'SEE YOU MORNING' 100 Old Dreams in the Vast Sky, Remembering the Glorious Past

Lübeck woke well before dawn. The constant takeoffs and landings from last night’s operations had taken their toll on his sleep. From behind, he wrapped his arms around Brittany’s waist, breathing in the scent of her body. In this moment, Lübeck felt he truly possessed her. But there would be more operations ahead, missions deep into space, each carrying its own risks. Seen that way, the love before him felt like a castle built on sand.
Why hadn’t he chosen an ordinary life? Beyond passion and skill, the necessity of making a living had played its part. At least in his previous life, he’d still been on Earth, able to stay with Ruth. But after she was gone, for the sake of a waiting promise, Lübeck agreed to join the secret space program—so he could keep reversing his age, staying alive, waiting for her return.
As dawn broke, the rooftop panoramic windows let in a faint glow, illuminating Brittany’s side-lying figure. Compared to Ruth, she was fuller, her frame less delicate. Her personality seemed lighter, lacking Ruth’s steadiness and dignity, but warmer and more direct.
Lübeck longed to reunite with Ruth, yet it was Brittany who had walked into his life. He could only cherish the one before him for now, burying Ruth deep in his heart.
“Mmm,” Brittany stirred, stretching with a sigh, then rolled over with her eyes still closed, pressing herself against Lübeck.
Her forehead nestled into his chest, her chin resting on his shoulder, cuddling close like a bird seeking shelter. The sight filled him with a protective urge. As he studied her, he gently brushed the hair from her cheek and stroked her shoulder.
Brittany lazily rolled onto her back, then turned her head to open her eyes and look at Lübeck in silence.
Lübeck lay on his side, propping his head on one hand, gazing at her, and couldn’t help but smile. He didn’t know why, but he was captivated by those brown-green eyes of hers. He just smiled, watching the faint light from the panoramic window illuminate her irises.
“Good morning, Pilot Lübeck,” Brittany said softly, a hint of mischief in her voice.
“Did you sleep well?” Lübeck asked, stroking her hair.
“Mm,” Brittany replied.
“You were tired yesterday, weren’t you?”
Brittany giggled, rolled over, and laid her face against Lübeck’s chest.
“Weren’t you?” She draped her arm across his waist, her fingertips tracing slowly from his lower back up to his shoulder blades, then sliding down to his hips. She looked up at him and asked, “Tell me, besides flying planes, what else can you fly?”
Lübeck thought for a moment. “Well, I started learning to fly in civilian aviation, then joined the U.S. Navy. I’ve flown the Hellcat, the Sabre, the Crusader, the Phantom.”
“You’ve handled a lot of… women too?” Brittany asked, pausing with a lowered voice, a little shy but unable to hold back.
“No. Only my ex-wife, Ruth.”
“Oh, I thought a man as outstanding as you would have a lot of women chasing you.” As she spoke, Brittany flopped back onto the bed, and in the motion, pulled Lübeck down on top of her with both arms around his waist. She blinked her big eyes at him and said, “Don’t let any other woman steal you away from me, okay? Erich, fly me—I’m yours.”
Every time she called his name, Lübeck was pulled back to Ruth. It was her—the one who opened the door when he came home, the face that greeted his return, as if he’d stepped back into those years gone by.
Lübeck held Brittany’s hands, stretching her arms out, as if the carrier-based aircraft he’d flown through the years were unfolding their folded wings.
Each time he moved deeper into Brittany, her rising and falling chest, her trembling body—it felt like sensing the vibration of the airframe latching onto the catapult hook. Each tension of the shuttle, each shudder of the aircraft, seemed to foretell the moment of takeoff about to come.
As the catapult’s steam hissed and pressure climbed, the retraining bars clanged under the strain. Amid the aircraft’s trembling, the left and right engines roared to life in sequence, igniting their afterburners. Under the unbalanced thrust, the airframe twisted, compressed by hydraulic dampers.
In the ultimate scream of the turbine rotors and the roar of exhaust, he gripped the control stick tight. Below, the retraining bars released with a clang. The nose pitched up sharply and the aircraft surged forward—catapulted, head held high, soaring into the sky.
Even after breakfast, when he came to the operations room to check in, Lübeck’s mind still echoed with the merging of images from his flying career and Brittany’s figure…
Lübeck sat to one side with a cup of coffee, sipping as he cleared his head and studied the large screen showing the operational situation. It turned out the Hell Messenger attack aircraft that had been taking off and landing all night had been mapping and marking new Spider BM Charle burrow entrances, mainly around the supply routes. At first light, the ground armored units had already departed, heading to the marked locations for demolition work—sealing off the burrows that the spiders could use near the supply lines. All standard procedure.
As reports from the front lines and the situational updates kept coming in, the day’s operations looked smooth. After yesterday’s strikes, it seemed the spiders had no interest in using those entrances anymore. Today’s ground teams completed their assigned missions without any conflict, returning fully to base by midday.
A good day. Lübeck was pleased too. In the afternoon, he received an invitation from Brittany to meet him at the soldiers’ mess for dinner. By protocol, she should have been accompanying him to the officers’ mess, but Lübeck didn’t think much of it and went.
When he pushed open the door to the mess, people on both sides suddenly threw celebration streamers over his head and body. Ahead, many people in squatting and standing positions faced him and shouted in unison,
“Guardian Angel Lübeck! Guardian Angel Lübeck! Guardian Angel Lübeck!”
Lübeck was startled at first, frozen in place. Looking more closely, he saw they were soldiers from the transport and rescue units, with armored forces and flight squadron soldiers lined on both sides. He realized it must be because he’d personally flown support yesterday—the rescued troops were expressing their gratitude.
Lübeck hurriedly clapped and bowed in thanks. Walking closer, he noticed Brittany was among them.
“Thank you to the armored units and flight squadron for supporting our rescue operations yesterday, especially Captain Lübeck, who filled a critical rescue window. Thank you,” said the medical rescue team leader, shaking hands with Lübeck and the others in turn.
Then he heard a female medic among those squatting whisper,
“Hey, Brittany, your boyfriend did amazing. He can fly planes too? How come you never told me?”
“Oh, he never told me either,” Brittany replied, blushing. She seemed to enjoy the spotlight, yet got nervous and shy under too much attention.
The transport captain was still thanking them one by one,
“Thank you to the attack flight squadron guys, thank you for that heavy firepower at the start—otherwise we might’ve been crushed.”
“Yeah, we had to go in with massive waves from the beginning. We were seriously short-handed. It’s thanks to Captain Lübeck filling our firepower gaps later,” the pilots recalled the situation.
“Yeah, only heavy firepower can teach those spiders where not to go.”
While the men were reliving the events, the women were talking about something else entirely.
“Hey, Brittany, how did you meet such a great boyfriend?”
“Oh, it was a work assignment—I was assigned to nurse him through his age-reversal recovery period.”
“Oh, so you took care of him, and now he’s here to protect you,” the female soldier said, standing up and starting to speak loudly.
“Hey hey hey, stop thanking this one and that one—you should be thanking Brittany!”
The moment she said it, the whole room went quiet. Seeing she had everyone’s attention, she began speaking in a matter-of-fact tone,
“Captain Lübeck flew his plane personally to escort us because of his sweetheart Brittany. We all just got to ride her coattails—everyone thank her!” She pulled Brittany to her feet, standing somewhat awkwardly before the crowd.
The male soldiers started teasing,
“We thought he flew to watch our six o’clock—turns out it was to watch her six o’clock!”
The female soldiers got excited too, pulling Lübeck over to stand beside Brittany and questioning them one by one,
“So you two are together?”
“How long have you been together?”
“Marry her right now.”
“Yes, right now!”
The male soldiers on the outside joined in,
“Did you really fly for her?”
“Are you going to fly her tonight?”
The female soldiers chimed in,
“Hahaha, yeah, Brittany, do you like it when he flies you?”
In the bustling crowd, Brittany looked up at Lübeck, remembering the morning’s scene, her neck flushed red.