The children giggled as they ran in the town plaza, some paused to gaze at me- the old man, one of the 'founders'... The view had changed a lot in the 120 years since I first set foot here... Families had grown, and a few dozen founders had become a town, the orbital factories were visible even in the twilight of the setting sun... how far we have come...

I thought back on my comrades, the 'founders', and a tear came to my aged eyes as I remembered an old dear friend, Shinuro, she died in a stupid accident- we were too excited, too eager... a simple lapse in following procedure led to her death...I remembered trying to breathe life back into her, it was pointless... the short exposure to vacuum had sealed her fate... A tear trickled down my cheek... without wanting to I looked at the black pillar at the center of the plaza... Shinuro's name was crudely added to the thousands of others... I remember etching it there with trembling hands after her funeral...

All those names, in chronological order... it sounds cold but it seems like a small cost for what we have done... just a year ago we found out that three more colonies were successful, and we added 37 more names to the pillar... humanity will live forever... I, however, wont...

I got up, and walked to the pillar... I read the names... in one grouping were the names : Rick D. Husband, Kalpana Chawla, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Laurel B. Clark, Michael P. Anderson, Ilan Ramon

They were near the top... I touched them as Prime set, and the ruddy glow of the distant red dwarf illuminated them... What odd names...

what better way to be remembered than under the light of an alien sun...

The children had all gone home... some music played in the homes around me, most seemed alien to my old ears, humanity went on, every new generation alien to the previous one...

I stroked the engraved names, I was one of the lucky ones... the last living founder- my name will never be on future pillars, I will die an old man happy with dozens of great grand children, but my great great grand children will carry a replica of the pillar with more names etched into it to other worlds...

My time is over, I am tired... I offer a silent thanks to those that died to make this possible, and shuffle off to my home in the dull red light of an alien sun- funny how natural it all seems...