Gods, if the Stars Are

Man searched a long time for alien life, until finally it found him. The aliens put their ship into orbit around the moon, peacably ignoring frantic human excitement, and asked to see someone who knew the stars. Earth sent Bradley Reynolds, 52, officially retired, a man who knew the stars as well as any man could. But the aliens wanted more than Reynolds could give. They wanted to know whether the sun loves us.

For Bradley Reynolds, it was the beginning of a life-long quest for alien intelligence, for beings who could speak to him with that wonderful Otherness. On Mars, on Jupiter, on Titan he would find hints of what he sought, and what he would find in the end was a tranformation so glorious as to be far beyond his capacity to dream.