To grow up is to find the small part you are playing in the extraordinary drama  written by somebody else.

Be grateful for the time you've had with him. A little bit of grace. That's what a good dog is, you know. A little bit of grace.

light-months—and it was now possible to infer by parainterferometric methods that the star (ZD9817, or simply “our” star) had planets of some sort.

If you surrender, you have already lost. If you refuse to give up, though, no  matter the odds against you, at least you have succeeded in trying.