Free Red Planet Run by Dana Stabenow

think she ever even slowed down. She had a dream, and she followed it to its end, and she didn’t let anything stand in her way. It’s because of Star Svensdotter that we’re sitting here tonight, one point eight astronomical units out from Terra, celebrating a custom inaugurated three planets and three hundred years away.”
    I could feel him looking at me. I still couldn’t meet his eyes. “I want to be like that. I want to live my life that way. I don’t want to ever give up, I don’t want to ever stop trying.”
    His voice firmed and rose. “I am Leif, grandson of Natasha Quijance, nephew of Carlotta Quijance, son of Star Svensdotter. I choose to be called Starsson, so that I will be known as Star’s son all of my life, to remind all who know me that I wear my name in her honor, and to remind myself that my reach should always exceed my grasp.”
    I looked up just in time to see him return the storyknife to Mother, who sheathed it, and whose cheeks were wet when she rose to recognize and embrace him. “Leif Starsson.”
    Charlie, too, was weeping. “Leif Starsson.”
    Paddy and Sean and Alexei pushed up and were embraced in their turn. He kissed Axenia’s cheek; Crip and Simon wrung his hand; Roger Lindbergh and Perry Austin and John, Joseph, and James Smith, Maggie Lu and John Begaye, all pressed forward to congratulate Leif in their turn. They were all shaken by the ceremony, but then guests always were, and in this place, millions of kilometers from home and family, it was especially moving.
    No less so for me. I waited for the crowd to thin before stepping forward, face to face with my son. He was so tall, so straight. Steel-true and blade-straight. “Leif Starsson,” I said. “You do me too much honor.”
    “Your name lends honor to me, Star Svensdotter,” he replied, equally formal.
    I embraced him. “You didn’t tell me.”
    He hugged me so hard my ribs creaked. When had he gotten so tall and so strong? “I wanted to surprise you. Emaa knew, and her feelings aren’t hurt, if you’re worried about that. She understands.”
    I wished I did. I turned to the face the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, at this point the ceremony ends and the celebration begins. Charlie’s laid on a spread that has to be seen to be believed. Eat, drink, and be merry.”
    I felt a nudge in the small of my back and turned to see Helen with a drink in each hand. “Way ahead of you, Star.”
    “Thanks, Helen.”
    She nodded at Leif, back to holding hands with the still unknown brunette. “That was quite a testimonial.”
    “He would have done better to take Mother’s name.”
    “He didn’t think so.”
    Her unshakable certainty annoyed me, and I said, “Let’s hit the food before it’s all gone, shall we?”
    Charlie’s table was laid with what passed on Outpost for linen and crystal, every plate, bowl, and pot filled to overflowing. As I heaped my plate Charlie came bustling up, beaming all across her duplicitous face, and said, or rather gushed, “Star, you know John Begaye, don’t you? Would you steer him through the entrees? He doesn’t know his way around Filipino cuisine yet.” She bestowed a dazzling smile upon the two of us, somehow managed to insert my hand through the crook of John’s arm, and bustled off.
    Two things occurred to me simultaneously.
    One, that John Begaye was male and unattached.
    Two, that this time I really was going to kill my sister.
    Simon, who is not a genius for nothing, headed straight for the bar. “Would anyone like a drink?”
    “I think I would,” John Begaye said.
    “Attaboy. Scotch okay? Steve just brewed up a new batch.”
    “Scotch sounds fine.”
    “Water?”
    John looked at me. “Neat.”
    “Me, too.”
    I bestowed a dazzling smile of my own in their general direction, discreetly reclaimed my hand, and doubled the amount of food on my plate. If I kept my mouth full, I might be able to keep myself from biting a chunk out of Charlie’s ass.
    The evening