In the beginning, when God created heaven and earth--the earth being unformed and void, there was darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water. God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. God saw that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the Darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.

"We've harvested a total of sixty-three," Dr. Rosen told them, "and of them thirty-six are already frozen." Ben and Grace Taelor sat together in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs, Ben's hand resting gently on his wife's on the armrest between them. "Tomorrow morning we'll transfer them from the cryogenic chamber they're in now to the one that will take them aboard the Endeavor. By then we'll know how many will survive viably for the mission."

Ben gently squeezed Grace's hand. Tears welled in his eyes as he slowly rose from his chair. "Dr. Rosen, I have a speech prepared for this moment, but right now nothing I could say seems adequate." He smiled gently and lovingly at his wife, who was also beginning to cry. "Grace and I have never been able to have children, but now you've made that possible. Even if our children won't be born from her womb, and even though we'll both be long dead when they're born, just the very knowledge that they will live in the future allows them to live in our hearts, at this moment."

Grace, no longer able to hold back, burst forth with joyous tears. She rose, and her husband embraced her. They sobbed in each others' arms for several minutes before Dr. Rosen continued. "As you both know, the Endeavor will leave from earth orbit in about two weeks. I know this entire process has been extremely difficult for you both, and I can only offer my thanks, and the thanks of the entire human race. Boy, that sounds pretty grandiose, huh?" Rosen giggled between his own falling tears, as did Ben and Grace. "You've both endured the hormone treatments for four years now, and we'll begin tapering you from the treatments starting with your next injection."

"Doctor," began Grace, speaking for the first time since Rosen gave them the news, "when I was 32, and we began these treatments, you warned me that it would not be a pleasant process. Now four years and some two hundred eggs later, we're finally going to have a family, and even if I never get to meet my children, it was worth every painful shot, every estrogen tablet, all that water retention, and even the strict diet. I'm just so happy it worked."

Ben and Grace Taelor had to sign a seemingly endless stack of papers, officially granting the Terran Space Authority permission to send their frozen embryos into space, and another stack of papers officially granting the Terran Space Authority permission to terminate any of the embryos that might suffer from any defects before birth. Finally, the last paper signed, the Taelors turned to leave the hospital. "Oh, Grace," called Rosen, "I have one more piece of good news. Congratulations, you're pregnant."

God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water, that it may separate water from water." God made the expanse, and separated the water which was below the expanse from the water that was above the expanse. God called the expanse Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

The Endeavor hung motionless in the center of a giant web of cables and fibers that made up the orbital drydock. Dr. William Logan stood at the window of a small pod nestled in the great web, looking out at the giant vehicle before him. "For the first several months of her journey, the Inner Space Tugs will push her to the edge of the solar system, aiming her towards Epsilon Eridani. Then her Gossamer engines will take over, pulling in the ionized particles from the surrounding miles of space, and pushing them out behind her for propulsion. When she finally gets near Epsilon Eridani, the second stage will jettison into celestial orbit to survey the system and decelerate for the planetary landing." Ben and Grace Taelor nodded meaningfully at the aerospce engineer. Most of that was in a foreign language, as far as they were concerned; he could just as easily have said the Endeavor runs on Chunky-style Peanut Butter. The three of them continued staring out the window for several moments. The launch had been delayed several times before, and now Grace was seven months along in her pregnancy, and wanted to see her future children leave the world before her new child came into it.

"Will, we've been hopeful before. Are they really going this time?" Ben asked Logan. "It seems we never have a dull moment. First the children, then Grace getting pregnant, and now the launch. I'm getting up near fifty years old--much more excitement and I might have a heart attack." Logan and the Taelors laughed.

Finally the moment arrived. The engines behind the three massive space tugs glowed to life, and as they overcame the mass of the Endeavor and themselves, the tightly connected clump of vessels sailed out of the web. None in the pod spoke, or even moved, for the twenty-eight minutes during which the Endeavor and her escorts moved out of earth orbit.

God said, "Let the water below the sky be gathered into one area, that the dry land might appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that this was good. And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation: seed-bearing plants, fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." And it was so. And God saw that this was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

"Push! C'mon, honey! You can do it, just push!"

"You son of a bitch! You shut the hell up! If you think it's so goddamn easy, you get the fuck in here and push! Graaarghh!" Grace dug her nails to the quick into Ben's arm. Ben smiled. The miracles of childbirth.

Twenty-three hours after Grace had entered the hospital, she lay almost motionless on her bed, covered with sweat, holding her newborn bundle of joy. "God, Ben, she's beautiful. I never thought I'd see this day, but my goodness, isn't she beautiful?"

"Yes, dear, she certainly is. You know, we don't have a name for her yet. How about Yvonne?"

"What, after your mother? How about anything but?" Grace laughed, and Ben joined her. Their new baby at least seriously considered smiling. The doctor had said that everything had gone about as perfectly as could be expected, and their new baby girl weighed in at seven pounds, four ounces. "Look at her, Ben, she's got your eyes." Ben watched as his tiny daughter wrapped her fist around his finger and squeezed. He couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying.

"How about Ariadne? Or Arianna?"

"Arianna, hmmm? What do you think, Little One? Are you an Arianna?"

God said, "Let there be lights in hte expanse of the sky to separate day from night; they shall serve as signs for the set times--the days and the years, and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth." And it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to dominate the Day and the lesser light to dominate the Night, and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth, to dominate the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness, and God saw that this was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

"I know, Mom, but we all knew today would come. I can't live at home forever. I'm fifteen now; you can't mother me forever." Arianna unpacked the last of her belongings from the vehicle affectionately known as "The Family Truckster".

"Oh, yes I can. I'm always your mother, and I'll always be your mother." Grace hugged her daughter. "Just because you're going to Academy doesn't mean I'm no longer allowed to mother you. Don't forget that."

Ben returned from inside the Academy dormitory to retrieve the last of his daughter's unwieldy bags. "I can't believe it. My little girl is going to Academy." Arianna turned the shade of red that only incomign Academy students can turn when they're saying goodbye to their parents, who seem to be contractually required to humiliate their children as much as possible.

"Dad, I'm not a little girl anymore. And believe it, because there's no way in hell I'm not going to Academy."

Arianna was the most promising astronautical engineering student the Academy had seen in twenty years. During her first semester, she set the curve in all five of her classes, included classes that are usually intended for older students. Her theoretical engine designs stunned her professors and peers. She worked well with the other students, and in group projects, usually combined her own work with that of her teammates to create the best possible result. In short, Arianna was an ideal student.

"As you can see, the Griffith/Percy Model of hyperspace illustrates a tendency towards currents, if you will, in the fabric of space." Arianna gestured towards the display with her pointer. "While Griffith and Percy were essentially correct, we can also see, in this area of the representation, an additional tendency towards, if we continue the aquatic metaphor, waves and troughs as well." Arianna used the pointer to draw a sloping arc through the noice of the display. "If we assume a wave with a regular period, we can solve the entry probelm inherent with the GP model by using only the peaks of the waves as points of entry, then veritably surfing along the wave until the appropriate trough, at which point we drop out."

As a graduate student, Arianna continued her research, occasionally pausing long enough to lecture or appear on syndicated new programs. Her work became the standard by which the work of all others was judged. Ben and Grace overflowed with pride for their daughter, and cried at her thesis presentation, when she unveiled her completed hyperspace wave theory, dubbed the Taelor Wave Theory. They cried when Arianna accepted the Nobel Prize for physics for her design of the Taelor Engine. And as they lay dying only three months later from unforseen residual effects from the hormone treatments, they still smiled at the mention of her name, or the touch of her hand on theirs. Arianna was twenty-eight years old.

God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and birds that fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." God created the great Sea Monsters, and all the living creatures of every kind that creep, which the waters brought forth in swarms, and all the winged birds of every king. And God saw that this was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

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STAGE 3 SEPARATION IN 23:14:49:08.

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