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Our poets claim it is perpetual summer on Centauri Prime, but of course this is not true. We do have a regulated climate, and if one does not wish having to emigrate to another planet after a few centuries, changes of seasons are necessary; our ancestors realized this even before they defeated the Xorn.
However, it was summer when I finally prevailed on my father, who took me with him on a trip to one of the colonies. It was the first time I was to enter a space ship, as well as the first time I stepped on another planet. Curious as I was about the planet in question, it was the other prospect which excited me the most. Like everyone else on Centauri Prime, I was used to the occasional sight of ships on the horizon, small dots like birds in the sky; to be one of them seemed like a great adventure, and like most young boys, I was eager for adventure.
To my father, it was a fairly dull, routine trip on a passenger cruiser, shared by about twenty other Centauri. He grumbled a bit about the fall of House Mollari and said in the old days, we would have had our own ship and would not have to resort to sharing public transport, but then he dozed a bit, and I, after vainly waiting for attacks by Narn rebels or mysterious Minbari, was left to myself. I was far from bored, though. I found a window to look through and saw Centauri Prime falling back beneath us. It was an amazing sight for a child, and to me, it seemed scarely imaginable that this perfect bluish ball harboured everything I was used to. The vastness of space, unimaginable to anyone who has not seen it, the reality of it, something that really was infinite was striking, and somewhat indimidating. Suddenly I was afraid for my world, imagining it to be swallowed by all that darkness.
"How strange," sighed a voice next to me, and suddenly I became aware that there was a young lady, perhaps three years older than myself, standing near to me. I was soon to be fourteen, and had already changed my mind on girls, whom my friend Urza still regarded as interfering creatures instead of the mysteries worthy of exploration I had started to see them as. "How beautiful," I returned, and she looked at me, winked and smiled, understanding me quite well.
"I feel cold, though," she said. "In space. It's so different. At home, it is always warm. It's summer, after all."
"We are Centauri, yes?" I said, puffing myself up as boys are wont to do (though a certain wife of mine claims I never lost the habit). "We can share the heat."
I was still a boy, though, and thus I took my coat and put it around her shoulders instead of offering other ways to keep warm in space. Though I did stand quite close to her afterwards, and felt something stiring beneath my shirt without knowing quite what to do about it. Nothing else happened before my father woke up and summoned me to his side, but this shall always be one of my favourite summer memories; watching Centauri Prime from space, with a girl at my side, and in utter lack of knowledge of the future.
However, it was summer when I finally prevailed on my father, who took me with him on a trip to one of the colonies. It was the first time I was to enter a space ship, as well as the first time I stepped on another planet. Curious as I was about the planet in question, it was the other prospect which excited me the most. Like everyone else on Centauri Prime, I was used to the occasional sight of ships on the horizon, small dots like birds in the sky; to be one of them seemed like a great adventure, and like most young boys, I was eager for adventure.
To my father, it was a fairly dull, routine trip on a passenger cruiser, shared by about twenty other Centauri. He grumbled a bit about the fall of House Mollari and said in the old days, we would have had our own ship and would not have to resort to sharing public transport, but then he dozed a bit, and I, after vainly waiting for attacks by Narn rebels or mysterious Minbari, was left to myself. I was far from bored, though. I found a window to look through and saw Centauri Prime falling back beneath us. It was an amazing sight for a child, and to me, it seemed scarely imaginable that this perfect bluish ball harboured everything I was used to. The vastness of space, unimaginable to anyone who has not seen it, the reality of it, something that really was infinite was striking, and somewhat indimidating. Suddenly I was afraid for my world, imagining it to be swallowed by all that darkness.
"How strange," sighed a voice next to me, and suddenly I became aware that there was a young lady, perhaps three years older than myself, standing near to me. I was soon to be fourteen, and had already changed my mind on girls, whom my friend Urza still regarded as interfering creatures instead of the mysteries worthy of exploration I had started to see them as. "How beautiful," I returned, and she looked at me, winked and smiled, understanding me quite well.
"I feel cold, though," she said. "In space. It's so different. At home, it is always warm. It's summer, after all."
"We are Centauri, yes?" I said, puffing myself up as boys are wont to do (though a certain wife of mine claims I never lost the habit). "We can share the heat."
I was still a boy, though, and thus I took my coat and put it around her shoulders instead of offering other ways to keep warm in space. Though I did stand quite close to her afterwards, and felt something stiring beneath my shirt without knowing quite what to do about it. Nothing else happened before my father woke up and summoned me to his side, but this shall always be one of my favourite summer memories; watching Centauri Prime from space, with a girl at my side, and in utter lack of knowledge of the future.
