Chapter Nine
THE OORT CLOUD—BRAXTON
As with the other portals Braxton had transited, there was no sense of translation when he passed through the unpowered portal near the middle of the Earth-Moon L2 swarm. It was just like walking through a door in his former flesh-and-bone life. He looked around, taking account of his surroundings. Yes, it was dark, but in one direction, a bright star shined with a brilliance he had never before seen. He took his time scanning the sphere around him, comparing what he saw with the astronomical charts he called up through his tensors. He seemed to be in the Solar System. None of the stars seemed to have shifted significantly. But there was that one bright star that did not fit into the charts anywhere.
Then it struck him—it was the sun! He was way out t
