore: Submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of joe's unwanted penis Longmore: it's a darkly humorous and bizarre parody of the bruce jenner story Poe: you mean Caitlyn jenner? Longmore: Longmore: what? Barker: oh yeah this really bodes well

Barker: she changed her name, she's caitlyn now Longmore: really? Barker: you didn't know? Barker: i mean she's in the news all the time for sucking Poe: clive Barker: what? she's not here Barker: i can say it Barker: just absolutely sucking

Longmore: my story is told from the point of view of the penis Longmore: the unwanted penis is mad because its been rejected like it was an ikea lamp Longmore: so making a lot of comments about Joe and his ruined, mutilated, gross, Frankenstein body Franz Kafka:

Franz Kafka: wow, so her own disembodied dick is misgendering her? Kafka: WOW Kafka: that is VERY Kafka: problematic Longmore: well, in the dick's defense, the dick was really mad at Joe! Kafka: and now its DEAD NAMING her!!!

Longmore: anyway Joe gets a vaginaplasty instead of hrt Kafka: "INSTEAD of?" Longmore: yeah Kafka: Kafka: Kafka: "INSTEAD OF???"

Longmore: anyway Joe has a vaginaplasty, during which they remove Joe's dick, balls, and prostate Kafka: THEY DON'T TAKE YOUR PROSTATE OUT DURING A VAGINAPLASTY!! Longmore: Longmore: are you sure about that? Kafka: YES! Kaka: I'VE DONE A SUSPICIOUS AMOUNT OF READING ABOUT THIS!

Barker: wow, franz, you know so much about trans issues Kafka: huh? oh yeah, i guess Kafka: i mean, it's just this thing I've kinda been into lately Kafka: i mean, trans rights are human rights, right?

Kafka: just seems self-evident Barker: oh yeah? you do? any reason why? Barker: for this recent interest hmmm? Poe: clive, leave her alone Poe: i mean leave him alone Poe: jesus christ you have me doing it now

Poe: clive stop harassing franz Poe: clive you know you don't have to be trans to care about trans rights Barker: ah ha oh edgar don't be so naive Poe: yeah you're probably right

Longmore: so the poor penis has been rejected JK Rowling: hello children Poe: oh great look who it is Poe: look who you brought here Poe: this is just great Poe: great

Rowling: ssso i hear the penissss iss ssad? Rowling: sso i hear that a transss perssson issss ressponsssible for thisss? Rowling: just more proof of their natural masssculine criminality Poe: this is stupid Barker: ah ha ha edgar Poe: no Poe: you're right this is stupid

Longmore: so the penis goes on a merry madcap chase to reunite with his former owner Longmore: who has since regretted transition Rowling: yess!! ha ha… YESSS!!

Rowling: there'sss ssssurgical regret too??? Rowling: a transss persssson feeling BAD??? Rowling: thisss ssstory hasss it all! Rowling: the ressst of you should ssstart telling ssstoriesss like thisss Rowling: way better than the usssual ssstuff you guysss tell!

UNRELATED: If you like our jokes, check out our indiegogo! Just added a tier where you can get all 3 volumes of Midnight Pals electronic books for cheap!

[apod]

2023 November 19

Space Station, Solar Prominences, Sun Image Credit & Copyright: Mehmet Ergün

Explanation: That's no sunspot. It's the International Space Station (ISS) caught passing in front of the Sun. Sunspots, individually, have a dark central umbra, a lighter surrounding penumbra, and no Dragon capsules attached. By contrast, the ISS is a complex and multi-spired mechanism, one of the largest and most complicated spacecraft ever created by humanity. Also, sunspots circle the Sun, whereas the ISS orbits the Earth. Transiting the Sun is not very unusual for the ISS, which orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes, but getting one's location, timing and equipment just right for a great image is rare. The featured picture combined three images all taken in 2021 from the same location and at nearly the same time. One image -- overexposed -- captured the faint prominences seen across the top of the Sun, a second image -- underexposed -- captured the complex texture of the Sun's chromosphere, while the third image -- the hardest to get -- captured the space station as it shot across the Sun in a fraction of a second. Close inspection of the space station's silhouette even reveals a docked Dragon Crew capsule.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231119.html

[heuldoch7b]

This yo man's??

howd u get this pre transition pic- NO FRR AAAA THIS ISS O CUTE \ ( ᐖ)/

THANK YYUIIOO !!!!

[chaoticdesertdweller]

"International Space Station and the Moon!

Shadow? Or illuminated?

These images are from the best two transits I've captured so far, one with the ISS in shadow, and one with the ISS illuminated by the Sun. The transit in shadow was a little more involved to capture as I couldn't see the ISS approaching and had to rely purely on timings!

Which do you prefer?"

📸 Tim White

timwhitephotography.co.uk

[cheswirls]

playing around with an experimental idea of different modern scenarios all tethered together by the theme of ill-fated, star-crossed lovers doomed to their destiny. below is probably the penultimate if not the final in a string of scenes, a taste of happiness closer than others but still out of reach.

i think it would be cool to work backwards?? to start at the last and then transition to the beginning. all varying length, some more brief than others to hammer in the futility. this is????? uhhh idk i am still questioning if this would even be interesting. entirely an idea for now.

this one comes after sabo has decided that he's going to escape fate at all costs, this time. the start is more choppy as i'm rambling to establish what's in my head but it settles out when i get into the scene :) sry in advance

-

Even when sabo tries to cut his losses and get away, somehow, ace still finds him

Sabo maps his life around a career in the most remote area of the world so he won’t ever have to see ace again, gets a reputation as “devoted to his work” scientist at base camp that doesn’t like to socialize and usually keeps to himself. After a year, one of the (to him) more senior researchers announces her retirement plan, and more importantly, her replacements. Sabo is surprised they’re getting two new people in return but this is apparently old news. Senior is moving back home to marry astronaut returning from iss, their homecomings coincide and it’s supposed to be really sweet but it just leaves a sour taste in sabo’s mouth that he has to forcefully smile around to make amenities. 

Against all odds, ace is one of the newcomers that joins them after the month is up. Sabo tries to maintain distance despite ace’s friendly attempts and affection, and his coworkers brush aside sabo’s attitude to ace as “his usual, he’s always like that. He likes his samples and specimens more than he does any of us.”

But ace doesn’t back down, and surprises sabo by being fluent in english despite his japanese background. It’s not posh european english like sabo had grown used to, but tinged with an accent that suggests he probably spent some extended time in australia. Sabo pretends to not speak english, knocking ace off guard, but the next time they run into each other, ace says his greeting/question/offer in german.

It’s good german too, which shocks sabo enough into giving a normal answer, if not just a response in general. Ace is pleased by this and tries his luck, keeps going with a nonchalant explanation that his mother’s family was german and he’s picked up enough of it over the years to pass as fluent in conversation. 

Sabo feels his cold exterior thawing. He allows ace’s greetings from then on, sometimes quietly echoes back the sentiments in soft-spoken german. No one else at camp ever knows what the two are saying and they’re not keen to share, but they do notice that easygoing ace has finally worn sabo’s shell until he can squeeze himself inside. 

Slowly, sabo feels himself giving in, unable to resist ace’s pull. He starts teaching ace to read written german as he pens in his research notes for the day, ace squeezing his way onto the bench corner sabo’s sat himself in or worming close to sabo’s side wherever he’s decided to settle down for the evening. At first it’s just the little articles and basic words, but soon sabo is muffling his laughter as ace gets tongue-tied trying to read off some of the more long-winded scientific terms. 

Ace knows a bit of spanish from his father and often converses to the researchers from argentina and chile in their native language, and he’s found a special place in the hearts of the scientists from south africa, norway, sri lanka, and new zealand. He’s a busy body and very sociable, so it’s no surprise that he eventually ends up pulling sabo into the edge of goings-on. 

Though sabo is still keen to keep everyone at a distance, ace becomes the exception. An observation slowly makes its way through camp following ace dragging sabo out (just the two of them) on a much-needed day off. They plant themselves safely in the snow out in the middle of nowhere and stare into the sky through their uv goggles. 

Conversation floats between them, idle and meaningless. It’s sabo that first broaches a personal topic, asking ace why he’d ever want to come out here and what led him to this path. Ace throws the same question back and sabo feels encouraged to answer first, less vaguely than he’d like admitting that he fell in love with the work he’s doing, but also that he wanted somewhere remote to be at to escape the bustle of the world at large.

Ace, like sabo, says that he’d experimentally tried something similar in secondary education and enjoyed it, and that led to a research seminar in aussie that turned into a full summer of him being a temp in a science facility. Eventually he’d fallen down the specific rabbit hole (that he’s concentrated on as his area of focus while in antarctica) and after being an assistant for a while, he got this opportunity.

And, yeah, it was different. He’s used to “the bustle” as sabo put it, used to sprawling metro areas and unceasing noise and unending crowds. Given this chance to come out here was definitely something he’d had to think about, but also . . . found that the decision wasn’t all that hard. He felt compelled to take the offer, like something was calling to him.

Maybe . . . he’d been destined to spend time in the middle of nowhere because it’s where sabo was, because sabo had chosen to remove himself from society. Ace says this as a joke, but the notion makes sabo’s breath catch. He doesn’t fight back when ace’s hand settles into his own. He can’t resist the pull of the universe, and he lacks the desire to do so this time around. He’d tried, hadn’t he? And still, here was ace, worming his way into sabo’s heart. With his wavy surfer hair and bright eyes and the tan that should’ve faded after his first month on the continent. 

So sabo lets ace pull him close and whisper “ich liebe dich” where he knows sabo can hear, and maybe they make out and roll around in the snow as much as their protective gear allows. They come back composed and don’t stay glued at the hip, but sabo smiles more that night over drinks as everyone celebrates the wrap-up to their long-awaited day off than he has the entire rest of the time he’s been at this base camp.

Sabo keeps smiling after that night, which is how others start cluing in. he adopts this relaxed air that becomes saturated whenever he’s in reaching distance of ace. Suddenly it’s not ace making space for himself near sabo, but sabo leaving it for ace. Ace may become slightly more accommodating, just a bit more in tune with sabo’s condition, but it’s not ace bringing an extra cup of hot water when sabo’s been hunched around his notes for long enough. It’s sabo accepting the cup without argument, with a warm smile, and shifting so ace can settle down beside him. 

It comes as a shock more to the other six that sabo isn’t asexual, rather than him and ace being (probably) romantically involved. What had been paraded around as a joke, maybe as a bromance of sorts, or just that ace was sabo’s only friend, settles in as something different entirely as everyone clocks in at different points. The “oh, they’re not buddies, they’re like that”

Some nights, when it’s late enough that sabo is the only one awake and ace’s careful prodding manages to win him over, he’ll let ace pull him from his work and settle him down in ace’s own cot, both pressed close together to stave off the night’s chill. Some nights sabo will let ace pull one of his sleep shirts down over sabo’s head and tries not to bask in the similar sensation of a thousand different lifetimes as he huddles into the soft material. 

Ace knows sabo likes his personal space, so he doesn’t encroach on sabo’s room, nor does he ask sabo to move his current task to ace’s own room. But sometimes, he’ll find himself perched on the edge of sabo’s cot, legs swinging as he quietly bemoans how much longer sabo is going to leave him. He’ll recline onto sabo’s comforter and counter sabo’s short refusal with another long-winded lament on his boyfriend leaving him to get cold.

It’s one of these nights that sabo stops and powers down his monitor and sets his spectacles aside and turns to find ace conked out behind him. While it’s easy enough to rouse ace, it’s hard to resist temptation when ace opens both arms for sabo to fall into instead of moving off the cot to lead sabo to his own room. They end up falling asleep on top of the covers with one of the small lamplights left on overnight. 

The combination of ace’s room being empty when someone comes looking and a light being visible under sabo’s door has an unanswered knock lead to a fellow scientist peeking into sabo’s room to see the two nestled together. (and the only indication to being discovered is a comment about conserving power made that next morning that sabo takes as someone noticing the light he’d left on instead of what ace clocks it as - the two being discovered.)

The only time it becomes obvious that they’ve been found out by a majority of camp is a rare moment when a digital camera is produced and a point is made by the photographer to center in on ace and sabo sat side by side on a couch in the main room and (“say cheese!” ot equivalent). Sabo looks toward the lens in question, not quite caught up in the hubbub like everyone else present, but ace throws an arm around sabo’s shoulders and grins wide, maybe flashes a peace with his other hand that appeases the photographer of the hour. When sabo looks confused by ace’s hold, ace leans close to whisper in sabo’s ear (in german) that they’ve been found out.

Sabo looks rightfully flustered by this, but ace takes it in stride, refusing to release his arm from around sabo, and then having the audacity to grin big and bright when sabo faces him with face just a bit flushed that it’s noticeable, and then another click of the camera draws their attention away, and taken further still when the room erupts into raucous applause with everyone’s eyes on the two of them. 

Everyone is polite about the whole affair, no vulgar jokes or innuendos are made or anything, but it is obvious that the jig is up concerning the two of them and their relationship. Sabo spends the evening with his face covered by both hands, buried in ace’s sharply-defined lats, or nay-high in another glass of champagne from the bottle that’d been smuggled aboard. He becomes more and more mute the longer the night goes on. At the end of it all, the designated photographer calls for attention and asks what the celebration was for, of which only ace has the answer: that same person’s birthday is that day. Sabo is surprised ace remembered such a mundane fact but keeps it to himself.

When asked, ace admits he’d known because said researcher’s passcode to some impt shared machine is their 8-digit date of birth, but after being ragged on, ace names off everyone’s birthdays in turn, surprising them all that he’d bothered to remember. It’s also, to note, the first time any of them learn sabo’s birthday, and that it’d been the same day off he and ace had spend together earlier in the year, at the end of summer.

That next morning, since there’s nothing to hide anymore, those that wake up especially early are greeted to the sight of sabo’s glorious bedhead slumped over the kitchen counter as ace busies himself fixing up a personal hangover cure with what ingredients they had available. Sabo had been on (delivery) duty that week and had been roused unwillingly from bed at an ungodly time of the morning to oversee their shipment of fish being delivered while ace played chaperone. It’s the very first time any of them see sabo in his nightclothes, and probably the only time ever they can claim sabo as “cute”, or his behavior anyway - the sole way he relies on ace but also the way he pouts and how he remains only half-awake with the excuse of his head pounding. His german is so sluggish that no one but ace has any chance of parsing what he’s saying, but before the sun is up too high, ace has fixed sabo’s headache and ushered him back to his room to get ready for the day. The late-risers miss the event entirely, and ace swears those present to secrecy to keep sabo’s dignity intact.

This of course ends in some grandiose way where ace’s time on the continent runs out and he’s set to return home and put his results to use. He stays up late making silly plans with sabo to move somewhere the two have never been to before and work remote, hinged on the notion that their norwegian coworker originated from greenland, and the one from sri lanka is sponsored by and works in tandem with an indian facility. They know in the long run that it’s all far-off fantasies and well-wishes born from their limited time left together.

But then sabo gets an offer. He’s working in a remote multinational camp while reporting all his results to a year-round german station, and it just so happens that one of the station’s new on-boards is interested in sabo’s (area of continent). Sabo has a chance to trade posts with another german scientist, and he jumps on the opportunity. It takes a bit for the transfer to be approved, and in that time, sabo manages to secure a summer-only position that will ensure he’s off-site april through september. 

This is the best he can do on short notice, but it’s enough for now. He can transition until he’s out of antarctica permanently, eventually, but to do that he’ll have to figure out what exactly he wants to do after he leaves. Something he hasn’t bothered to parse his thoughts about, apart from late-night nonsensical talks with ace. Talks that suddenly seem more in reach now more than ever.

At the main station, sabo gets limited access to slow wifi and manages to talk with ace over video call twice. They make plans for sabo to come to australia on ace’s visa while ace is still finalizing the last of his research and transfer to a japanese company. They don’t have to stay in japan, but if they get married in australia (which will ensure the union is recognized in japan), it’ll be easier for sabo to gain citizenship from a spousal visa than it will from a work-related one. 

All of this is hashed out over two limited conversations, with promise that the details can be sorted out in person. Before the last call ends, sabo engrains in his mind ace’s smiling face, waving hands, wishing sabo well and safe travels. He finishes his summer term at the station with enthusiasm and says goodbye to antarctica for a short while after many years of residency without once leaving the surface.

He talks with ace over the phone just before his plane in germany leaves. It’s a long flight with a brief layover, and sabo is too preoccupied finding his next terminal to touch base with ace again. After over half a day, sabo lands at an airport almost dead on his feet even with the nap he got in earlier while among the clouds. He has a travel visa on his person that he’s expected to get changed to a spousal visa as soon as ace was able to book them, but he’s never given the opportunity.

The airport is full of activity as usual, but those not buried in their own world are focused on the same news feed playing over every other screen in sabo’s wing of the building. The focus is a developing story on a certain research facility that caught fire early in the morning. Sabo stops to observe right as a list of the deceased covers the screen. To him, ace’s photo is front and center, almost laughably so.

And so, once more, ace is destined to die while sabo can do nothing to prevent it. Fated for the worst of outcomes, lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. And then the story works backwards, showing glimpses of sabo’s life with ace, each preceding the next, all up until a certain encounter in the jungles of a small island in the east blue. Some lives, sabo will know everything. Then there are lives where he’s blessed to be ignorant up until the very end. Sometimes all he will know is ace, and other times all he’ll have is the faint idea of ace, an impression that only makes itself known when ace presents himself. Sabo never can decide if it’s reincarnation or some twisted form of immortality: All he knows for sure is that the universe will never, ever let him keep ace for long.

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ISS transiting through Ursa Major. Richmond VA Saturday Night.