Excerpt 31

I always dreamed of being amongst the stars, staring into the vastness of the cosmos. Now that I am here though, I cannot convey any of the emotions I'm feeling. I was just overwhelmed. The view of the Sparta Solar system has taken every word from my vocabular, even every thought in my racing mind, awestruck. I was never one for heights, but there was something different about being hundreds of miles above the nearest planet that negated the fear. I could still look into the colorful, majestic abyss of space, the vibrant hues of the unexplored planet below, and the glimmer of the hulls from the near by colony ships that followed us. Luckily, everyone was asleep still from the raging party that was thrown at first contact with the new planet so I was able to enjoy the view undisturbed. I tried to come up with a good name to fit this new planet, one that I felt would fit. Since the crew would spend most of their day dealing with hang overs and I was the chief navigator, I'm sure they would not mind if I name the first planet... unofficially, of course. I started to get accustomed to the view, letting some emotion back into my expressionless face. An ear to ear smile slowly grew upon my face. I made it. I grin as as I glanced over my shoulder at the mass of passed out drunken scientist and explorers. No, we made it.