Swimming the Skies

It was a hot and humid day for the trip. But this did not bother Charles. He was going to enjoy the time in the skies. He had decided to use his mantaskin today, and he smiled at the thought of the fun he would have. He donned his close-fitting suit and his nodes connected with it, allowing it to wrap ever tighter. Soon Charles was no more. In his place stood a glittering huge mantaskin covered exosuit which was now airtight. The suit would utilize photosynthesis once he was in the Sunshine.

Charles left hurriedly, he had decided today was the day to visualize and he would run out of time if he tarried. He strode out into the Sun and caught a thermal.... he floated away.  The suit adjusted its size until he was a giant.... a huge giant slow flapping bird up in the sky. It brought back memories of the ancient Greeks who had yearned to do the same thing. But that was where the similarity ended. The twisting wind created eddies and currents and the smallest leading edge vortex impinged on his consciousness. He used it to climb ever higher.

Charles was now able to see the continents resolve as he slid upward using the thinning air and feeling the pressure. The time was now right. Once he cleared the white fluffy clouds altogether, he was in much rarer air, but still not in space. His breathing got ragged and then stopped. Now the suit would breathe for him. It deflected the cosmic rays as well as the radiation of the Sun. He remembered the clumsy suits humans used to have in the past and smiled. All their attempts had made this pure symphony of body and senses possible. The mastery of how to escape the killing gravity of the planet. Humans had been imprisoned to the Earth for the longest time. Only in the last 100 years had it been possible for anyone to get kitted and leave the Earth.

The Mantasuit would now take over completely. It was not rated for interplanetary flight, but he could easily take the next step. And he did.... The 'wings' extended even more and floated up.... higher and higher - using the solar power now to assist the flight to the very edge of the atmosphere before the final power surge from the energy found in the heart of stars.... fusion. He felt the kick as the burner kicked in.... it would last a few seconds, but that would be enough... he was in Space.

Charles fell in his suit which now looked more like a huge sunflower with him attached to it... it followed the Sun. He fell continuously. At least that was what it felt like. He was orbiting the Earth. He started his visualization. Immense memory was being used to scan the stars. He zoomed in using the lens he had attached to the Mantasuit and captured visualizations in fine detail. He would later stitch them to make a complete experience. He was an artist. His neural nodes built the emotions into the visualizations. This was some fine captures indeed. He was happy. He wished his human ancestors would have been able to experience the same thing he did.