And how will you heal yourself? Justin’s eyes asked him silently. “You really think we need the sedation?” he asked aloud.

“A new beginning requires a new awakening,” Joshua replied. “Sleep has his house, they say, and we must find rest there. The Cat can take care of itself, and we’ll need all our resources when we arrive.”

“But if anything goes wrong en route,” said Al, “I wouldn’t want to be in a coma depending on the judgment of the Cat’s robots. Our machines may be technically sound, but the human brain is still the most thoughtful computer we can have aboard a spaceship, and the only one in its league that can be produced with unskilled labor.”

“I agree,” said Justin. “Biotiming will make us little different from the VR addict who zones out, or the alcoholic who drinks to escape his problems. The problems are still there when they emerge from their stupors. If we are frightened now and confused in our dealings with each other, sleeping won’t solve those problems. They’ll still be with us when we wake up. I think we should make the passage the hard way, sober and with our eyes open, so we can learn from it.”

“Then I implore you,” Joshua said to Justin and the entire gathering, “let’s set our doubts aside, stiffen our spines, and plan to survive!” He glanced at Ai, and all eyes turned with him to the nanotech engineer.

Al shook his head and shrugged. “I’ll ride into hell with you if necessary. Bravely and with my eyes open, I’ll ride as far as we can. But let me tell you something, false prophet: You’re just as fallible as any of us, and what we are is a cutoff limb of humanity, without much head or purpose, with no place in this universe—until we prove otherwise.”

After the meeting was over, and the brother of Jesus sat alone with his friend in the mess hall, the idea came full blown to Joshua. It was almost naive in the simple way that it marked a crossroads.

“It’s all in our heads, what happens to us,” Joshua said. “That’s all that decides it—what we think we can do.”

“Of course,” Justin replied. “You can think of tomorrow and even be right about it, but what about the others? Al doesn’t really care whether he lives or dies. It means nothing to him. The only thing that moved him at the meeting was what you and some of the others might think of him, so he put on a brave face, hoping that he might even convince himself. Being cut off from Earth—from its past and future—that’s what will continue to sink into them, and you’ll see that they’re not whole, that they are indeed flailing appendages cut off from a corpse. Maybe you’ll even begin to admit that fact to yourself.”

“We’ll have to put a new will into them,” Joshua said, “and into their children, and you’ll have to be more helpful. Children will make them want to live again. With children they can start to reach into the future again. That’s it, children. And as soon as there is a new generation that will not weep for Earth, we’ll be saved. What are we waiting for? Till we get nearer the brown dwarf? Till we put a full light-day between us and the enemy? We have to start right away.”