The station was empty. Through the lens of the telescope, he was losing his gaze in the immensity of the cosmos.

Yes, the rational approach was there. He had always been a valiant soldier in the service of astronomy, astrophysics and their big sister, mathematics. To tell the truth, he had never had to put any undue effort into this. The equations had always been solved in one fell swoop in his full noggin. Full of digital landscapes, synesthetic landscapes where the numbers were tinged with colors and even... Emotions.

He just had to walk through these mental landscapes, real daydreams that he used to have, front of the whiteboards in the university study rooms, and that was it.

Let's say it, yes. He literally dreamed up the answers. Or rather, he gave birth to it through the sensations the numbers gave him. These units, these entities whose vibrations he felt. Sometimes he visualized geometric figures that represented them. It was because in his mind, the numbers were transfigured.

Yes, the rational mind was there. But it was only a matter of translation, only of transcription. Everything before and after was just imagination.

He was losing his gaze in the immensity of the cosmos and it nourished him. He could already, even without willing to, project himself into the digital field of possibilities.