"They had a little help." From the Perseids, their sponsors into the Commonwealth and, ultimately, from the Vedrans, the first race to discover Slipstream, the first to travel faster than light and the conquerors, then founders, of the Commonwealth.

"But by my time, humans have spread out across three galaxies, to hundreds of thousands of worlds." Including the tiny minority population in their quarter of Vishna-Tarn that had been Dylan's people growing up.

"I'm not even sure when my ancestors left Earth, but it was a long time ago."