Bingo - Deep | New Warriors | Astronauts | Fic | PG-13
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
supertightsTitle: Deep
Fandom: New Warriors (Marvel)
Prompt: Astronauts
Medium: fic
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: offensive language, indications of physical and verbal abuse
Summary: Vance Astro contemplates his latest attempt to runaway from his past.
“...Houston signing off, God bless you, Colonel Astro, and speed you on your way.”
Colonel Vance Astro sighed and clicked the communications array off, alone in his thoughts for the first time in a long while. His entire life possibly. It was quiet but not lonely, and he found he liked the silence. He began the routine of shutting everything down while simlultaneously firing up the cold sleep unit.
His mission, simple to the point of bluntness, was to travel across the vastness of space until he reached Alpha Centauri. Then what? Call home? There was a second mission pack but he wasn't permitted to open it until he reached his destination. What were they going to do, not send him? He tore the seal and read it, frowning. The contents were of no surprise to him, the scientists didn't expect him to make it, there was no way home once he got there, it was a one way trip and even if he did make it, which they all doubted, he was a dead man.
He laughed, he'd wondered before opening it, had he made a terrible mistake, so many things could go wrong after all. He might die in cold sleep, the space craft he travelled in might strike conditions it wasn't built to endure and crash, spreading his atoms in a fiery shower of death. That was if the cold sleep unit functioned properly at all. It was moot point obviously. He not held much faith in scientists. Engineers, eh, a little.
The photo of his family stared back at him from the small holder in the centre of the viewscreen. His mother, smiling, a little sad but proud, eyes glistening, arm around his shoulders. Maybe those engineers weren't so bad after all.
His father, standing too close to her, to anyone else's eyes it looked normal but he was in her personal space, smiling in that way he always smiled, like he wanted to see you eat shit and choke.
He rubbed his thumb across his mother's face, blocking his father's from view.
Many of the military men his age already had a wife and family but Vance was conflicted, he'd left home, joining up and following a career track that took him to space. Just about as far from his father as he could run. Sure, the old man had acted as proud as a father could, but he'd seen the old familiar glint in his eyes when his parents had visited him in the days before the launch.
“Still running I see,” was the first thing his father had said, words slurring softly.
His mother had winced as if Astrovik senior, his father's name and one he'd ditched as soon as he could legally do it, hit her. “Arnie... not now.”
“No, Mom, let him finish,” said Vance, putting a hand on her arm gently but she flinched away from him. “Let's hear it, Dad. What could you possibly say to ruin this for me, I'm sure you won't disappoint.”
“You!” His father swung his finger, and accidentally his glass around, to point at Vance angrily. Jabbing him in the chest. “You think you're so goddam special. Always did.” The bourbon in the glass sloshed over the rim and hit the floor, splashing Vance's highly polished shoes. “You're nothing special. You got all these bastards fooled but I know how worthless Vance Astro is!” He sneered over the abbreviated name.
Vance's mouth curled in annoyance at the memory. He took the photo out of the holder and tore his father out of the picture, even screwed up and discarded, the old man was scowling at him.
Fandom: New Warriors (Marvel)
Prompt: Astronauts
Medium: fic
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: offensive language, indications of physical and verbal abuse
Summary: Vance Astro contemplates his latest attempt to runaway from his past.
“...Houston signing off, God bless you, Colonel Astro, and speed you on your way.”
Colonel Vance Astro sighed and clicked the communications array off, alone in his thoughts for the first time in a long while. His entire life possibly. It was quiet but not lonely, and he found he liked the silence. He began the routine of shutting everything down while simlultaneously firing up the cold sleep unit.
His mission, simple to the point of bluntness, was to travel across the vastness of space until he reached Alpha Centauri. Then what? Call home? There was a second mission pack but he wasn't permitted to open it until he reached his destination. What were they going to do, not send him? He tore the seal and read it, frowning. The contents were of no surprise to him, the scientists didn't expect him to make it, there was no way home once he got there, it was a one way trip and even if he did make it, which they all doubted, he was a dead man.
He laughed, he'd wondered before opening it, had he made a terrible mistake, so many things could go wrong after all. He might die in cold sleep, the space craft he travelled in might strike conditions it wasn't built to endure and crash, spreading his atoms in a fiery shower of death. That was if the cold sleep unit functioned properly at all. It was moot point obviously. He not held much faith in scientists. Engineers, eh, a little.
The photo of his family stared back at him from the small holder in the centre of the viewscreen. His mother, smiling, a little sad but proud, eyes glistening, arm around his shoulders. Maybe those engineers weren't so bad after all.
His father, standing too close to her, to anyone else's eyes it looked normal but he was in her personal space, smiling in that way he always smiled, like he wanted to see you eat shit and choke.
He rubbed his thumb across his mother's face, blocking his father's from view.
Many of the military men his age already had a wife and family but Vance was conflicted, he'd left home, joining up and following a career track that took him to space. Just about as far from his father as he could run. Sure, the old man had acted as proud as a father could, but he'd seen the old familiar glint in his eyes when his parents had visited him in the days before the launch.
“Still running I see,” was the first thing his father had said, words slurring softly.
His mother had winced as if Astrovik senior, his father's name and one he'd ditched as soon as he could legally do it, hit her. “Arnie... not now.”
“No, Mom, let him finish,” said Vance, putting a hand on her arm gently but she flinched away from him. “Let's hear it, Dad. What could you possibly say to ruin this for me, I'm sure you won't disappoint.”
“You!” His father swung his finger, and accidentally his glass around, to point at Vance angrily. Jabbing him in the chest. “You think you're so goddam special. Always did.” The bourbon in the glass sloshed over the rim and hit the floor, splashing Vance's highly polished shoes. “You're nothing special. You got all these bastards fooled but I know how worthless Vance Astro is!” He sneered over the abbreviated name.
Vance's mouth curled in annoyance at the memory. He took the photo out of the holder and tore his father out of the picture, even screwed up and discarded, the old man was scowling at him.
