“Damn it,” I said. “God damn it.” I shook my head, staring at the screen. The tortoise was supposed to win, not the hare.

“What do we do now?” asked Ling.

I sighed. “I suppose we should contact them.”

“We — ah, we might be from the wrong side.”

I grinned. “Well, we cant both be from the wrong side. Besides, you heard the radio: Mandarin and English. Anyway, I cant imagine that anyone cares about a war more than a thousand years in the past, and—”

“Excuse me,” said the ships computer. “Incoming audio message.”

I looked at Ling. She frowned, surprised. “Put it on,” I said.

“Pioneer Spirit, welcome! This is Jod Bokket, manager of the Derluntin space station, in orbit around Soror. Is there anyone awake on board?” It was a mans voice, with an accent unlike anything Id ever heard before.

Ling looked at me, to see if I was going to object, then she spoke up. “Computer, send a reply.” The computer bleeped to signal that the channel was open. “This is Dr. Ling Woo, co-captain of the Pioneer Spirit. Two of us have revived; there are forty-eight more still in cryofreeze.”

“Well, look,” said Bokkets voice, “itll be days at the rate youre going before you get here. How about if we send a ship to bring you two to Derluntin? We can have someone there to pick you up in about an hour.”

“They really like to rub it in, dont they?” I grumbled.

“What was that?” said Bokket. “We couldnt quite make it out.”

Ling and I consulted with facial expressions, then agreed. “Sure,” said Ling. “Well be waiting.”

“Not for long,” said Bokket, and the speaker went dead.

Bokket himself came to collect us. His spherical ship was tiny compared with ours, but it seemed to have about the same amount of habitable interior space; would the ignominies ever cease? Docking adapters had changed a lot in a thousand years, and he wasnt able to get an airtight seal, so we had to transfer over to his ship in space suits. Once aboard, I was pleased to see we were still floating freely; it would have been too much if theyd had artificial gravity.

Bokket seemed a nice fellow — about my age, early thirties. Of course, maybe people looked youthful forever now; who knew how old he might actually be? I couldnt really identify his ethnicity, either; he seemed to be rather a blend of traits. But he certainly was taken with Ling — his eyes popped out when she took off her helmet, revealing her heart-shaped face and long, black hair.

“Hello,” he said, smiling broadly.

Ling smiled back. “Hello. Im Ling Woo, and this is Toby MacGregor, my co-captain.”

“Greetings,” I said, sticking out my hand.

Bokket looked at it, clearly not knowing precisely what to do. He extended his hand in a mirroring of my gesture, but didnt touch me. I closed the gap and clasped his hand. He seemed surprised, but pleased.

“Well take you back to the station first,” he said. “Forgive us, but, well — you cant go down to the planets surface yet; youll have to be quarantined. Weve eliminated a lot of diseases, of course, since your time, and so we dont vaccinate for them anymore. Im willing to take the risk, but…”

I nodded. “Thats fine.”

He tipped his head slightly, as if he were preoccupied for a moment, then: “Ive told the ship to take us back to Derluntin station. Its in a polar orbit, about 200 kilometers above Soror; youll get some beautiful views of the planet, anyway.” He was grinning from ear to ear. “Its wonderful to meet you people,” he said. “Like a page out of history.”

“If you knew about us,” I asked, after wed settled in for the journey to the station, “why didnt you pick us up earlier?”

Bokket cleared his throat. “We didnt know about you.”

“But you called us by name: Pioneer Spirit.”

“Well, it is painted in letters three meters high across your hull. Our asteroid-watch system detected you.

A lot of information from your time has been lost — I guess there was a lot of political upheaval then, no? — but we knew Earth had experimented with sleeper ships in the twenty-first century.”

We were getting close to the space station; it was a giant ring, spinning to simulate gravity. It might have taken us over a thousand years to do it, but humanity was finally building space stations the way God had always intended them to be.

And floating next to the space station was a beautiful spaceship, with a spindle-shaped silver hull and two sets of mutually perpendicular emerald-green delta wings. “Its gorgeous,” I said.

Bokket nodded.

“How does it land, though? Tail-down?”

“It doesnt land; its a starship.”

“Yes, but—”

“We use shuttles to go between it and the ground.”

“But if it cant land,” asked Ling, “why is it streamlined? Just for esthetics?”

Bokket laughed, but it was a polite laugh. “Its streamlined because it needs to be. Theres substantial length-contraction when flying at just below the speed of light; that means that the interstellar medium seems much denser. Although theres only one baryon per cubic centimeter, they form what seems to be an appreciable atmosphere if youre going fast enough.”

“And your ships are that fast?” asked Ling.

Bokket smiled. “Yes. Theyre that fast.”

Ling shook her head. “We were crazy,” she said. “Crazy to undertake our journey.” She looked briefly at Bokket, but couldnt meet his eyes. She turned her gaze down toward the floor. “You must think were incredibly foolish.”

Bokkets eyes widened. He seemed at a loss for what to say. He looked at me, spreading his arms, as if appealing to me for support. But I just exhaled, letting air — and disappointment — vent from my body.

“Youre wrong,” said Bokket, at last. “You couldnt be more wrong. We honor you.” He paused, waiting for Ling to look up again. She did, her eyebrows lifted questioningly. “If we have come farther than you,” said Bokket, “or have gone faster than you, its because we had your work to build on.

Humans are here now because its easy for us to be here, because you and others blazed the trails.” He looked at me, then at Ling. “If we see farther,” he said, “its because we stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Later that day, Ling, Bokket, and I were walking along the gently curving floor of Derluntin station. We were confined to a limited part of one section; theyd let us down to the planets surface in another ten days, Bokket had said.

“Theres nothing for us here,” said Ling, hands in her pockets. “Were freaks, anachronisms. Like somebody from the Tang Dynasty showing up in our world.”

“Soror is wealthy,” said Bokket. “We can certainly support you and your passengers.”

“They are not passengers,” I snapped. “They are colonists. They are explorers.”

Bokket nodded. “Im sorry. Youre right, of course. But look — we really are delighted that youre here.

Ive been keeping the media away; the quarantine lets me do that. But they will go absolutely dingo when you come down to the planet. Its like having Neil Armstrong or Tamiko Hiroshige show up at your door.”

“Tamiko who?” asked Ling.

“Sorry. After your time. She was the first person to disembark at Alpha Centauri.”

“The first,” I repeated; I guess I wasnt doing a good job of hiding my bitterness. “Thats the honor — thats the achievement. Being the first. Nobody remembers the name of the second person on the moon.”

“Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr.,” said Bokket. “Known as ‘Buzz.”

“Fine, okay,” I said. “You remember, but most people dont.”

“I didnt remember it; I accessed it.” He tapped his temple. “Direct link to the planetary web; everybody has one.”

Ling exhaled; the gulf was vast. “Regardless,” she said, “we are not pioneers; were just also-rans. We may have set out before you did, but you got here before us.”