“…but the faster that you went, the slower time would go, although you wouldn’t realize it. You could return to earth and find that a million years had passed, though you only would have aged a few years on your superfast spaceship. And the faster you go, the greater the difference would be between your time and what we consider ‘real’ time.” Emery looked at Mike and saw he was dozing. “Yeah, I didn’t think you cared anyway…”

“Huh? What?” Mike still didn’t look entirely with it. Emery wondered what it must be like to get most of one’s sleep while the sun was up. Although it would give him more time to look at the stars he so admired, he didn’t think it was a choice he would make for himself. “Well, before I just thought what you did would give me a headache. Now I know that it would.”

Mike was a recreation major. He worked at a swimming pool as a lifeguard during the summer and Emery would have liked to have asked Mike to teach him how to swim, but didn’t know how to do so, so he didn’t say anything on the subject. But he would make an attempt at being sociable, though. “Have you eaten dinner yet?” he asked.

“Oh, I’m going out with Jenny and Steve and maybe Matt. I’d invite you along, but they don’t allow people under eighteen.”

“I know. It’s all right. Dr. McKenzie is going to help me learn to run the telescope tonight, so I wouldn’t be able to go.”

“I won’t be home when you get back, most likely.”

“Of course.” Emery wasn’t surprised—he was accustomed to hearing Mike stumble in to the room as the first lights of dawn crept over the horizon. It was a lifestyle he would never live or understand, and yet, he was accustomed to it and accepted it. Still, it seemed much more alien than any of the distant worlds he looked at through the telescope.

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