transfuture

Milo misses someone special, but his head is in the stars. A Lightyear Apart explores long distance love through a mysterious futuristic science fiction setting.

Milo¹ rested his head on the reinforced glass window. His light-skinned cheek became squished as he pressed his face on his own reflection. The stars twinkled in his hazel-brown eyes as he gazed upon the endless void of space. This was, of course, a normal occurrence for Milo, as he did this every time he woke up for his job. A wake up call of sorts.

Just in the corner of the large, circular window, he could see the branded STARNAV² Dual-Transmitter Satellite, the last one he would be docking at before leaving this sector. Its multicolored display flashed a chorus of lights — red, yellow, and blue — transporting information like an assembly line from here, to the other sectors, and even…

Home, Milo thought to himself as he turned to look towards the laptop sitting on his bedside table. He had forgotten to plug it in; he had fallen asleep without doing so. Klutz, he labeled himself as he finally stood up from his sat position on the circular windowsill. Luckily for him, it still had around two full energy units left, so he didn’t need to scramble immediately.

After a little bit of laying down in the morning haze, Milo finally willed himself to get dressed. He put on his classic outfit (the one that Astrid³ joked was Milo's “default skin”) — a pair of jeans, a gray short sleeve shirt with a steamed-on STARNAV pink bunny logo, and a long sleeved dark nylon jacket, which he always wore unzipped for style purposes. On the left sleeve of his jacket, Milo proudly displayed a stitched-on patch which read “ASTRO TRANSPORTER” in a large sparkly font.

Stepping in front of his mirror, Milo stared into the bags under his eyes. Milo was not a very built individual, mind over mass. The arm to his left was a janky metal contraction, which served its purpose but perhaps wasn’t as flashy and polished as other models of nervetech. He was an incredibly freckled individual - speckles of discolored skin danced on him from head to toe. He finally broke this laser concentration on his eye sacks, and looked up towards his short, wavy hair, running his flesh hand through it. It was naturally black, but he’d dyed it peacock blue a few days before he left. Much to his dismay, the color had started to fade. He stuck his tongue out in displeasure.

Done with his daily dose of dread, Milo grabbed his laptop, which had been reinforced with a foam case after the last laptop, with his nervetech⁴ arm, just haphazardly holding it by the keyboard as he approached the door and placed his other hand on the pad next to it. The door buzzed to life, splitting down the middle and opening up. With the door closing up behind him, Milo walked himself to the kitchen table and placed his device on the charging port in the center of the table, finally giving his poor laptop the battery it hungered for. A tired cup of tea brewed later, he sat down at the one and only chair.

“Good morning Milo!” chirped Happy⁵. This made Milo jump, as he had no idea that Happy was underneath the table.

Happy was Milo’s best friend and traveling companion. She was much shorter than Milo, at a clean one and a half feet tall. Unlike Milo, her body was completely metallic, as opposed to Milo’s being only partly machine. Also unlike Milo, Happy has three white, glowing eyes, which stayed fixed in place as she rolled. This was all due to the fact that Happy was a spherical robot. More specifically, Happy was a personality - a companion droid made to be able to mimic all of humanoid emotions. However, Happy was defective, according to her manufacturer.

Her emotional repertoire was limited to positive emotions - joy, enthusiasm, silliness, and the like. Evidently, that’s where her name came from. No matter how many people tell her that she’s a hunk of scrap metal, Happy could never be bothered.

The yellow, gyroscopic orb rolled out from under Milo’s feet, producing a pleasant buzz as she whirled.

Milo gave a short, unmasculine scream of surprise.

“When did you get under the table?” screamed Milo.

“Oh! See, my temperature sensors detected a living lifeform below this table! So, I took it upon myself to check and see if it was you under the table! Then, I made an exciting discovery!” explained Happy, with wonder in her tone.

“Which was…?”

“You weren’t under the table! You were in your room!”

“So… what did you detect?”

“It was a lunargnat!” exclaimed Happy.

“A lunar-what?” said Milo as he turned his head towards his computer, opening it up and turning the dim brightness to a more suitable level.

Happy’s audio tone changed momentarily to a robotic, explanatory voice as she explained - “Lunargnat. An interspace species of insectoid which produces similar bioluminescence to the earthborn firefly. They are commonly found hiding away in space-bound vehicles in order to spread their offspring across planetoids.”

Milo looked back towards Happy and cocked his head towards his travel companion. “So… you confused my heat signature with a bug’s?”

“Correct! And thus ends the explanation of how I ended up under the coffee table! Are you satisfied with this explanation?”

“I-um-”

Happy looked back at her best friend with as much child-like joy a robot could produce.

Milo chuckled to himself and turned back towards his screen. “Ten out of ten.”

“Yay! I’m so glad I could be of assistance⁶. What are you looking at?”

Milo’s screen was full of unclosed tabs, open applications, and was generally a mess. Right now, his communications⁷ were pulled up to him and Astrid’s conversation from the night prior.



CoolName105: so milo, your mom said hi. i saw her on my way to work

StarryTrans: Oh cool! Say hi back to her from me ^^

CoolName105: she even invited me over for dinner, by the way. says that without you around she’s missing another mouth to feed

StarryTrans: Of course she did haha. How was work?

CoolName105: slow but fine. how’s being a spaceboy?

StarryTrans: That’s spaceMAN to you! It's slow, but fine. The stars are really pretty.

CoolName105: awww nice! i’m glad you’re enjoying them ‹3



Milo remembered at this point last night he had typed out something to the effect of “They would be nicer with you, though” or “Not as pretty as you,” but he chickened out. That stuff would be way too cheesy for someone as cool as Astrid. His eyes lingered on the emoticon heart Astrid typed.



CoolName105: i mean, it figures you would go out there. your head has always been in the stars anyway.

StarryTrans: Oh yeah, I’ve only dreamed of it since like... forever! Ever since Mom took me up to the observatory, being out here has been my everything, you know?

CoolName105: i hope it's better than earth.

StarryTrans: Way better haha. There’s actually stuff out here⁸.

CoolName105: isn’t space supposed to be like. an empty vacuum?

StarryTrans: Well, I think an empty vacuum is better than a decaying cesspool!

CoolName105: fair enough. it’s only gotten worse since you left. this hollow rock is even more hollow without you around.



Milo’s heart skipped a beat. He could feel sweat forming on his flesh hand.



StarryTrans: Awww I bet it’s not THAT bad!

CoolName105: nahhhh it’s not that bad lol. it’s just boring. who am i supposed to fuck around with without you? His heart fluttered again.

CoolName105: i miss you, milo.



And again.



StarryTrans: I miss you too! I’ll be back soon!

CoolName105: two months ain’t soon enough!

StarryTrans: Well I’m sorry that just below-light speed isn’t fast enough haha.

CoolName105: alright i should sleep it’s like 2 AM here

StarryTrans: WHAT? Go to bed right now!

CoolName105: :P

StarryTrans:>:(

CoolName105: night milo, say hi to happy for me ‹3

StarryTrans: Goodnight Astrid! And will do!



“...Milo? Are your auditory systems working correctly?” chirped Happy, who had been trying to talk to Milo for the past few minutes.

Like a wave at the beach crashing onto an unsuspecting toddler, Milo broke out of his zoned-out trance. He gave another small, unmasculine yelp.

“Sorry! Sorry. I’m just looking at some comms with Astrid from last night,” sighed Milo.

“Ah Astrid! How is that curly-haired friend of yours and mine?” said Happy as she rolled up to bump Milo’s leg. He picked her up and let her roll on the table.

“She says she’s bored, I think,” responded Milo. “She told me to say hi to you!”

Like they do whenever Happy gets particularly excited, her eyes glowed and hummed just a bit brighter. She gasped in excitement, though she had no lungs, no need to breathe, and thus no real way to gasp besides mimicking the sound. “Yay! Tell Astrid that I say hello and salutations right back to them!” exclaimed Happy. “Why would she be bored? The Earth has so many interesting locales and places to visit!”

Maybe there used to be , said Milo’s inner cynic. On the outside, he chose to say something else. “Well, they say they’re lonely, I guess. She misses having us around.”

Happy rolled off of the table, back to the carpeted floor of the living room. “Well that is rather sweet of them! I’m sure they miss you the most, though! Given your last encounter-”

With haste, Milo stood up from the puffy coffee table chair and started to walk towards the driving room. If the sound of the moving furniture hadn’t interrupted Happy, Milo blurted out, “Well, we better get moving, huh? This cargo isn’t gonna transfer to Sector Nine⁹ itself!” He hoped that would be enough to change the conversation. He could feel his face getting more red by the second.

If possible, Happy would have cocked her head in confusion. She couldn’t, however, on the account that her body doesn’t have a head. She rolled after Milo, who has retreated into the precise solitude that is piloting a transport ship. “Are my memory banks mistaken? You appear to be distressed, Milo!”

As she entered, Milo was sitting on a large, torn leather chair. He looked at three paneled boards in front of him. He was inputting coordinates towards Outpost Nine, his transport assignment. But mostly, he was distracting himself. “I’m not distressed, it's just-I don’t know. Let’s just focus on the job, Hap,” sighed Milo.

“Was the kiss you and Astrid shared not enjoyable to you?”

Milo’s head perked up as if his flustered emotions were a weight and his neck was attached to them like a string. His eyes met the stars behind a reinforced pane of glass. He was careful not to look at his own reflection for the second time today.

In an embarrassed blurt, Milo willed his lips to move. “No, it was amazing. But that was a week ago. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Oh! Okay.”

“But things aren’t awkward between us. It was fine. It just happened.”

“Okay!”

“We still talk every night over comms. She’s busy with work. So are we.”

“I know!”

Milo’s eyes started to wander, looking for a distraction. Staring out into the vacuum of space, he accidently met the eyes of his reflection. Here we go again, he thought. As expected, his face was a blushing mess. Then he looked at the metallic arm. It wasn’t his arm. He didn’t have a left arm. He owned it, he used it, but it wasn’t his. Didn’t feel like it. Then his gaze met at his body. It didn’t feel like his either. He became obsessed with it. Stomach. Legs. Chest.

“Astrid doesn't even like me like that”, said Milo’s lips, as his anxious thoughts unintentionally became words, “They’re way cooler than I am. She’s way more confident, way more- just more! You know?”

Happy rolled directly next to Milo’s chair, pointing her three eyes up at her bestie. “That’s clearly not true, silly! If she kissed you, I bet she thinks of you to be way cooler than you claim to be.”

Milo stood up from the chair, walking to a nearby shelving unit. He didn’t really need to grab something from it. He just wanted to move. “Okay, let’s consider that Astrid likes me like that-”

“She does!” joked Happy as she peered from behind Milo’s chair.

“We don’t know that-”

“We are one hundred percent sure!”

“Fine. Maybe fifty-”

“Ninety-nine percent!”

The tenseness in Milo’s stomach somehow let out a short laugh. “I’ll settle for eighty-five. But us kissing didn’t really mean anything. We were playing video games. We were getting high. We kissed. She knows I was leaving the next day for this,” he explained as he motioned to the window, “It was nothing more than our lips making contact, Hap. It was something we did for fun, just like the game we were playing, or the shit¹⁰ we were smoking. That doesn’t mean that we’re suddenly partners. Or boyfriend and girlfriend, or whatever.”

Happy let that process for a second. “How about you?”

Milo paused, confused. “How about me what?

“Do you have feelings for Astrid?”

Milo leaned his back against the shelf as he buried his cherry-red cheeks in his sweaty palms. He mumbled something completely unprocessable. “Yeahido.”

“Sorry, I didn’t get that. Please restate!”

Milo let his face out his flustered cocoon. “Yes. I. Do.”

“Then what stopped you from asking her out after your lips made contact?”

His embarrassment turned to soft melancholy. “I was leaving. She was staying. I couldn’t do anything about that. I’ve landed my dream job. This is my dream, Hap. Being out here with you is my dream.”

“What about her?”

Milo’s heart thudded in the bottom of his chest.

“What about them?”

“Where is Astrid in your dream?”

Milo let out a long sigh as he slid down to the floor, collecting himself in a curled up mass. “That’s just the thing, Hap. Astrid’s been in my dreams since the moment I met her. But with the kiss and the timing of everything - it wouldn’t be fair to her. It wouldn’t be fair if I told her that I had feelings just to leave the next day. She doesn’t deserve to wait around for someone whose head is in the stars.”

Happy was unsure if Milo was using a metaphor in this instance, because his head was literally in the stars. The rest of him was there too, for that matter. “I’m sure she would have waited for you. She clearly likes you a whole bunch.”

“But even if they wait for me, what if they forget what I’m like when I’m gone? What if by the time I’m back, she has feelings for someone else? What if we start getting serious, and then they get turned-off by the metal arm, or my weird tics, or my- uh- general awkwardness! There’s just too many variables.”

Lost in his spiral, Milo was taken aback when suddenly Happy had rolled up right next to his crumbled form and was resting right against his leg. “Milo, she invited you over every single night until midnight. She stays up on communications with you until even later. She knows all of your favorite things, and you know hers! You have the same sense of dark humor that I don’t 11 understand. She kissed you, you silly goose! And I bet they think the arm is cool. I bet they think every part of you is cool.”

“I already said, we don’t know that-”

“You keep saying that! Sure, you and I don’t live in Astrid’s processing drive. So let’s make an educated guess instead! All signs point to Astrid being in love with you. She’s practically throwing themselves at you, silly! And the longer you wait to say something, they’re just gonna be in distress that you don’t feel the same way.”

The two friends sat quietly for a bit. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence-far from it. It felt calm. Milo was yet again lost in thought, but for the first time today, it wasn’t about his distaste for himself. He held his stomach with his human arm.

Eventually, Milo spoke up. “For a defective personality droid, you’d make a pretty good therapist, Hap.”

Happy let out an automatized giggle. “Why thank you! That’s very kind of you!”

Milo let his thoughts brew for another minute. “Fine, you win. I’ll ask Astrid on a date when we comm tonight."

Happy perked up as her eyes pulsed. “Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, what’s the point in waiting, really? She’s got a busy schedule, I’m sure they would appreciate the head’s up. Worst that happens is that they say no”.

“But they won’t!”

“But they could.”

“Mmm…let’s call it a ninety-nine percent chance that they won’t!”

Milo, unwilling to play that game again, playfully kicked his spherical friend to the side, finally standing up from his sad-boy heep on the ground. Sitting back down in his chair, he looked outwards into the stars with a bright feeling in his chest. He put both of his hands on the controls, and started to lightly push the ship forward. Happy put on some music.

As he drove the spacecraft, Happy sat on his lap, he could only wonder if Astrid was looking at the same stars from a lightyear away¹¹.

⸻
¹ _{Milo Policon (he/him) is a transgender man with a heteroromantic heart. His favorite fruits are apples and his favorite color is blue.}
² _{STARNAV refers to the most powerful company in the world. In an age post The Ocean’s War, a company which oversees galactic transportation of resources from other planetoids and said resources holds a lot of political power.}
³ _{Astrid Auroria (she/they) is a nonbinary woman with a biromantic heart. Her favorite book genre is gothic and her favorite finger is her middle one.}
⁴ _{Nervetech refers to a revolutionary technology which connects the human body’s nervous system with a mechanically engineered limb. It was developed during The Ocean’s War around seventy-six years ago for soldiers who had lost limbs on the side of the Free World, but has since been repurposed for public usage.}
⁵ _{Happy (she/her) is a personality companion droid with an aromantic mechanical core. Her favorite people are Milo and Astrid, and her favorite word in binary is 01101010 01101111 01111001.}
⁶ _{After all, as a companion droid, there is a primal satisfaction to helping someone out. It’s similar to the feeling a human gets when they throw a crumbled up piece of paper and make it into the trashcan.}
⁷ _{Despite the distance between Earth and the outer reaches of the Galaxy, communications are made possible by STARNAV’s use of a network of Dual-Transmitter Satellites. Thanks to them, Earthen interconnected technology can share connections with anyone across Known Space!}
⁸ _{An unfortunate byproduct to The Ocean’s War is the effect both the war machines of man and the primordial will of nature has had on the Earth. The Aftermath Union has declared at least forty percent of previously habitable land is now to be marked as “Ruined Areas”, otherwise known simply as Ruins.}
⁹ _{For ease of navigation, STARNAV has split Known Space into thirteen Sectors, each stationed with Dual-Transmitter Satellites and a singular STARNAV Outpost. There are plans to expand to a fourteenth, possibly even fifteenth, Sector within the next few months.}
¹⁰ _{Since The Ocean’s War, use of recreational drugs has significantly increased. This is due, in part, to the formation of an abundance of mutated substances found in Ruins. It is also due to the decrease in overall population, in which it seems most who remain either already were stoners, or decided to become them after facing their own mortality.}
¹¹ _{And she was.}

Contributor bio:

Alister de Mets (they/them) is a proudly queer and disabled artist. They primarily specialize in performance, but finds great pride in their literary works as well. They are the sole playwright of DEAD BUNNIES, a new dramatic comedy.