The human family stands, finally, united. There are no birth defects. Everybody looks good. Humans are all, in the manner of Lake Wobegone, well above average. It has terraformed and settled eight worlds beyond Earth.
Life is good.
But star travel has become routine. People go out to look at Aldebaran, pop by the Pleiades, turn left at Rigel, swing by Polaris. And while researchers collate the information on whatever passes for computer disks, everyone else has retired to a kind of galactic front porch. Something is missing. Just as happened in the 1960's, the human race has left its beachhead and taken a long look around.