constellations

My grandfather steps from the shadows, and says to me simply, “Sol”. I know he doesn’t say ‘soul’ because this is a dream, I know that he is speaking of the sun beneath which I was born.

Ulysses’ voice comes from somewhere around me, he murmurs “Barnard’s”. Not the words I expected to hear from him, but the unromantic name of the sun that warms the Primos system, that rises each day over Target City and New Bombay. I’m almost expecting it when Jamieson simply says, “Wolf 359”, but somehow manages to name Hadrian’s star with the same wry tone as ever. Then Caban is there, and he smiles with all the jokes we’ve shared in the Michaela system, but speaks only the name of its star, “Van Maanen’s”

Whose voice is this last voice, who speaks new words? I do not know the words he speaks, “Delta Pavonis”. I smell smoke and hear once more Zacharias’ words on that long ago day as he tells me of Dorado Sublime. New words, new worlds. Delta Pavonis.

The words ring in my waking ears even now.