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It's been a while since we severed ties with Earth and I can't say I'm looking forward to heading back.

We only subdued the humans by exploding the sun and turning the radioactive monolith into an inert lump of rock, I don't think we need to worry about them for the time being.

It's been years since we finished terraforming Earth and we've been settling into a routine on our new planet.

They say that aliens don't experience anything like human holidays and I'm inclined to believe it.

Most of us are war veterans. Some of us are terrorists.

All of us are exiles.

But I won't say that war pushed them into the Great Unknown, I'll say that something much more mundane did.

Most of our people are basically outcasts. Resourceful, ruthless, creative, lonely rejects. I think it's why I'm ambivalent about returning to Earth.

I don't want to be reminded of the life I left behind.

The last time I touched earth, other than telephoning family on special occasions, was when I went to bury my grandfather almost ten years ago.

The warm North West breeze was carrying a subtle hint of autumn as I stood at my grandfather's grave.

He had been a ship's captain.

A decorated hero.

Unfortunately he never got the chance to see my exploits and, as with most things I've done, I don't think about his death very often.

The only time I ever compared my own record to his was when I heard I had been awarded this ship. A small step-down from the mighty Kong Gue Kong, but a step up from Alexander.

I think I've finally put most of my fillings into my new dental prosthetic, I just hope it won't fall out during the next boarding.

The robot we built had the one minor flaw of shutting down. He was a good little soldier for a long time, but after a particularly nasty fight with a scrap heap robot, he went down with a nasty dose of brain damage. We have plenty of functioning droids, but they aren't the same as humans. Droids have their limits.

It is so easy to forget the humans with every passing day.

Eventually they'll die anyway. Eventually they're going to burn out.

Eventually they're going to hit a wall. They're going to have a mental breakdown and accidentally step into a wormhole.

We can wait for that.

It's been almost four years since I've gone to visit my mother.

When she heard the news she took me into her room, closed the door behind her and then slowly removed her shirt.

She was covered in ugly bruises, scratches and old scar tissue.

I left without even saying hello.

My son scares me.

I touched the pen to my face to clear it of tears and then realised I was still wearing gloves.

The girl I spoke to outside the office building said she was terribly sorry about my loss.

I nodded, took off my glasses and said that it was okay.

The death of my grandfather is the only thing that brought my mother and me together.

My son is the only thing that kept my marriage together.

I'd often think about how the warmth of life ices over as soon as death enters the equation.

We're all made of the same things, but death is colder than life.

And my mother is colder than the coldest thing there is.

The days are longer than most people realise.

There is no way of telling if my mother is dead until they make the announcement. There is no way of knowing this for sure until they change the status of her property license.

There are some days when I sneak out of the house before she wakes up.

I go to my husband's grave and I just lie there, on the grass, staring into the sky.

Sometimes I watch my son staring into the sky. Sometimes he says hi. Sometimes he just stares.

I am his only friend, I have no other friend.

We are lonely people, doing lonely things.

Bold captains make history

Many politicians make history books.

The daughter of the late Captain Khan was the only human on board the new starship

We are all alone.

I remember asking my mother if, when she thought about her own death, she was afraid.