Home.

Cold dark streaming in the windows greeted him as he walked onto the bridge.  Space was filled with tiny mites of light that shone across countless light years yet each mattered little to him.  Even the small light barely visible to the human eye that glimmered in the distance was a past that meant little to him.  He had thrown it away with his journey, tossed the prospect of life on a familiar planet with a familiar sun away into the darkness he had crossed through.  His gaze was drawn to the empty blackness that surrounded those lights.  It shifted between a flatness and an infinite abyss before his eyes, pushing and pulling at his conceptual awareness.  He identified with it.  His eyes shone not with the light of the stars but with the blank depth of the void.  It was a light that drew him back out as it blinked to life on the panels below him.  He could vaguely recall their meanings after the deep slumber, slowly moving his head downwards to inspect their polygonal shapes more closely.  With a sigh he slumped into the chair of the bridge, letting instinctive movements guide his hands to the controls.  For his body it seemed like barely a year had gone by.  It was the thing that lurked within him, the spirit that held his head aloft that was weary.  He scratched at buttons and switches, playing a game with the lights to settle them back down to black blankness.  The ship turned, silent and slow as the internal gravitational engines twisted and turned deep within the hull.  It was moments before the light of a star crept into view, moments more of an almost-darkness.  The light was a low yellow, splashing its way into the bridge and bathing the captain with warmth.  It shined deep into his being, the light he had come to claim.  His emptiness was marred, filled with a fragment of purpose that buoyed his form.  Yellow beams pressed him backwards and upwards against the chair, straightening him.  There were more spaces, vast spaces within him that were not filled still, more expanses that resonated with the void, and in time they might be filled too, but for now there was only the small yellow glow that sparkled its way into his eyes that mattered.  A bright spot at the center of his universe.