“...earlier today a catastrophe struck, may we have a moment of silence for an American hero...”

Joe could all but imagine the news reports playing frantically back home. Maybe his ex would see them, and break the news to his kid. Maybe she would have to learn in school. It wouldn’t matter for much longer, Joe was already getting so cold.

“...the repercussions for NASA and the international space programs are predicted to be astronomical...

He didn’t have many regrets as he continued to drift in the darkness. Everything has been fulfilled except for one. The very reason he had gone to space.

He could imagine his daughter’s face, when she realized her dad was the Joe Sharp, America’s astronaut sweetheart, and the hug where he would whisper all of his apologies. He would have asked if it made everything he had done ok, every birthday he missed, every time he ran away, every time he even denied that she was his. He would have asked that despite everything, was she proud?

He knew it didn’t matter. It never really had, because now he was going to die. He was going to die without ever holding his daughter. He was going to die, drifting in the vast expanse of space, forever doing what he did best.

Running from the one thing that actually mattered.