Deep Stars

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     Boom-bah-ya, the girls in sparkly sleek tights with with holes out over their behinds stood on platforms in Mortimus plaza, and cigarette smoke wafted up from beneath them. 
    But here, here there wasn't anything but the stars. Very peaceful, very bright. 
    Boom-bah-ya. The women slid down slithering poles and the men glanced up at them as they walked into work. 
    But the stars were yellow, not white. At least he thought they were. Not cold, but warm. And set in a velvet navy-colored universe. 
    Boom-bah-ya. The buildings were all chrome and shiny, and the light glinted off them and the curbs and the glass and the girls until you could only ever see one thing at a time, eyes flashing faster than the light, never able to take in more than a pinpoint's worth.
    But the universe here looked less like a universe and more like the sky should, he thought. Close and encircling and lovely as a lady. And so deep. He was so small. And the sky was so deep. And so close.
    Boom-bah-ya. There really wasn't much to see in the day, in the plaza. At night the lights and the posters and the ads came, but during the day it wasn't anything but girls and glint and chrome. 
    He really was so small. So small. But the stars were beautiful, and the empty. He had heard it called that before. The empty. But the universe wasn't really empty. It was just deep and dark. Profound. That was all. 
    Schff, schff, his radio crackled for a second then went dead again. The others were close. 
    A small cloud of dust slowly began to plume up behind his heel, where he'd moved his foot. Towers of rock rose up around him in scattered gray sheaves, sparse and warped. He was small beside them. But they were small too, under the horizon, because standing beside them he could see every star and every navy-black empty depth between the stars. He didn't even notice the rock beneath the sky. Every prick of light ran too deep for that, and the dark ran even deeper. Deeper and warmer and closer. 
    Schff, schff. "Contact, contact, John are you there?" Schff, schff.
    He didn't close his eyes. "Yes, I'm here."
    "Oh thank God man, we thought you were dead. Hold on, we've got your spot now. We're coming."
    "I'll be here."

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