The other events of that week, the honors which had been loaded upon
us, I shall not attempt to describe. There was little in the solar
system which we three could not have had for the asking, but Hurus Hol
was content to follow the science that was his life-work, while Dal
Nara, after the manner of her sex through all the ages, sought a beauty
parlor, and I asked only to continue with our cruiser in the service
of the Federation fleet. The solar system was home to us, would always
be home to us, but never, I knew, would either of us be able to break
away from the fascination of the great fleet's interstellar patrol, the
flashing from sun to sun, the long silent hours in cosmic night and
stellar glare. We would be star-rovers, she and I, until the end.
So now, ready to rejoin the fleet, I stood on the great building's
roof, the mighty black bulk of our cruiser behind us and the stupendous
canopy of the Galaxy's glittering suns over our heads. In the streets
below, too, were other lights, brilliant flares, where thronging crowds
still celebrated the escape of their worlds. And now Hurus Hol was
speaking, more moved than ever I had seen him.
"If Nal Jak were here----" he said, and we were all silent for a
moment. Then his hand came out toward us and silently we wrung it,
turning toward the cruiser's door.
As it slammed shut behind us we were ascending to the bridgeroom, and
from there we glimpsed now the great roof dropping away beneath us as
we slanted up from it once more, the dark figure of Hurus Hol outlined
for a moment at its edge against the lights below, then vanishing. And
the world beneath us was shrinking, vanishing once more, until at last
of all the solar system behind us there was visible only the single
yellow spark that was our sun.
Then about our outward-racing cruiser was darkness, the infinite void's
eternal night--night and the unchanging, glittering hosts of wheeling,
flaming stars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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