"Welcome, humans! Boss," Captain Telnik nodded. "The closest star is the one you call Proxima. We'll be there in just a minute."

"Can we see what it looks like on approach?" McAffee asked.

One of the other fazzab softly chittered something that didn't translate, and the Captain turned and stared at her for a moment until she quieted. Then, he turned back and answered as if nothing had happened.

"No, we don't get signals FTL without an ansible, and there's no one to transmit that we know of. Seeing through the distortions of our space warp is a matter of expensive and diminishing returns, and the light we catch can be years out of date as well. So, we generally don't bother beyond the usual—detecting a bad flare or supernova before we fly into it."

"Approaching the system now, Captain."

"Stop engines, let's take a look."

The background hum shifted, and that was all. Several seconds passed, and then the engines started up again for a moment before shutting down. A few moments later, it did it again. Before the humans could ask, the Captain explained, "We just did a couple of quick sideways jumps for the sake of beep." He huffed a moment at the beep. "To see from different directions."

"Parallax," Schmidt supplied. "We don't have starships, so we take pictures from Earth half a year apart to do the same."

"Ah, that's clever," the Captain replied, with a glance at the other fazzab, who stayed silent. "So, we're setting up a display calibrated to your eye spectrum—not much different at all from ours."

"What are the differences?"

"We see red, green, and blue like you do, but our red is longer and and our blue is a bit shorter than yours."

"Thank you." The images popped up, and all three humans stared.

"We're here," McAffee whispered. "We're really here."

Proxima was a small star, a red dwarf. The astronauts were incredibly excited to learn the details. Apparently, it had four planets, three of which had been found already from Earth. The extra was about the size of Earth, but was far enough out to orbit every 30 years, deep in the cold.

"No signs of life in the system," one of the fazzab reported. "No surprise there."

"How can you tell?" Schmidt asked eagerly, and humans and aliens struggled with terminology, talking more rapidly than translations could keep up. Nick caught something about "no oxygen lines" and the rest sailed over his head. He was content to stare at the pictures of the planets. Our neighborhood. No neighbors, yet. We'll see what else we find.

"You can have a moment to observe, before we head to the next star, what is it again?" Captain Telnik asked a crewman.

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"Alpha Centauri A. The brighter one."

"We three are the first human beings to enter this star system—any other star system," McAffee breathed. "I kind of want to say something momentous, but they treat it all so casually, I think I'd just sound pompous if I tried."

"We'll drink, when we get back—a toast to our closest neighbor," Schmidt murmured.

Nick gave them a couple of minutes, then cleared his throat, accidentally startling a couple of the crew. "Excuse me," he apologized at once. "You guys, tell us when you're ready."

McAffee and Schmidt looked at each other. "We might find more exciting discoveries before the morning is done," McAffee pointed out. "Shall we?" Schmidt nodded.

"Thank you for waiting, Captain. It is a big moment for my species. Like our first real step in an ocean. But I think we're ready now."

"Helm, jump us over to the bright one."

"Yes, Captain." They all heard the hum of the engines shift, and a minute and a half later, they dropped out of warp again. The displays lit up again, this time showing a bright yellow-white star, two planets, and something like an asteroid belt. One planet was the size of Saturn, and the other, a super-Earth, orbited much farther out, in a highly elliptical orbit.

"The dynamics of this system are a mess, Captain."

"Keep an eye out for hazards and chaotic reactions, then."

"Yes, Captain."

"No life detected," the same crewman from earlier reported. "An icy ball of rock, a gas giant, and a bunch of asteroids that...hmm..."

"What is it?"

"I think it's the remains of a planet that got shredded in gravitational shear. It might not even be native to this star; it could have been orbiting the twin ages ago."

"Shredded? How would that happen?" Schmidt asked, and they were off to the races again.

"Sorry about the delays," Nick muttered to the Captain.

"Not at all, Boss. It's their first time in the black, first time in new systems. Let them savor the moments. It's nothing to us, but I understand that it's everything to your people, when it's your first." Captain Telnik chittered. "Besides, this is exactly what we expected to be doing when we signed up for this contract, Boss. We can stay as long as you want."

"If we had scientists with their own instruments along, they'd never want to leave, but since we're just spectators for the moment, it shouldn't be too long."

A few minutes later, they made another short jump to the vicinity of Alpha Centauri B, which was apparently a bit dimmer and smaller than Earth's sun, but still yellow. They found no planets at all around it, not even an asteroid belt; they said something about the system dynamics that eluded Nick's understanding. With nothing in particular to look at, they talked about the data being recorded by the Guranaki Melor's scanners, and how it would be downloaded to Earth upon their return.

"So, how about it?" Captain Telnik asked. "Shall we hit another star or two before heading back? What else is nearby?"

"A brown dwarf pair, pretty boring, and another yellow sun, humans call it...Barnard's Star."

The astronauts looked at Nick, who shrugged, and then at each other. "Why don't we...head back for now," McAffee proposed slowly.

"Don't you want to see Barnard's Star?" Schmidt exclaimed.

"Of course I do! But it'll still be there this afternoon, or tomorrow, and I honestly kind of want to keep this trip special, focused on Alpha Centauri. We've got a lot to report, and I want to check in with what we know, and get suggestions for what we should do on other trips."

"I like that idea," Nick put in. "We can start rushing tomorrow. Let's have today be special, like he said. Savor it. It's one for the history books. This is going to be routine or even boring before long, so why not savor the first exploration?"

"I guess I see your point." Schmidt reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"We'll head back to Earth for the moment, if you would be so kind," Nick told the Captain.

"Baby steps it is. Helm, back to Earth, and dock us with the New Hope."

"Yes, Captain."

And the Alpha Centauri system was left behind them, humanity's first trip to the nearest stars, a matter of a simple ninety minute flight.

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