Parallax

He couldn't believe it.

He peered into the telescope once more. A mere four parsecs back, the one star had seemed like a supernova compared to the other, more distant star--and oh, had it been spectacular!

Now the other was just as brilliant.

Leaning back, he pondered. Magnitudes hadn't changed--the instrumentation assured him of that. The parallax and the higher quality optics he'd acquired at the last station seemed to have done it--strange, what a bit of perspective would do.

The topology of subspace meant that the more distant one was his current destination, while the other was squarely out of his way. In contrast, normal space observations led one's mind to a different, technically impossible conclusion.

Occasionally the Madness would set in. It was rare, but in those cases his astrogator's training would kick in and start trying to work around physics, only to be barely set right by Reason.

This time, though, Reason and the telescope agreed, at least enough to stave off the Madness. For now.

Still it crept about in his mind, occasionally reminding him. Of his humanity, of his destination, of the Could Be, of the Might Be.

The Madness was his friend--a fickle one, true--but for once, impossibly, incredibly, amazingly, it seemed to drive him forward, towards the long game...and it brought with it a sense of euphoria long-run pilots often forgot.

The one was so close now--but for once the final run home seemed bearable.