I hated to be left alone with Solly, and I suppose the feeling was reciprocal.
"Are you glad to be going?" I inquired neutrally.
"Very."
"How long does it take to get there?"
"Two and a half years."
"That's a long time!"
"Not considering the distance. Primus Gladus is nine-tenths of a light-year away."
"Funny," I said, "a star being that close, undiscovered until this century."
"It's not a bright star. Half the luminosity of our sun. For all we know, there may be others just as close." Solly meditated on the idea.
"I suppose that's possible," I said. "Must be thousands of stars in the southern skies—faint stars, I mean—that haven't been measured."