September 28, 2052

"And that one?"

"Spica."

"What about that one?"

"Oh, uh... I learned it, but-"

"You forgot it?"

"Yeah..."

"It's Achernar."

"Yeah. How am I supposed to remember that?"

John chuckled. He was propped up against a tree, looking up at the night sky with Alan. The blond was laying on top of John, his small head resting against his chest.

Alan suddenly pointed to the horizon, where a bright star was just barely peaking over. "Look!"

John followed his gaze. "Sirius?"

"Yeah. It's my new favorite star."

"I thought you didn't like that one because it's the brightest. Didn't you say the others wouldn't be as loved because it was too bright?"

"Yeah, but then I learned it's called the 'Dog Star.' You never told me that!"

John smiled. "You found it in my map."

"Yeah." Alan loved the map. Every morning since John had granted him access, he had pulled it up in his room and dove into the sky, learning about every star. Often times he would get lost and need his brother to help him back to the sun. John loved helping him and knowing that Alan was so absorbed in it.

Suddenly, the glass wall on the patio opened, and Scott walked out. "Alan!" he called, "It's time for bed!"

Alan pouted. "Aww, no. Please, Scott, just five more minutes?"

Scott chuckled. "Dad's already given you an extra ten!"

John sighed. "C'mon, Alan. Let's go in."

"Fine," Alan whined reluctantly, rolling off of John and standing up. He skipped over to the pool and up the stairs, where Scott was holding the glass open for him.

John smiled, before following. He watched as Alan ran into the house, before looking up, meeting Scott's gaze. Scott smiled, inviting John to join him before he reentered the house. John gave a small smile in return as he climbed up the stairs to his brother. In these past few months, he had grown nearer to his family. He was especially close to Alan, but he was also finding himself becoming closer to Scott. His older brother was the only one he could really talk with about their mother, and that was something John had soon realized he needed: someone to talk with.

Alan was long gone by the time John entered the house. Even though he wasn't planning on speaking, he found himself opening his mouth. "Scott?"

The brown-haired boy looked curiously at his 14-year-old brother as he stepped in after him. "Yes?"

John couldn't believe he was saying it. "Could I show you something?"

Scott's curiosity deepened. "Sure."

Scott had no idea what this was about, but he let his brother lead him into the dug-out circle in the floor that housed the best projector on the island. He watched as John began punching things into the projector's computer. He could see he was a little bit hesitant as he did it, like he was about to pour his heart into the room. This peaked Scott's interest. John finally trusted him enough to show him something that was obviously very important to him. But what was it?

Scott watched as John punched in one last thing, before stepping back. He listened as the projector whirled, booting up, before flinging what seemed like a trillion specks of dust into the air, lighting up the room. The entire system of projectors in the room were pitching in to project the massive hologram.

Scott had next to no idea what he was looking at, but the sight still didn't fail to take his breath away. He had never seen such a large hologram form from this projector system before; it filled the whole room.

Amazed, he spoke, "What is it?"

John gazed around, also enjoying the view he so often saw. "A map," he simply said, before pulling his hand into the hologram.

He found the speck that was designed to be the starting point, the first speck he added. Putting his hand up to it, he zoomed in, before clicking on it.

The information about the speck sprang to life, revealing that it represented a star. The information also included the name, age, size, composition, and the components of the star's solar system. Scott's jaw dropped. He was looking at the sun, and every other speck around him was a star.

John waved his hands about again, causing the map to recalibrate, changing it's point of view. The sun was placed eye-level on John's head, and the rest of the map spanned out around him.

Scott walked over to him and stood next to him, gazing around. From this perspective, he immediately recognized what it was. "Did you make this?!"

John nodded, a little bashful.

Scott looked at him, amazed. "John, this is incredible! What else can it do?"

John smiled. "Well..." he pulled up the Sun's information again, and clicked on the 'Show System' option. The Solar System came to life around them, zooming farther in. "It's not totally to scale..." John said as Scott walked around, "but there is an option, if you have a large enough space, to make it to scale."

Scott clicked on Earth's blue and white sphere and more information popped to life, showing that it was a planet, with a name, age, size, composition, life, revolution and rotation times, axis degree, orbit angle, and its moons.

John smiled at Scott's bewildered face, before clicking on the Earth again. An icon popped into life, asking for a date.

Scott entered one: 9/28/2051

The perspective changed again. They were now standing on the pool deck, looking up at the sky from that night, one year ago.

Scott was completely blown away. "How long have you been working on this?!"

John shrugged, "Five years?"

Scott turned to look at him, "Is this what you would do whenever you were locked up in your room?"

The red-head nodded again, remembering all the nights he had spent outside, doing calculations and observing the sky.

Scott walked around the room, having exited the ground view. "This is so amazing, John. Have you showed anyone else?"

"Alan," he answered simply, "I showed him for his birthday."

Scott turned from looking at a different star. "You haven't shown dad?"

John shook his head.

"John, you have to! He'd love this!"

John shrugged again, "I'll think about it..."

××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××

September 29, 2052

John stepped back from the projector, listening for the second night in a row to the whirring of the hologram projector as it came to life. A second later, it flung the specks of light into the air.

Alan's eyes immediately lit up as he recognized what it was. Scott smiled, watching as his youngest brother dove into the hologram, running around happily.

Jeff watched, confused. Here he was, standing next to his desk, a little after sunset, looking at a hologram of scattered dust. A little after the sun had fallen beneath the horizon, John had asked if he could show him something. The rest of the Tracy Island residents had tagged along, except Brains, who was at a conference at Cambridge. Jeff wondered what this projection represented to his son.

"Whoa! It's a disco party!" Gordon exclaimed as he gazed about.

Alan laughed, "No it's not, silly!"

Virgil looked at it, the gears inside his head spinning fast, trying to put the pieces together.

Grandma Tracy smiled at her youngest grandson. "Well, then what is it, Alan?"

Alan stopped running. "It's a star map. Duh."

Jeff's eyes went wide when he realized he was right. But how had his youngest figured it out before anyone else?

Scott read his father's mind. "He's seen it before."

Jeff nodded, before becoming puzzled. "How?"

John decided to speak up. "Because I've shown him. I also showed Scott last night. He's the one who said I should show you..." John looked down.

"So... Is it just a star map, or what's the catch?" Virgil asked, curious.

"It's his star map. Completely his," Scott announced, proud of his brother and the fact that he had shown him before.

Jeff blinked, bewildered, before speaking to John, "You made this all by yourself?!"

John nodded shyly. "All from scratch. Even the programming."

"Forget the programming, is this to scale?" Virgil asked.

"Well, if the calculations I made to determine the scale are correct it can be, but it's extremely condensed right now."

Jeff put the pieces together. "Is this all original work, John?"

The red-head nodded.

Grandma Tracy nodded, impressed. "Dang."

The family's thoughts were interrupted by Alan's happy exclamation.

"Found it! Yes!"

John looked over and smiled.

Gordon looked confused. "Found what? It's just another-"

Alan quickly clicked on the star, pulling up its information sheet.

Virgil gazed surprised. "It's the sun."

Jeff's mouth opened slightly, surprised that there was more to this map than just a scattering of stars, and that his youngest son had been able to locate his home star through the maze.

Scott smiled at his father's bewilderment. "And that's not all it can do."

Jeff, tired of sitting on the sidelines, stepped into the hologram. He began to explore it himself, finding out all it could do and exploring, just as Alan had been the past few months. His family watched, also amazed at the map.

After a few minutes, Jeff spoke again. "John, when have you been doing this? How have you been doing this?!"

John, not entirely enjoying the spotlight, spoke quietly, "Well, I've been working on it for about five years, maybe, and I've been taking my telescope out at night and documenting the sky, doing calculations to estimate sizes and distances and amounts of satellites around stars and some planets and other things," he ran on. "It's basically what I've been doing every waking moment I have had for the past half decade..."

"John," Jeff said, walking over to his son, speaking sensitively, "this is incredible. Your mother would love it, and she'd be glad you shared it with us."

John looked up at his father, tears forming in his eyes.

Jeff embraced his son in a loving hug.

Alan giggled, running over and joining them. Scott smiled, before joining them too.

"Group hug!" Gordon announced excitedly, running over and joining as well. He was followed by his other brother and his grandmother.

John smiled, a tear leaking from his eye. Here, in the embrace of his family, their warmth and love flowing into him, he felt closer to his mother than he had since her death.

××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××

Jeff knocked on John's bedroom door. "John, may I come in?"

John looked up from the program that lay in his lap. He had been refining the programs for his star map; he had noticed a few lags when his family was going through it earlier. "Yeah?"

Jeff opened the door and John moved the projector off of his lap, setting it on the bed beside him.

Jeff looked around. He had not been into his son's room in years. It was rather dark, with a canopy of stars above the bed, painted onto the midnight blue ceiling. The walls were the same color, except for the wall his desk was against, which showed Earth from the space, the sun rising over its horizon. Projectors littered the room. Unfinished calculations littered the walls of the room and stylists were scattered across the desk and on the floor. On the multiple surfaces in the room sat at least one old tea mug. A jar of mints lay open on the nightstand and Jeff spotted a radio in the corner, on, but tuned to an empty frequency to place a sound of soft, white noise in the room. The room smelled clean, and Jeff appreciated the change, different to the rooms his other sons lived in.

Jeff spotted the chair of the desk and pulled it out, rolling it to the side of John's bed, where his son was sitting. He sat down in the chair and pulled something out of his pocket.

John's eyes were attracted to the movement. He watched as his father pulled a projector out of his pocket. He set it on his knee and pulled up an electronic file. The file was a flyer of some sort, with the logo that John was all too familiar with in the top right corner.

Jeff began speaking, "A colleague of mine at NASA informed me of this special program they do for young scientists who show potential in Astronomy. The program is extremely prestigious and extremely hard to get into. However, judging by what I just saw downstairs, well, I think you have it in the bag."

John listened carefully. He hadn't heard of this program before. Did his father really think he could get in?

"The application process is extensive. You have to do an online interview, a four page essay, three STEM entrance tests, and submit a piece of original research that you think shows your qualification for the program," Jeff read off of the flyer. "However, if you get in, you'll get to spend a year at NASA, taking astronomy and astrophysics classes and participating in astronaut training. The program is also very small, so the training and classes would be very hands-on and one-on-one."

John couldn't believe what he was hearing. This could be a dream come true for him.

"When are the applications due?" He asked.

"You have about a month and a half."

John nodded, already planning out how much time it would take him to revise his map enough so it was fit to send to NASA.

"So, you're interested?" Jeff asked, curious.

John looked up and nodded eagerly, smiling.

Jeff smiled wide. His son was actually smiling. He hadn't seen him this happy in years. "Great! I'll send the flyer to you and you can get started on your application."

John, smiling, hopped off his bed and ran to the holoprojector on his desk. He bent down, his dad being in the chair, and logged into the computer; he couldn't wait to get started.