“You expect to discover yourself in outer space?”

“Our teachings tell us to venture out to find our true selves within.”

“Good luck in your quest. I hope you find out what it all means. My quest is to discover if the water found on Orion 3, is useable enough to permit colonization of Orion 3.”

“By the way, what happened to that roommate of yours?”

“Oh, Mathis? He drank himself to death; He didn’t get beyond the circle of his glass.”

The two adventures stand on the surface of destination planet Orion 3. Captain Bradbury looks at his instrument reading a third and last time and groans.

“All indications from earth were that this would prove to be our new Eden. We had to come here and make sure, now this last reading makes it certain. This will remain a dead planet to us. We can’t start over here. This water can’t be reclaimed for human use. It appears we won’t be viable anywhere except where we came from.”

“Earth is our only hope?”

“This was the last funded mission I know of. It was the best hope for an alternative. With our current technology we can’t colonize this place or any other planet we have found.”

Ethan opens his eyes large and stares out to a pink and green horizon.

“Then it is true.”

“What is true?”

“The idea of the One and the Circle. In the last chapter of our teaching it compared each person of us as a cell to the greater human body of all people. We are to live helping each other in the womb that is our Earth. We will never grow out but we will survive if we learn this last lesson.”

The captain looks down, puts his gloved hands on his hips, and says, “I need a drink.”