THE GLOBAL SURVEYOR

The global surveyor cruised in his geolander. He looked sidelong at the dash and realized he was burning three gallons per light-year. That was poor mileage even in this region of space, he thought. It should have gotten one light-year and sped three times faster. The space-time dilation effect made him giddy, at the best of times, and it was impossible to think in such concrete terms anyhow. He made a mental note to pursue the matter further later.

The navigational console hummed as it flashed pictures and symbols. Most of these he recognized, but not all of them — being a ship’s captain was a pretty big deal after all, and it was simply too difficult to remember everything completely. He chuckled quietly hoping none would notice.

He remembered back to the time when he first saw the sales brochure, of his newly purchased huge gleaming space vehicle, and remembered how glossy the pages were. Even the brochure had that ‘new-ship-smell’ to it. The logo printed was, “Come Explore With Us — Come Geolander.” At the time, he was so excited since he knew people were going to be envious. And boy, were they ever, the commercials were right, and he chuckled again nervously. The ship made him feel tall, and he knew just by thinking it, he was an explorer after all.

Wisdom is simplistic — flashed on the dash, what, was he seeing things? What kind of message was that? He…