space-exploration

I am glad we have not yet been able to reach the stars or inhabitable planets that dance about them. For they would in all probability be owned and divided by corporations and framed by industrial interests. Better they rest in distant tranquility, apart from our manufactured chaos.Let generations to come that learn to embrace one another, with their scientists, artists and poets, be the ones that immerse in that abundance and future. For now it is best it remains out of humanity's childlike hands in that big jar, light years away, marked "cookies." There for that coming time when the only thing we need feed off of, is the endless discovery and beauty.

Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate.

Earth is a small town with many neighborhoods in a very big universe.

The moon is considered a relatively easy object to land humans on, everything else is much harder by orders of magnitude. It is the reason why we have not been to Mars and will likely never go there successfully with humans.

We take off into the cosmos, ready for anything: for solitude, for hardship, for exhaustion, death. Modesty forbids us to say so, but there are times when we think pretty well of ourselves. And yet, if we examine it more closely, our enthusiasm turns out to be all sham. We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos.... We are humanitarian and chivalrous; we don't want to enslave other races, we simply want to bequeath them our values and take over their heritage in exchange. We think of ourselves as the Knights of the Holy Contact. This is another lie. We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. (1970 English translation)

Fleshers used to spin fantasies about aliens arriving to __onquer_ Earth, to steal their __recious_ physical resources, to wipe them out for fear of __ompetition__as if a species capable of making the journey wouldn__ have had the power, or the wit, or the imagination, to rid itself of obsolete biological imperatives. Conquering the Galaxy is what bacteria with spaceships would do _ knowing no better, having no choice.

Noah gave an exaggerated eye roll. __ust out of curiosity, is this the stupidest thing you__e ever done?___t wouldn__ be fair to rank them._ Caleb gunned the engine.

There are many places that are not made for staying," Heckleck said. "They are too harsh, too hard, and too far away from whatever you call home. You don't root where you don't have to, unless you're unluck.

Semantics, Admiral. I__ appreciate an honest answer._____ appreciate a multitude of honest answers, but I rarely expect to receive them._ Miriam sighed; the verbal tete-a-tete was growing tiresome. Time to bring an end to it with, ironically, honesty.

He checked her over while mentally checking himself. __nvironment suits sealed up. Breather masks in hand. Daemons. Blades. Transmitters. Healthy respect for the adversary__ou__e got that, right?__ne corner of her mouth curled up. __bsolutely.

It was killing him, seeing her this way. She was not meant to be uncertain, timid or fearful; the woman he knew exuded confidence so fiercely it might as well be a damn spiritual aura. He needed to fix this. __t__ time to adjust your perspective. You want to show the politicians on Earth they don__ rule the galaxy? Well, let__ show them.

Three men sat around a table. All were muscled and similarly greasy and easily identifiable as scum. As he breached the entrance all three were moving, drawing their own guns in surprise.Only one got off a shot.

Her perception was propelled backward, as if it were being pulled into a vortex. She slammed into her body, and her eyes flew open with a gasp.__lex?__he sat straight up in the chair and grabbed Caleb by the shoulders. __e have to save them.

Why? Why did you kill them?__e laughed, recognizing it bore a frightening coldness. __ecause you walked through the wrong door, and they paid you to do it. You will be a testament to the terror that arrives the moment you or anyone else crosses the invisible line you didn__ know existed until tonight. Spread the word.

A wispy murmur in the blackness. Blackness, where before there was only nothingness. It was dark, inky and thick, but there now existed the palpable sense of tangibility. She gasped in alarm, but no sound came out of her throat. "Where am I?," she shouted, but no words made it past her lips.

It felt somehow comforting to return to the sparkling lake tucked into the mountains on Portal Prime. But why, when everything about Mesme made her the antithesis of comfortable?Because here was where desperation had become hope. Where helplessness had become purpose.

If there was anything the last year had taught her__f there was anything Caleb had taught her, the Metigen War had taught her__t was that perspective was everything. If you wanted to understand your enemy, you must understand that they were the hero in their own story.

I frankly expected a far more negative reaction from you on discovering_ she glanced around the lab __the situation. Why are you helping?_____ not helping____ merely not hindering in as strenuous a fashion as I am able.