Page 182 of Commander’s Mate

Nora folded the pamphlet.

“We don’t know.”

I hated that answer.

Still true.

“What if they don’t believe us?” Zoe asked.

Scarlet pointed upward.

“We arrive in a dreadnought. That helps.”

“Or makes it worse.”

Nora was annoyingly good at reality.

I thought of Zared trying to sit in my parents’ kitchen.

Then of soldiers outside.

News cameras.

Scientists.

Politicians.

People asking whether I had been brainwashed because I loved an alien who had found me in chains.

“Then I choose again,” I said.

Scarlet looked at me.

“What?”

“If Earth is found, getting there isn’t the end. I still choose what happens next.”

Nora nodded.

Zoe looked relieved.

Scarlet did not.

“What?”

“I’m tired of choices.”

That was the most honest thing anyone had said.

“I want one thing to just be good.”

I took her hand.

She let me.

“Purple shoes?”

Zoe lifted a bag.