Night

            It was always night here.

He got up and started his customary walk around the main deck. As he entered each new area the lights would come up to half of their designed luminescence and then dim again as he went on to a new area. It was enough room to wander in but not enough to get lost in.

Finally, he wound up in his customary cabin, in his customary chair, not out of habit - not yet - but more of comfort. As he settled in to the pilot’s seat - if he had one aboard - he looked out over the bow of his craft. He began to think. To remember.

When he was a child, he walked everywhere. Everyone did. Not because there weren’t horses or wagons - he hadn’t seen them yet - didn’t know they had existed until he was a grown man. Or, he mused, what passed for one. In those days.

            Those days. I couldn’t tell you how long ago that was. Didn’t see my first calendar until well after seeing my first horse.

The memory makes him smile. Wistfully. Not for the first time.

            And now, here I am.

Looking around the empty flight deck, he sighs. Wistfully. Not for the first time.His mind travels back to the sight of the town - his first - where he discovered horses and wagons… and so many other things.

    The people.

    The press of people. Even in those lean years, there were always so many. Living. Dying. Running away.

    Just like me.

The thought make him softly snort and smile. Ruefully. Not for the first time.

            There were always so many people around. Not like at home. In the sunlight. At night. Before and After. But then fewer and fewer…

...as the years went on, and he lost interest. Finally, alone. And years passed by.

    Years and years.

He wouldn’t have agreed to it, he thinks, if he had known there were going to be so many.

Still.
And so many of them alone.

As his ship slips further into the night, he reflects on his voluntary solitude. He has resigned himself to it. Because even sidestepping the light barrier, he is still only a small fraction above c. It will take him years to get where he’s going.

    Ageless and alone...

    At least it will finally serve a purpose.