– That damn hatch, – he said, looking down the long corridor, still pressing the button.
The girl who was hastily typing on the computer stopped for a while, turned in his direction and continued to click.
But at some point, something cracked, and the fountain pen broke in half, where the spring flew out and small parts fell to the floor, scattered in different directions…
An attempt at the seventh flight on HT39 of the manned spacecraft was successful, and the astronaut managed to land on this planet. Initially, they planned to send three astronauts, but then they reduced the volume of the internal location of the spacecraft module for habitation for the sake of a more powerful engine and larger food supplies.
But it was this launch that was successful, although it was an interim project, involving an increase in the entire ship on a different principle of operation.
– Nikolai, we can hear and see you! – reported from a video call session from Earth.
– I can hear you perfectly well, too, the life support module has deployed automatically, and everything is working.
In the next few months, Nikolai became popular in all Internet resources, his interviews were broadcast, entire communities were created, and talk shows about him were discussed, where experts in various fields of science constantly spoke.
The topic was popular everywhere, and earnings from advertising such sites grew significantly, almost everyone was talking about a person on HT39.
T-shirts were produced, a clothing line was made, a movie was made, all this gave income to various companies for a huge amount.
But one day, Nikolai received a message on the monitor that the next module was delayed in sending, because they found errors in calculations when developing a new type of engine, and the old one had long been abandoned.
Nikolai sat down on a chair that was very comfortable in the life module and started flipping through the paper books that he had brought with him from home, but things were very sad.
He was popular on Earth, he was the idol of the young, but here, being one parsecs away from Earth, he could not go back and no further help could be expected.
He became the most popular and richest blogger on Earth. His dream of youth came true. A special bank account was opened for him to collect interest on broadcasts and souvenir sales, but he could not use it to save his position.
The guy wearily got behind the wheel of his new car, preparing to go to work. The car was bought recently, bought on credit and did not particularly please him, so that he could feel more confident at work while communicating with colleagues. Soft music played in the background, but his thoughts were much louder. As he slowly moved through the bustling streets of the morning, the past slowly and gently entered his mind.
He thought back to his childhood, the days when the world was simple and carefree. Memories were exploding in his head, causing a warm feeling of nostalgia. He thought aboutendless summer adventures with friends, fun family trips to the sea, the smell of grass while playing soccer in the field behind the house. He remembered the day when he caught a carp in the pond, but he couldn't unhook it, it broke free, and he never went fishing again in his life.
Every cartoon he watched, every book he read, every song he fell madly in love with, it all came back to him in that moment. He felt those moments of youth when he dreamed of becoming a winner, when he believed in his invulnerability.
