We read science fiction for the exhilaration of expanding our minds to the dazzling speculative possibilities of science and technology. With science and math almost daily exposing the exotic reality behind what we perceive, our mental maps must stretch to encompass the sheer strangeness of the world we live in. In these pages, Richard Rail portrays a dizzying cosmos where eons zip by in a blink, where the arrow of time expresses itself usefully in space adventure, where beginnings and endings find meaning in new endings and new beginnings. As musings on the nature of reality, these tales bring man full circle in his quest for final knowledge and ultimate experience. Sci-fi lovers continually seek new masters of the genre. The author richly rewards our patience.