The year is 14,000 AD and humanity has left the planet Earth. Destination... Vega.

The Earth's axis very slowly oscillates like that of a spinning top. The North Pole traces a circle on the sky, pointing to different stars as it moves along a 26,000-year circuit. In the year 14,000 AD, the Earth's Northern Pole axis will be pointed in the direction of Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the fifth brightest star in the night sky and the second brightest star in the Northern Celestial Hemisphere. It is a relatively close star at only 25 light-years from Earth.

‘”There are cooperative projects between galaxies?” she asked. “Lots of galaxies, each with a kind of Central Administration? With hundreds of billions of stars in each galaxy. And then those administrations cooperate. The . . . Forgive me. I'm just staggered by the scale. Why would you do all this? Whatever for?”

"You mustn't think of the universe as a wilderness. It hasn't been that for billions of years," he said. "Think of it more as . . . cultivated."’

Carl Sagan ~ Contact