The Hail Mary is all fueled up: 2.2 million kilograms of Astrophage. A full 200,000 kilograms more than she left Earth with. Rocky’s replacement tanks were, of course, more efficient and had more volume than my originals.

I rub the back of my neck. “I assume our people will meet up again. I know humans will want to learn all about Erid.”

“Yes,” he says. “Thank you for laptop. Centuries of human technology all for our scientists to learn about. You have given greatest gift in history of my people.”

“You tested it in that life-support system you built for it, right?”

“Yes. That is stupid question.” He grips a handle on his side to keep in place.

Rocky had removed his direct connecting tunnel and resealed the Hail Mary’s hull. He put the airlock-to-airlock connector in place to finish packing up.

At my request, he left the xenonite walls and tunnels in the Hail Mary in place, but with a few meter-wide holes in them here and there so I can use the space. The more xenonite Earth scientists have to study the better, I figure.

The ship still smells a little like ammonia. I guess even xenonite isn’t completely immune to gas permeation. It’ll probably smell that way for a while.

“And your farms?” I say. “You double-checked them all?”

“Yes. Six redundant Taumoeba-82.5 colonies, each in separate tanks with separate life-support systems. Each with Threeworld simulated atmosphere. Your farms are functioning, question?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Well, it’s just my ten breeder tanks. But now I have them all set up with Venus’s atmosphere. Oh, and thanks for the mini-farms, by the way. I’ll install them in the beetles during my trip. I won’t have much else to do.”

He glances at a notepad. “These numbers you gave me. You are certain these are the times for me to turn around and the times for me to reach Erid, question? They are so soon. So fast.”

“Yeah, that’s time dilation for you. Weird stuff. But those are the correct values. I checked them four times. You’ll reach Erid in under three Earth years.”

“But Earth is almost same distance from Tau Ceti, and you will take four years, question?”

“I’ll experience four years, yes. Three years and nine months. Because time won’t be as compressed for me as it is for you.”

“You have explained before, but again… why, question?”

“Your ship accelerates faster than mine. You’ll be moving closer to the speed of light.”

He wiggles his carapace. “So complicated.”

I point toward his ship. “All the information about relativity is in the laptop. Have your scientists take a look.”

“Yes. They will be very pleased.”

“Not when they find out about quantum physics. Then they’ll be really annoyed.”

“Not understand.”

I laugh. “Don’t worry about it.”

We’re both quiet for a while.

“I guess this is it,” I say.