He crossed to the Observation window. "It's just the little 'scope.... But here, I'll—"
He peered into the eyepiece and adjusted the knobs. "There.... Ah.... That does it. There, Marte."
He stood aside.
She bent over the telescope. The silence drew out and out, almost breath-held.
"It's.... It's.... Johnny, I feel like it was ours. Just yours and mine. Isn't it beautiful, all hazy blue?"
"Can you see the continents?"
"Yes.... Yes, I think I can. Not very well. Just dark patches."
She looked up. "It looks so little, Johnny, like a little ball. So little that if I had a chain, I could put it on it and then wear the chain around my neck."
Johnny Nine laughed gently. "But it's really big, Marte. Bigger than the Ship. A hundred times that big, a thousand—"
"A million!"