"CHEETAH!"

I bolted upright from a dead sleep, disconnected, and confused.

"Ugh, Cheet, man, put that away!" Mayan complained, and turned abruptly to face my closed door.

I realized I was buck naked, having kicked everything off to sleep in the scorching heat. "Uh, yah," I managed and reached for my jogger shorts to slip them on. "'Cool, I'm decent," I declared.

Instantly she whirled around and took the one foot distance to my kitchen counter. I watched as she carefully laid something loose and flimsy over the surface, then back away like it might explode. “Check this out,” she invited, and waved a hand toward her find. Clearly she was excited about whatever it was, and that she’d brought it to me, of all people, was the only reason I was rising from my bunk to peer at it.

It was dirty. It was old. It was PAPER.

“Shit,” I murmured. Moving now with care, I reached to turn the sheaf around so it was the right way to read the very faded text. I squinted closer.

"Sagittarius A," I read out loud.

"What, like the black hole?” Mayan chirped immediately. I looked at her.

"What black hole?"

She rolled one hand fast. "The one in our system? You know," she added, but with less confidence. I squinted at her. Beautiful and smart. Mayan at her best.

"Must be," I replied, and went back to the parchment. Mayan came closer.

"It looks like coordinates, Cheet," she added, her eyes darting now between me and the sheet.

"Yah, could be." I exhaled loudly. Widening my eyes a few times to shake the sleep, I stretched my back from leaning. I was exhausted, still hot, and trying to not sound bored.

"Cheet!" Mayan exclaimed, obviously upset that I wasn't more invested.

"What? Mayan, I agree, it looks like actual paper. That's a big deal. I'm sure it’s worth something. You’ll have a great vacation this year."

Mayan dropped her arms, huffed and stamped a foot. Thank the moon for baggy sweatpants. She was cute when she got mad.

In a whirl, she turned and lifted the sheet to hold it up. "Coordinates," she repeated and tapped her index in the top right corner where the long phrase of numbers was printed. "Three sets, to be exact. And this? Faint, I know, but it looks like it says; ‘heavy gate’.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

I squinted again, leaning in. "’Heaven’s Gate’," I corrected her.

"Holt, shit," she whispered, and the paper jiggled when she trembled. I shrugged, not understanding the significance. She rolled her eyes.

"My dad helped design the junk jumpers, 'member those?"

I nodded. They were high atmosphere, heavy junk haulers. Scrappers that used to collect and deposit used metals for recycling between the final fit manufacturing facilities in the sky cities and the junk deposit sorting facilities on the surface. He’d also been on the team to design the same for the lunar colony. Space cargo ships to ferry new material from the sky cities out and scrap and other recycling material in.

"He used to say that one day we'd find a straightforward way across our galaxy, no radiation drives. No fuel. Just space. And that scientists were close to finding a way to use a black hole. The closest in our system is called Sagittarius A*. You have to pronounce the star with the name."

"Kay, and?" I asked impatiently, but I was sorry for it. I was just so damn tired.

"According to my dad, the project’s code name was ‘Heaven’s Gate’."

A long moment passed. I figured she was waiting for me to get it, but really I was gauging how to postpone this convo to the morning. "You think this is their work?" I asked half heartedly.

Mayan grinned and nodded, biting her lip in excitement.

I cleared my throat and reached to scratch the back of my head. "If it is, why is it buried in your dad’s shit? Kind of important scientific stuff to leave carelessly lying around, let alone on paper. Shit, Mayan, there's no way this is real data, and if it is a lost note, some engineer left it behind? At min it’s copied in the Unified's database somewhere."

For her part, she tried not to look crestfallen.

I instantly felt bad. "Look," I said, coming close to put a hand on her shoulder. "It's cool, there's no doubt, but let's look into it when we have better light, when we're not tired. Maybe we can call up some files on the vid about it. Go from there."

Mayan hugged herself, holding back her disappointment, but she agreed. "Right. You're right. It's late. Sorry I woke you," she added and took the paper.

"S'all good," I assured her. "Get some rest. We'll start our research tomorrow, if you want."

She nodded, waved and left. I turned back to my cramped, disheveled bunk and tried to shake out the sheet.

When she wasn't trying to change our world, Mayan was a fun buddy and close personal friend. She never challenged my introverted-ness or my loneliness. My parents were both passed on, and my future didn’t hold much in the way of prospects. I’d gotten used to that.

I appreciated that she never commented that I should rise above it, change my attitude, and be someone else. Lofty things that were actually impossible for someone like me to aspire to. She wasn’t naïve to the world we lived in. She accepted me for me and when we hung out, there were usually good laughs and genuine investment in the company.

I felt bad for not entertaining her, but I was exhausted. It was a cool find, but a star map? That was way above my pay grade. But I couldn’t help but laugh. Undoubtedly it would be the hot topic when I saw her in the morning.

I raked my hands through my sweaty hair. Dropping my arms, I stood like an upright rag on a hook for a minute, before tipping over to crash face down on my bed. I was asleep in seconds.