There are many folk in the Verse, who have never (and never will) set foot in a space ship. Teeming billions scattered all across the Worlds, Moons and Cities of the Verse.
To these folks the stars are what they call "The night sky".
Sailors like my Pap on New Melbourne navigate oceans by these pinpoints because they hold reasonably steady when a ship is away from land.
There is a reason out here is called the "Black"; …it is not the Night Sky to Astrogators and ship's crews; it is our Ocean. Everytime I work out the plots for a "Straight Shot Milk Run" it still feels like rolling a pair of 360 sided dice… the result being where you are headed. Which is not true, I know in my head. Nav-satellites on top of multiple-redundancies in the Nav-sys, trims the odds way in your favor. But a Gorram degree is life or death sometimes. Therefore the first hour or so after the plot is in and the ship is underway… I cannot help but take fixes on Nav-bouys to check-check and check the course.
In some strange way the Black is where all things began for every bug of us... I think… maybe…
...so the happy few of us who do choose the Black as our infinite Ocean… we chose to return Home every time we aim our noses at those starry pin-pricks.
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