‘Like what things it tells you?’

‘I'm not going to tell you.’

‘Isn't it possible? Just barely possible’ - and he held up two fingers very closely together - ‘that you're imagining things?’

‘No, it isn't possible. Earth won't be destroyed right away - maybe not for thousands of years - but it's going to be destroyed.’ She nodded solemnly, her face intense. ‘And nothing can stop it.’

Marlene turned and walked away, angry at Aurinel for doubting her. No, not doubting her. It was more than that. He thought she was out of her mind. And there it was. She had said too much and had gained nothing by it. Everything was wrong.

Aurinel was staring after her. The laughter had ceased on his boyishly handsome face and a certain uneasiness was creasing the skin between his eyebrows.

Eugenia Insigna had grown middle-aged during the trip to Nemesis, and in the course of the long stay after arrival. Over the years she had periodically warned herself: This is for life; and for our children's lives into the unseen future.

The thought always weighed her down.

Why? She had known this as the inevitable consequence of what they had done from the moment Rotor had left the Solar System. Everyone on Rotor - volunteers all - had known it. Those who had not had the heart for eternal separation had left Rotor before takeoff, and among those who had left was-

Eugenia did not finish that thought. It often came, and she tried never to finish it.

Now they were here on Rotor, but was Rotor ‘home’? It was home for Marlene; she had never known anything else. But for herself, for Eugenia? Home was Earth and Moon and Sun and Mars and all the worlds that had accompanied humanity through its history and prehistory. They had accompanied life as long as there had been life. The thought that ‘home’ was not here on Rotor clung to her even now.