Omie & Irie Orion
"Across the Universe" a short story by bhanibha
One day, Omie & Irie, (who was a brother and sister of the Orion family) decided they want to twinkle elsewhere. Irie had been looking at constellations, dreaming of new horizons, and Omie had been poring over star charts, excited to put his navigation skills into practice.
They decided, Dragons are cool, and so they must find their way to the Draco constellation.
They wanted to visit other places on the way too. They charted a path that would take them through Lyra, past Andromeda galaxy and bring them within shouting distance of Ursa minor (they'd spent all their lives next to mama bear in the sky, they really were excited to see the baby bear next).
However, once their adventure started, they realized - it really was a game of parallels, and gravitation...
Just as they were passing the neighboring star Bellatrix on the way they found themselves slowing down. One day, not long after they'd set out, Omie said - "Oh no, I guess I miscalculated the gravitational pull of stars closer or bigger than our home!"
Irie replied, "I am good at math, let me help you!" Once they corrected for it, they were able to sail on more smoothly.
And so, they continued on their adventures, checking their calculation every so often, to stay the course as much as possible. Unseen gravitation wells, black hole emissions jamming their gear, and errant worm holes provided constant surprises and challenge, but our space adventurers stayed brave and strong.
However, Omie knew his big sister was going to miss home on this journey. He did too, but he knew she'd spent more time in the Orion Nebula nursery, and was really very fond of it. There is something so very magical about celestial gas and dust clouds, catching the light of brilliant suns. All the while cradling baby stars like a...
Then one day just like that, the Draco constellation finally erupted on their spaceship dashboard. Excited to finally get closer to their planned destination, they reviewed their flight path and set their boosters on full throttle!
Draco was a magnificent constellation. Undulating gas clouds seemed to form a faint ribbon, connecting the family of stars into a mythical, beautiful dragon of fire and light.
"What is it, little Omie?" Irie asked. She only ever called him little Omie when he was very sick, or very sleepy, so Omie paid attention to not dismiss her question. They'd both been looking at the constellation, but Irie noticed Omie's smile dimming, not shining with excitement like they usually did.
"I love it here, and I have loved getting here, but I miss home so much. I cannot bear the idea of it taking us so long, possibly longer, to get back and see our family." Omie sobbed, afraid to show his feelings, fearing it would make his sister miss home too.
"Is that all? Why didn't you say something before?" Irie held him close and said quietly - "I miss home too, but I thought you loved the journey and the adventure of it, and so we've been taking the long scenic route."
Omie blinked and asked "you mean there's another way?"
"There is always another way, it just needs thinking about," Irie said with a smile.
"What do you have in mind?" Omie asked, now mystified, and starting to get the twinkle in his eye.
Irie laughed, noticing the change in his mood. "Drum roll please... worm holes!"
"Worm holes?!?" but it's never clear where they will lead us, and some are bent, others are just silly spirals - that's a mad idea!"
"True, they are all sorts of wonky, but they are only a mad idea if you don't know where they lead. If you do, they are a chocolate box of space shortcuts!" Irie replied, laughing.
"Alright... but that's the thing, we don't know where they lead!" Omie said, looking deflated again.
"Only because we haven't looked in the right way! I think, if we can map the gravitational warp around the worm holes, their shape, we can predict roughly its vector and duration. Luckily we've got our flight logs and it's full of data on wormholes. We just need to work out the geometry of the ones we encountered, and with any luck, two or three wormholes later, and we be home in half the time! What do we do when life gives us lemons? or worm holes? Math!"
That night, they both stayed up late, doing hard math, plotting out a flight path, but what looked like the most epic game of chutes and ladders across the fabric of the universe. As the wispy clouds of Draco seemed to wrap around them, they both finally fell asleep, exhausted, but content with their new plan, and dreams of home soon after.
(Note: There appears to be a slight jump or missing word at the bottom of the second page where it says "cradling baby stars like a...", but the narrative seamlessly picks back up with their arrival at Draco!)