"I don't know."
"Come on, you figure these things out."
"If the Buggers were really coming, would they leave all you guys here in the station? Or send you back to Earth? Or evacuate you to some obscure asteroid? I don't know. Some things point to the end being really close. Other things seem like nothing important's going to happen anywhere around here."
"So maybe they're about to launch this huge fleet against the Bugger world and you guys are supposed to grow up on the voyage."
"Maybe," said Bean. "But the time to launch that fleet was right after the Second Invasion."
"Well, what if they didn't find out where the Bugger home world was until now?"
That stopped Bean cold. "Never crossed my mind," said Bean. "I mean, they must have been sending signals home. All we had to do was track that direction. Follow the light, you know. That's what it says in the manuals."
"What if they don't communicate by light?"
"Light may take a year to go a lightyear, but it's still faster than anything else."
"Anything else that we know about," said Nikolai.
Bean just looked at him.
"Oh, I know, that's stupid. The laws of physics and all that. I just--you know, I keep thinking, that's all. I don't like to rule things out just because they're impossible."
Bean laughed. "Merda, Nikolai, I should have let you talk more and me talk less back when we slept across from each other."
"Bean, you know I'm not a genius."
"All geniuses here, Nikolai."
"I was scraping by."
"So maybe you're not a Napoleon, Nikolai. Maybe you're just an Eisenhower. Don't expect me to cry for you."
It was Nikolai's turn to laugh.
"I'll miss you, Bean."
"Thanks for coming with me to face Achilles, Nikolai."
"Guy gave me nightmares."
"Me too."
"And I'm glad you brought the others along too. Itu, Ambul, Crazy Tom, I felt like we could've used six more, and Achilles was hanging from a wire. Guys like him, you can understand why they invented hanging."
"Someday," said Bean, "you're going to need me the way I needed you. And I'll be there."
"I'm sorry I didn't join your squad, Bean."
"You were right," said Bean. "I asked you because you were my friend, and I thought I needed a friend, but I should have been a friend, too, and seen what you needed."
"I'll never let you down again."
Bean threw his arms around Nikolai. Nikolai hugged him back.
Bean remembered when he left Earth. Hugging Sister Carlotta. Analyzing. This is what she needs. It costs me nothing. Therefore I'll give her the hug.
I'm not that kid anymore.