The screen filled with stars, two the size of small coins, the others no more than distant glimmers in the night. “Ben,” Derek said, “you know the target system. Take us to it, please.”

“Transmission on its way. Hynds also activated.”

Derek did a mental countdown. He reached nineteen before the stars began to move. From right to left, across the screen. The two coins slipped off the side of the screen. People were shifting in their seats behind him. He’d gotten so excited, he’d lost track of the fact he was still on his feet, blocking everyone’s view. He didn’t want to sit down, so he moved to the side of the room where he was out of the way.

Derek loved this part of his profession, inflaming the passions of students. There might be another Polcrest or Sagan in the room. Somebody who’d lead the charge against the politicians who were trying to wreck everything humans had accomplished in space over the past three centuries. We’ve been down this road before, damn it. Went to the moon and forgot how to do it. And here we go again with people, including scientists, claiming that interstellar travel is too dangerous. That it should be stopped. We don’t know what’s out there. And it has gone to the heart of the current presidential campaign. We’ve looked around the local area. But stop it there. Do not go west of Centauri. It had become a maxim for the Progressives.

This wasn’t the first time he’d been present for a demonstration of the capabilities of a supertelescope, but having his hand on the wheel added a dimension he hadn’t experienced in the past. He watched the stars drift by, saw a configuration that might have been a wrench, and knew where they were. More or less. The wrench reached the side and was gone, and he was lost again. But no surprises there.

“Professor Blanchard,” said the AI, “Union advises we slow down so they can get the two telescopes in sync.”

“Do it, Ben. And let’s also increase magnification.”

The sky was still moving sidewise when a vast cloud of stars began to edge in on the right side. Students gasped. Somebody asked whether anyone living out there would ever see night. Derek was ecstatic.

A young man seated a few rows back jumped out of his seat and started jabbing his finger at the display. A planet had appeared in the foreground.

It was, Derek thought, a rogue world. But it was hard to be certain, and before he could get a good look, it had gone off the edge of the screen. The infamous thirty-six-second delay. Still more stars were going off the side. Damn. Well, forget the planet. They had bigger things to think about.