I put the drive in low and pulled out of the system. The next planet—Pop had landed on the third—was going through G14 disintegration into asteroids, but I eased through without any trouble and began to pick up speed.
Just then Pop swung around in his seat and made good-luck gesture eight and long-life gesture twelve toward the planet we'd left.
I stared at him. "I don't get it," I said. "Just a while ago you agreed that was an ugly hunk of rock. You even made contempt gesture fifteen—you spat on it."
"That's right," said Pop. "I did, didn't I? Right into a pool of brackish water." Then he began to chuckle. He kept on chuckling for five years, until I got annoyed and slapped his nerve center again.
Aside from that, the return voyage was uneventful.