Excerpt
Goodbye Mother Earth
"They're welcoming us, Stan. They want to hear everything about the human race."
Stan shook his head. "We won't have time. We've got to be on that ship when it goes back. We have to get back to Earth while we're still news, the first ones to return from the Core. Just think what that will be worth? Not just the bonus--but we'll be famous! Don't you see what we're missing, Estrella! Time is passing us by. We have to go back!"
She asked simply, "Why?"
He blinked at her. "What do you mean, why?"
"Have you looked at the time? Our friends are getting old. They might even have died by now. You wanted to live a long, long time. Now we're doing it. Besides, we've come all this way. As long as we're here, we might as well see what the place looks like."
Stan found words at last. "How long?"
"Not long, if that's what you want. A week or two-"
"Estrella! That'll be-what? A thousand years or more on Earth!"
She nodded. "And by then maybe it'll be worth going back to."