A little after that, a set of lights ducked out of the streaming lanes of the fleet, and plunged towards me, growing brighter. At last it resolved into a golden bullet shape adorned with a blue-green tetrahedron, the sigil of free humanity. It was a supply ship called The Dominance of Primates.

And a little after that, as a Ghost fleet fled their fortress, the star exploded.

As soon as I had completed my formal report to the ship’s Commissary - and I was able to check out of the Dominance’s sick bay - I asked to see the Captain.

I walked up to the bridge. My story had got around, and the various med patches I sported added to my heroic mythos. So I had to run the gauntlet of the crew - ‘You’re supposed to be dead, I impounded your back pay and slept with your mother already’ - and was greeted by what seems to be the universal gesture of recognition of one tar to another, the clenched fist pumping up and down around an imaginary penis. But anything more respectful just wouldn’t feel normal.

The Captain turned out to be a grizzled veteran type with a vast laser burn scar on one cheek. She reminded me of First Officer Till.

I told her I wanted to return to active duty as soon as my health allowed.

She looked me up and down. ‘Are you sure, tar? You have a lot of options. Young as you are, you’ve already made your contribution to the Expansion. You can go home.’

‘Sir, and do what?’

She shrugged. ‘Farm. Mine. Raise babies. Whatever earth-worms do. Or you can join the Commission for Historical Truth.’

‘Me, a Commissary?’

‘You’ve been there, tar. You’ve been in amongst the Ghosts, and come out again - with a bit of intelligence more important than anything the Commission has come up with in fifty years. Are you sure you want to face action again?’

I thought it over.

I remembered how Jeru and Pael had argued about economics. It had been an unwelcome perspective, for me. I was in a war that had nothing to do with me, trapped by what Jeru had called the logic of history. But then, I bet that’s been true of most of humanity through our long and bloody story. All you can do is live your life, and grasp your moment in the light - and stand by your comrades.

A farmer - me? And I could never be smart enough for the Commission. No, I had no doubts.

‘A brief life burns brightly, sir.’

Lethe, the Captain looked like she had a lump in her throat. ‘Do I take that as a yes, tar?’

I stood straight, ignoring the twinges of my injuries. ‘Yes, sir !’

The Orion Line was broken. Humanity spilled into Ghost space, slaughtering and colonising.