Max hit the big red Go button, and the ship once again entered the void as it traveled through space.

He had decided to take it easy for the first big trip. Instead of trying to get to Alpha Centauri in a single jump, he thought it was wise to only spend a few days in the void at first. This would allow his ship sensors to receive data and analyze it, let him look out the window again, and allow Lexi to gauge the true speed of the folding space drive. Thus, he could more accurately calculate how far he will likely go each time he uses it for faster-than-light (FTL) travel.

So Max decided to only run the drive for 48 hours the second time he used it. Max understood that the Oort Cloud potentially existed between 300 billion kilometers from Earth and as far away as 15 trillion kilometers from Earth. This was (theoretically) a giant field of ice that floated in space far from the Sun. This was stuff that could have been turned into planets back when the solar system was formed but never did. This is also potentially the place where comets originated.

Of course, you can't see a field of ice with a telescope from Earth from such a distance, so nobody knows what the Oort cloud looks like or how big it is. But Max wanted to avoid it if at all possible.

So he planned to "lay up," as they say in golf. He'd aim the ship just before the Oort cloud, look around, and then potentially do a longer jump to get to the other side.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Two days in the void passed surprisingly quickly. Max spent his time examining the ship's logs, analyzing the computer code again with Lexi, and making a potentially long-term plan for his trip through space. He knew that the trip to Alpha Centauri could potentially take a couple of years, even if he were traveling faster than light. But his ship could provide him everything he potentially needed - air, food, and entertainment. In the meantime, he was trying to work with Lexi on ideas to make the drive take the ship farther distances through folded space, potentially making the long distances of space easier to handle.

After 48 hours, the ship dropped out of the void and back into regular space. Max found himself in the middle of the blackness of space. No star or planet was particularly close. Looking out the window, in any direction, was mostly dark, although he could see other stars, much like the night sky back on Earth.

He did attempt to find this Oort cloud, but his sensors didn't pick up anything of note. Whether this meant it didn't exist, he was still too far from it, or it was too dark to detect... Max wouldn't be able to tell.

He sent another message back towards the direction of Earth, updating them on his location. He wanted his name to be in the history books regarding being the farthest human from Earth.

After spending a few hours in regular space and not finding much around him to see, he engaged the engines once again. He'd have to go into the void for 3 months this time. And hope to emerge on the other side of this potential ice cloud.

While 48 hours alone wasn't too hard, 3 months alone was a different experience. It was similar to solitary confinement, except Max had a comfortable bed, entertainment systems, and a snarky AI system he could talk to.

Still, one thing that people hardly talk about is how lonely space can be.