Chapter Seven

Rain stood at the window of her former bedroom and stared out over the settlement. She remembered the first time that she had stood in that room, more than a year after they crashed on Uoria. Up until then they had lived in small, temporary shelters that they were able to cobble together. Some had tried to piece together blankets and other fabric from the crash to make tents, but they were quickly found to be inadequate. Over time they had collected more of the remnants from the crash and gathered resources from the surrounding planet to help them make more permanent structures. Out of the salvage of the StarCity rose a village, and they surrounded it with a stone wall like the one that they had seen at the kingdom of the nearby Mikana. It gave them a sense of permanence, anchoring them on the planet that was now what most of them considered to be their home.

It was a wonderful feeling to have a more permanent home in the settlement after spending so much time hunkering in shelters that barely protected her from the unpredictable and sometimes brutal elements of the new planet. At the same time, however, there was a strange sense of forced happiness that hung over the building. She knew that there were some members of the crew who were thrilled that the skeletons of the settlement were finally fleshing out and building into homes, gathering places, shops, and other buildings that made them feel more like they weren’t just floating, hovering somewhere in space, but truly secured to this frontier. Rain, though, wasn’t as jubilant. This place still didn’t feel like home. She felt like nothing more than a visitor there, borrowing the time, the space, even the very air that she was breathing, from the natives of Uoria. She was surrounded by what was left of their time on Earth and it made her feel as though everyone else in the crew was trying to recreate it, pretend that the salvaged pieces had never been a ship, almost as though they had always been there. Over time, she had become more accustomed to the space, even found herself enjoying the peace and comfort of a room that belonged entirely to her rather than having a bunkmate and feeling as though she was never really alone. But it had never taken away the longing for Earth. She had never resigned herself to this reality or given up her dream of one day returning to her home and completing the goals that she had made for herself.

Rain still hadn’t given herself over to the settlement in the way that the rest had and she knew that she never would. She looked down at those who still had a spark of adventure and a desire for justice within them gathering in the street beneath her. It had been more than two days since she had arrived back at the settlement to ask for the help of those who were willing to go back to the Mikana kingdom and then on to Penthos with her, and finally they were nearly ready to leave. Those who were going with her had bags sitting around their feet and weapons strapped to their backs. Some had their partners with them, others were clinging to them, saying goodbye. These all held the false smiles, the air of dismissiveness as they pretended that the weight that was pushing down on all of them wasn’t there. They pretended that when they said goodbye it was only for a short time, just a brief jaunt just as they had planned for their first visit to Penthos. In the backs of their eyes, though, she could see the pain of knowledge. She could see that they knew that it was very likely that many of them would never set foot on this planet again, and that when they stopped touching their loved ones to journey to the kingdom, it would be the final time that they would feel the touch of those people.

Rain stepped back and looked around her room again. She didn’t have any of the falseness in her heart. She had the strong sense within her that when she walked out of the settlement to return to Penthos, those fleeting final moments would be the last time that she would see this place, that she might never come back. There was unexpected sadness in that feeling. She had been wanting to get out of the settlement and back to Earth for as long as she had been there, yet this place represented so much to her. This is where they had been through some of the most difficult parts of their lives and prevailed. This was where they learned that they were far stronger than they had ever known that they were and could overcome things that they never even knew existed. This was a place that would always be indescribably impactful to her. But had been stuck. She had been trapped here and was beyond ready to put it behind her. This was her chance for freedom and to finally break free of the control that the Covra had tried to hold over them once and for all.

Below her she saw a man hug his brother and then step back, his hand reaching down to envelope the tiny hand of his child who stood beside him. The little girl had glossy curls that hung to her shoulders and the eyes of her mother. Rain remembered them before they left Earth. They barely knew each other then. Now they had built a family and neither wanted to leave Uoria. An involuntary thought ran through Rain’s mind and she wondered if perhaps she was wrong about never seeing this place again and if there would be some day when she would bring her children there to see the settlement and learn about her past.

The thought brought emotion to Rain’s throat and she fought tears that stung in the bottoms of her eyes. This was a challenging thought for her. When she was younger, she had always assumed that she would one day have a family. Once the days of her missions were over and she had accomplished all that she thought that she was going to, she would find someone to love, get married, and have children. It was what was expected of her and something that she never questioned. That all changed when they got to Uoria, however. No longer did she think of a future with anything more than herself. She had too much else on her mind to even ponder the potential of finding someone to love or one day being responsible for the lives of children. There were moments when she barely felt that she could handle the responsibility of her own life.

Then she met Lynx. Everything changed. So much more than she ever thought that it could. So much more than she even knew until now. Suddenly she could imagine having a family again. Part of her that had been hiding away for so long was open and alive again, and this filled her with a new sense of resolve. This had to be done. Wherever it took her and whatever she had to do, she wasn’t just fighting for what had happened, but also for what could have been, and what still may be.

Rain gathered her bags and rushed out of the room, closing the door behind her before running down the stairs and out into the crowd.

“Rain,” one of the men said as she approached. “How many people can you fit on the vehicle that you brought with you from the kingdom?”

The realization sank in and Rain realized the tremendous gap in her planning. She had taken the vehicle because it would bring her to the settlement far more quickly than walking, and she didn’t want to waste any time. She hadn’t thought about who might be coming back with her, and now she realized that far more of the men from the settlement and even some of the women were primed and ready to go along with her, but she didn’t know how to transport them back to the kingdom efficiently. She looked to the man who had spoken.

“I can bring a few on the vehicle with me,” she said. “The rest of you wait here. When we get to the kingdom we will get other vehicles and return for the rest of you.”

Part of her expected that they would protest, but instead, they nodded and several stepped forward, offering themselves to go along with her on this first leg of the journey. She helped them to put their belongings into the vehicle and then climb aboard before assuring the rest still standing in the center of the street that they would soon be back for them. She started the vehicle and they headed out, going toward the kingdom as fast as they could.