John, his wife and kids were having breakfast. The morning was pleasant, like always. The TV was turned on, at the news channel.
"I have a math exam next week." Said his younger one, Leo.
"So start studying today, my love. The earlier you go through the content the better." Said Sara to her son, sulking immediately.
"I don't want to!"
"But you have to, buddy. It's important to do well in school. Don't you want to grow up and be like Dad?" John asked, ruffling Leo's hair with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He glanced at Sara, catching the fleeting worry in her gaze.
They shared a moment of unspoken understanding, a silent acknowledgment of the burden they both carried.
"Yes! Ok, I'll begin today my studies." The kid quickly changed his mind, seeing his dad as the model of person he wanted to be.
Both parents smiled approvingly. "And you Ana, how was today's class?"
The young girl was two years older than her brother. "It was fine." She said as if she was bored having the same morning for the past years.
John and Sara knew that she was entering the teens age so she wasn't that interested anymore in small things like talking with her parents, interacting with them and other things.
They knew that phase was that, just a phase, so they would have to bear it.
"What about that boy, was it Luis his name?" John teased her. He saw her instantly blushing.
"W-what? Stop that!" The girl left the table and ran to her room. Before he could call her and say it was a joke, the attention of everyone was drawn towards the TV.
"Scientists of the VLT at Chile published a paper saying that they found an interstellar object entering our solar system. It seems to be a, quote, perfectly spherical rock, end quote." The news presenter said. Behind him there was an artistic interpretation of such object for the audience to better understand such news.
"Scientists around the world are baffled by the existence of such strange object. We surely have lots of questions, that's why we called the head astronomer of NASA here to answer them. Thank you for coming, sir."
As the interview began, Sara looked towards her husband. Despite the curious tone of the news anchor, Sara wasn't smiling. Neither was John.
The excitement that should have come with such a discovery was overshadowed by the gnawing fear of what it meant for their family. John clenched his jaw, his mind already racing with the weight of the choice he had made.
'This is the opportunity of a lifetime,' they had told him, but all he could think of was how many lifetimes he would miss out on if he left.
".... And as you said, we're all really excited to have this rare opportunity. That's why, because it's so rare, that we are not going to waste it. We are in the works of a manned mission to this object. We expect to be launching our astronauts in a bit more than a year..."
John was one of the astronauts. He was called months earlier to embark in an extremely important mission.
In reality, the round rocky object was detected two years earlier, even before it entered the solar system. The agency had enough time to study and prepare a mission for it.
They wanted to send cubesats but decided to go for a manned one.
"And who are going to be our braves astronauts?" The presenter asked.
"The crew will be formed by three individuals. We cannot disclosure who they are for now, but rest assured because in a few months you all will know."
Sara pressed the button on the controller and the TV turned off. She couldn't listen to it anymore.
"Let's go Leo or you'll be late to school. Go call you sister." She left the table with their son.
John felt a pang of guilt as he watched his son obediently retreat to his room. The decision to leave his family behind had been agonizing, filled with sleepless nights and heated arguments with Sara.
He could still hear her voice, thick with tears, asking him, 'Why do you have to go?' But now, there was no turning back.
Thirteen months later he was leaving earth.