For Dinner:  Ironically enough, Lobster Cardinal with Parmesan cheese.
Mood: Nostalgic and apprehensive.
Written in the Year of our Lord 3580, March 12th, Tuesday  night.
Location: the good ship Earth's Memory en route from the Kami system to the Frost Giant System, at the mercy of the Edenite drive in otherspace.

   Another day, another chess game lost.

   Paris said, as he was putting up the pieces, "Well, we'll be entering the Frost Giant System tomorrow. You'll be on Loki before you know it."

   "Oh joy. But at least you'll have to find another sucker to trounce at chess..."

   Paris laughed his yelping laugh. "Yep. Y'know...even though I hate Loki and Lokiites...I can't help but feel a little thrill. No matter how many worlds you go to-- there's something about going to a new world--a world--that gets to me. You remember the first time you traveled to another star's planet?"

   "Sure. That was going from Frey to Havlinn...to Shina-To-Be."

   "You remember how...odd...it felt to be on another world?"

   "Sure. I had to get used to almost never seeing the sun, with the near-constant clouds. I had to get used to the near-constant rain, the 50-hour days, the lack of seasons, oceans without tides....

   "Still, Shina-To-Be is a beautiful world. It's probably the best world in human space for hang-gliding. I can remember hanging between a silver sky and a silver field, and my shadow a small dot racing under me...I continued that way for kilometre after kilometre...a tiny shadow against a silver sky.

   "I did all the tourist things. I travelled north and saw Frosthorns at Mt. Eversnow. I travelled to the Equator Jungles where Coilers lurk. I swam near Shellhands in the many rivers, and was once surrounded by a pack of Multitails. I tried to get a glimpse of the Empress, but have never seen her in the flesh, save from an immense distance during Holiday ceremonies. I've gone on balloon tours.

   "And I met my wife there. She was an expert on computer systems. I was a xenologist, newly graduated. She was a native of Shina-To-Be. I was a Freyan local. I loved to swim, she hated it. But we were so right together...and we both agreed it was a great world to raise some...kids...in."

   "Sorry. Didn't mean to pick at any wounds."

   "Don't worry about it. But Shina-To-Be is a beautiful world, the world etched in silver. Going from it to Loki will be...quite a change."

   Paris nodded. "I wish I could tell you it won't be that bad. I really do. But it's worse."

   "Not to worry. I'll manage. I'll survive. I'm good at that."

   Still, it was not the best thought to sleep on. The Lobster Cardinal I cooked them for our last supper together was an ironic choice, considering the Cardinal---his Silver Eminence on a silver world--who sent me here.

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