“Ha! You must have had a rough time!” A cheerful British couple called out to me as I headed to the seating by the gate. “We saw you at the check-in desk and then everyone left apart from you!”
I grinned, was about to say everything was fine, when two airline attendants appeared.
“Sorry to interrupt. Could you come with us?”
I KNOW MY RIGHTS! (I wanted to shout) I WILL NOT GO QUIETLY!
(Spoiler: I did go quietly.)
“This contains a spacecraft?”
I opened the case to show the cabin crew.
“WHOA! Is that the real spacecraft that went to space?!!”
I mean that WOULD be cool, but the real Hayabusa2 is 20 times the size, still in space and no way would I allow what was about the happen.
I handed the case to the cabin crew.
They wanted to strap the model into its seat before the main boarding. I accompanied them through the gate to the aeroplane door but then permitted the case to be squirrelled away.
I was in limbo land.
Having scanned my boarding pass to accompany the model to the plane door, I was then left to roam the empty hallway until boarding could begin. The wheelchair users went ahead, but I was allowed to board with the parents of young children.
I found my “child” neatly strapped in. I noticed it had bagged the window seat.
A lady came and sat down on my right, giving me and my model an askance look.
Body parts. Full of human organs. She was sure of it. I could tell.
I took the beef curry. The model didn’t get anything, since it had failed to keep its human ticket.
We’d made it to Singapore.
A bag scan was needed at the Singapore gate.
My laptop slid through.
The model slid through.
And then came the case containing the asteroid sample.
“What is this?”
I took a deep breath.
“It is… an asteroid sample.”
I waited. My hand inched towards my laptop with hours of presentations on Hayabusa2.
“Huh. OK.”
The attendant turned to her colleague.
“It’s an asteroid,” she said in a tone that implied they’d seen 72 others in the last week alone. Just a chip from outer space. Again.
🤨
