I see fear in your eyes as the door to the gravity chamber shuts tight. You accepted your assignment long ago. No, I see fear for me. Fear of what I will become without you. I keep my eyes on you, willing myself to stay focused. The chamber pulses once, and. I blink away a su.

Across a starfield as vast as it is unexplored, two pinpricks of light crawl. Getting closer, their crawling progress is revealed to be a trick of distance. Both specks are moving at tremendous speed. How far, Davey? Less than an AU, kid. How much less depends on how dead we want to be before the fuel runs out. How much further do we need to go to outrun them? Across the drift. A fact that may be irrelevant.