Title: Go
Fandom: Farscape
Rating: G
Length: 200 words
Content notes: No content warnings.
Author notes: I'd like to thank Eugene Cernan, the last man on the moon, since the fact that I was in the middle of reading his memoir almost certainly gave me the idea to use this particular definition of the word "stages."
Summary: Jack Crichton leaves the Earth behind.

Go

As the first stage of the Saturn V rocket falls away, it's like being shaken by the hand of God, like the Earth is fighting to keep them bound. The second separation is easier; he's ready for it, and it's over fast. And then the third is spent and gone, and they're flying free, gliding quiet and easy at twenty thousand miles an hour on their way to the moon. Jack Crichton, suddenly weightless in his harness, lets out a whoop of triumph. They're on their way to the moon, they're flying as far as human beings have ever gone, and who knows where his species will go from here? Nowhere but up, he thinks. Nowhere but up.

**

On the ground, Leslie Crichton holds her small son close. "Daddy's on his way to the moon now," she says. Her voice shakes a little, and she pretends for the world that it's from pride, and not from loneliness or fear.

"Mommy, can I go? I wanna go with Daddy!" Little Johnny shifts on her lap and looks at her with unhappy eyes.

"I'm sorry, baby." She tries to smile, her arms involuntarily closing around him tighter. "Maybe sometime. But not today."