First Encounter – KNS – 2026

I was so glad when I was accepted to the academy. Even though my parents and most of my teachers said there was never any doubt, it still felt unreal — almost like a dream — until I first stepped out of the BRICK shuttle and entered HELIOS station.

The first week was chaotic and hectic, working out my schedule, finding classrooms, and getting to know the instructors. After that, everything settled into a smoother routine.

My main course, in which I would later graduate, was trans-dimensional portals — a highly theoretical niche field, not widely known. Somehow I excelled in the theoretical work, and a few of the ideas I — according to one of my teachers — had “dreamed up” — would later prove to be surprisingly accurate.

As the whales, eventually, confirmed.

During those first days, I could hardly pass a window without stopping to look out into space.

I imagined traveling to those distant stars. Exploring unknown worlds. Discovering what was out there — hidden, waiting to be revealed.

Preferably by me.

But there was still a long road ahead. And it wasn’t all wonder.

My first free-space exercise, for example, was anything but enjoyable.

I never had issues with travel or space sickness, and I was in good physical condition. But the first time I donned a Mk XIII EVA suit, I experienced something close to claustrophobia and began to hyperventilate.

Fortunately, training and discipline took over before it became serious.

Even so, after that, putting on the suit always came with a trace of unease.

And so it was in the second semester, while I was supposed to attend a lecture on statistical research, that I found myself sitting in front of one of the large observation windows, updating my journal.

That was when I saw him.

An astronaut outside the station. Moving with a kind of ease that immediately caught my attention. As if the suit was not a barrier — but an extension.

I remember thinking how impossible that seemed.

And how much I wanted to understand it.

I must have been staring.

At some point he noticed. Turned toward the window. And waved.

It took me a moment to respond.

But I did.

And this is how I met Vladimir.

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