Delighted you liked it!
Sorry it took so long. When I started, I had no real idea how it would develop. At first I had intended to kill off Mary as her presence was making things complicated, but decided it woulld be too much of a cop-out. I brought Gimen in as an afterthought, but was pleased I did. Ed losing his sight fell out of the plot as these things often do, and I was going to heal him, but that would have ben another cop-out! (Though there is a possibility there - that stem-cell exchanger may not be one-way after all...) The bit about Paul's true status had been in my mind all along - I never really liked the 'briar patch' as JLHenderson called it.
A sequel. You just can't keep those bunnies down, can you... I've even got some ideas about it:
What will they find at Proxima? Is Spicor dead?
What will happen when Johnny reaches them?
Will there be a 'family reunion'?
Alec and Joan's wedding? Will they become parents?
I've even got a scene, which I had originally intended to put at the end here. You know 'The Testament of Arkadia' has Koenig thinking about their encounter. Someone says hello, and it's a voice he has not heard for years. It sounds like Ed. He looks up, but the man before him isn't Ed, it's Johnny, who apologises for tearing the Moon out of its orbit before the Starflare device causes the Sun to go nova...
And where are Ed and Paul at this point? Haven't a clue!