Home thoughts from a final frontier

Earth-bound traditions still retain emotional gravity as sci-fi gala writers reach for the stars, Yang Yang reports.

From a galaxy far, far, away, Earth is a distant home. And traditions must be observed, even though man can now travel at the speed of light - using consciousness only - to destinies that stretch our imagination. To be precise, Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun, is 4.22 light-years away but is reachable in a future where intergalactic travel is as common as, say, a train journey home for Spring Festival is today.

The plot of the story by college student Teng Ye, 24, is out of this world.