"You see, some stars just shine brighter than others. That's because they're dying – supernovae, this is called. A star inflating and exploding."
I nodded. My father smiled at me, but that was a distant, sad smile. I had no idea why. Around us, everything was still. Absolutely no wind, so the air felt still as a colossus. It was a warm night, the short ones that, during summer, were not long enough for the ground to become cold. So we sat amidst yellow, dry as sticks, grass.

My father had just come back from his duty on a Conveyor.
"I saw the sky, Earth's sky, from very close, he had said. I saw the stars forming Ursa Major, individually. I saw the planets gravitating around these stars, so small and yet so big. I saw nebulae and I used gazes from them – that we scooped – to breathe air or repair machines. I saw a planet's ring and harvested its asteroids for ice. I saw the accretion disk (1) of a black hole as I used its gravitational pull as a catapult while other ships sent out nets to gather material from it."

"I saw space, witnessed its wonders, and used them as casually as we cut trees for books and planks and furniture."
His gaze had been fixed unto the great void after our blue sky.
"Let's go watch the night sky this evening, together, like a family."
I had said "yes daddy" and he had stroked my head with a big smile that stopped above his nose.
"Don't forget to take a coat! He had added just before we went out. Sometimes, the night is chilly!"
It wasn't. It hadn't been for at least eight years – as far as I remembered. I had thought he had been born in a world where summer could have been not hot. His memories made his ways outdated. Still, I had taken my winter coat, my trusty windcheater, the fabric of which was made to cut the strong winds that roamed the streets with great fury during this season.

After our car landed, he had taken out a red flashlight and we had walked – seemingly for no reason – for a few dozen metres before sitting on the side of a hill. The city was on the other side but we still could hear its roars.
"There, he had said, that's a perfect spot!"
I again didn't see why, but had said nothing and had sat next to him, my arms around my knees. He had exhaled, contended.

1: The disk of matter gravitating around a central stellar body and being attracted by it.