*****

2262 AD

"Zach," Gage made a mental note of his sequencer display, then scanned the stars again, "I will miss the earth, but these stars, I don't think I could live without them."

"Yeah, you won't forget them soon, and you will be back soon, anyway," Zach 319 responded with a quiet and firm voice. The trip to the Vector Point Alpha would be a hundred hours in the body pod, with Zach in ninety-eight percent stasis. Then at the VPA his pod would join eight others specially selected for this mission, to accompany a diplomatic mission to the outpost beyond Alpha, where rumor had it there were no stars.

The Keddai want our space, maybe because they yearn for stars, thought Gage. The diplomatic mission was a minor miracle. Perhaps Father Chris could ask for another miracle while he was at the negotiating table, a prayer that the Keddai might have their own stars. Well, faith the size of a mustard seed, and all that.