Astro and the Sleeping Stars

Cadet Astro had been at Space Academy for three months before Tom figured out his secret.

It happened during a blackout exercise, a simulation drill where they cut all dormitory power for two hours to train cadets to function without light. The other cadets complained, some louder than others. But Astro was silent in a different way. He sat on his bunk, perfectly still, not moving or speaking.

Tom had his torch out within seconds, aimed at the systems manual he was trying to read. Then he glanced over at Astro and saw his face.

Astro was from Venus, the biggest planet with the tallest cadets and the loudest laugh. He was known for lifting equipment cases that were supposed to need two people. He had repaired a leaking fuel coupling by hand during a live drill without flinching.

He was sitting in the dark looking like he wanted to disappear.

Tom pointed his torch at the porthole without a word. The beam caught the glass and scattered, but beyond it the stars were bright and clear, a thick band of them stretching across the sky, the Academy's orbit giving them a spectacular view of the Milky Way.

Astro exhaled. Just once. But Tom heard it.

They didn't talk about it. Tom went back to his manual. Astro shifted so he could see the porthole from his bunk. After a while, Astro said: "You know what the navigation instructors don't teach."

"What?"

"That you can identify a star by its colour. Blue-white ones are younger and hotter. Red ones are older, cooling down. Orange ones are in between."

Tom put the manual down. "Show me."

Astro pointed at the porthole and began. He knew them all, not just the navigation stars but the character of each one. The blue giant blazing young and fierce. The red dwarf settling quietly into its old age. The binary system where two stars circled each other so slowly it took centuries to see them move.

They talked until the power came back on at 2300 hours. Neither of them mentioned the dark.

After that, the navigation lessons got more interesting. Tom hadn't known about colour and temperature. But Astro knew it from years of lying on his back in the Venusian highlands, watching the sky.

On the night of their first solo simulation flight, cruising through the dark with only star charts and radio, it was Astro who brought them home. He pointed at a yellow star that wasn't on the chart and said, confidently, "That one. Follow it."

And it did.

Tom asked how he'd known, afterward.

"Because I've been watching stars my whole life," Astro said. "Every night. Even now."

"Even now when?"

Astro looked at the porthole. The stars blazed beyond it.

"Even when I'm supposed to be asleep."