What follows is an excerpt from

Eclipse

Part one

Speck.

How long had it been since he had seen another human being? How long since he had talked to anyone but his ownreflection? How long since he’d seen the speck of reflected light in front of him, directly in front of him, and waved his arm ineffectivelyagainst the ether to see the speck blink in and out and realized that the star was behind him, and he was casting a shadow on the speck,which was reflecting the star’s light back when he was not interfering by waving his arm. How big was it? How far away was it? Very far and large? Or very small and near?

Were there people?He was moving, he estimated, at several thousand miles perhour. A pace that was unimaginable for most of human history, and yet he had achieved that velocity and it was still an infinitesimally slow crawl across the universe while he waited for God.Maybe the speck was God. Very far away and large, it could be God.His journey had not begun so unprotected, so alone, so vulnerable. He had not started out shielded from the vast empty universe by only a thin layer of polymers and plastic. He had satnestled in a seat that cradled him, that increased its softness as hepressed against it, that cupped him like a loving hand while gravity seemed to increase around him as his rocket had taken off, a seat thathad arm rests to which his arms had been strapped to avoid them being flung down helplessly at his sides, armrests that were motorized