Constellations

"I've been thinking," Crux said with a shuffle. "About the names the humans gave us."

"...The names."

"The names. How they gave us a list of objects in their view of the galaxy." The dwarf star looked upwards to the endless void above him. "How they asked us to choose the ones we liked best."

"I think that's a perfectly fine way to-"

"Oh, no, I have no problems with it either. It's just," he stifled a laugh, "I think the names we chose are fun."

"Fun?"

"Our last day on Earth, I was reading." Crux mimed reading a book. "English isn't hard to get the hang of. It was a little awkward, but they have this thing on their... /kompyuterrz,/ they called them?"

"Computers, yes. They were fascinating."

"They have these things called /wihkees/, or... /wihkeepeedeeuh/, I think it was."

"Right, a "website," I think. With articles?"

"Articles, yeah. I was reading about the different objects they have named. And about our names."

"Is this going anywhere?"

"Of course it is! /Crux/ is a constellation they've named. The Southern Cross, in some of their cultures."

"Okay. Are you sure this is going anywhere?"

"Listen! And the /Coalsack Nebula/ is a dark nebula in their sky."

"I know that. Why do you think I chose it?" Having formed from a dark nebula himself, Coalsack was very partial to the name. It brought him comfort to know that he wasn't the only one like this.

"Well, on the /wihkeepeedeeuh/ page for the /Coalsack Nebula/, there's a piece of human literature listed."

"You care about that sort of stuff?" Coalsack teased. "I was surprised to even hear that you were reading."

"Oh, hush. Anyway. In a book, I forgot its name, but in a book, there’s these two boys who travel through a human’s view of the galaxy.” Crux spread his arms out, mimicking the movement of the boys in the story. “They’re on a big train, they called it? A big train, with different Earth constellations as the stations.”

“Are you really sure this is going somewhere-”

“Some characters see the Southern Cross as heaven.”

Coalsack stared at him.

“And one of the main boys sees the Coalsack Nebula as heaven.”

It was silent. Everything was silent.

“I wonder if they think we’re angels?” Crux pondered aloud. “We did come from the sky and try to speak to them through their minds. Which is something angels do in their religions.”

“That’s dumb.”

“Is it?”

“I don’t want to be an angel,” Coalsack said quietly. His voice felt faint. “Humans are weird.”

“It’s okay. I think they’re weird too.” Crux patted Coalsack on the back of his core. “But isn’t it kind of cool that we picked those names? Two things in their view of the galaxy that are considered holy to some.”

“...Sure.”

“And they’re close to each other in their sky, despite being light years apart from each other. Just like us.”

Coalsack shot a glance at him before looking down at the void below them. “I guess.”