Freelancer

Driving by night on highways in Canada is probably the closest I will come to feeling like being in a spaceship.

I was driving from Waterloo to Brampton one night and I had this feeling that wasn't really a flash but more like another transparent layer of perception that has come on top of the primary, "real" layer, so it looked and felt like I was experiencing two different realities at the same time, overlapped.

They were different but in some strange, weird and familiar way very similar.

I was in my car, surrounded by impenetrable darkness, occasionally passing other vehicles and every once in a while passing near some human habitats and it felt, looked and really resembled and resonated in my soul like I was in space. My car was my spaceship, darkness around me was deep space and rare vehicles around me were other space travelers - traders, adventurers, rogues, pirates and freelancers like myself. Rare and distant cities I was passing by were small systems, planets and space stations that you see as you travel through populated space. In that big nothingness and blackness the only thing keeping me alive was my spaceship, the only things breaking silence were hum of the ship's engine and quiet music coming from my ship's sound system, playing music that made me feel closer and more united with myself and everythingness around me.

As I was experiencing those two layers, amused and surprised and intrigued and I don’t even know the word to describe the experience of those two layers being so different but matching so perfectly together, it was then that I suddenly saw a big mass on the horizon.

It looked like we are on the same course, just that mass was moving slower than me. I kept my course that would bring me closer to it. As i was getting closer I realized that mass is actually not one big mass but a group of objects in space, moving together.

Soon enough I was passing by a fleet of huge freighters, a large space caravan !

Their individual size multiplied by their numbers was accentuated by their slow moving speed, making them simultaneously look scary, gracious, magnificent and powerful. In awe, I felt so small in my little ship as I was looking at them through my cockpit.

My speed being slightly greater than theirs I slowly passed by them and left them behind me. I threw a last look at that large space beast in my rear-view monitor and soon enough I was again alone in space. Music was soothing, engine was humming and darkness closed around me once again.

Few more light years and I will reach system Brampton and land for a little while...

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