Excerpt: Tales of Stella: Emissary

'Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to be near the stars. It seemed like it was my destiny. Hell, my name, Stella, literally means “star” in Latin. My mother, who so brilliantly named me, even said that when I was in my crib, I was always especially interested in my planetary mobile hanging above my crib. When I got a little older I always found myself looking at the stars at night before going to bed. When I turned eight years old, I got my first telescope, and for many years after I would look through it during the clearest nights.
It was one of those clear nights, when I was about 14 years old, that I looked through my beloved telescope and saw a strange light in the sky. I didn’t know what it was, and I still don’t, but it made me wish that I was in a little closer to that light so I can see what it really was. In space I would see much more than the craters of the moon, or the reddish glow from mars. It wasn’t enough that I could see it, I wanted to touch it. It was that night that I decided that I wanted to be an astronaut.
I know most kids who say that, don’t ever become one, but I was one of the lucky few who did. Thank god I was good in science class, I don’t think I would have fulfilled my dream if I wasn’t.
After many years of hard work and school, it finally paid off just to see my name embroidered on my uniform, “S. Beckman”.
But no matter how often I dreamed of being in space, or how often I was in space, none of it really prepared me for my ultimate destiny; being the spokesperson for the entire human race.'