And then, after drifting all day through a golden haze of humid warmth that gathered around me like fine wet fleece, I found myself in the great expanse of the vast openness of space with the twinkling of a Scordite asteroid catching my interest in the distance.

Scordite, the allure of which had not called to me since - since? - in a long while of wandering, at any rate.

There I halted, finding a seat at the edge of the hard, black pilot's seat, digging my booted feet into the hull of my Ibis, and I sat there staring out at the asteroid, blinking as though newly out of sleep.