The document is a passage from a sci-fi novel that follows multiple characters onboard a ship. It provides background on the crew's preparations as they travel to infiltrate a system occupied by enemies. It also describes conversations between characters like Naomi and Naddy discussing the dangers of their mission, and between Aurora and Ada where Aurora expresses a desire to fly and see stars while Ada explains that emotions don't need reasons. The characters experience anxiety from the looming battle and discuss their hopes for how events may unfold.

1. Valdez / 355
Chapter Forty Four
“…beyond a desire.”
March 31-April 14, 1768 AE
Onboard the Wingling, traveling to Hass System
The crew preps for what will be the either the easiest infiltration of a Soran-occupied system
ever or the dumbest move any of them have ever taken in their entire unfulfilled lives, or so he
heard the captain grumbling one night in the galley. Because of this, the crew goes from anxious
to tired to just about apathetic. Hugo takes Melvin’s rounds each morning to get a jump on his
crewmen, and women, shouting and howling at them like a dog if this picture of one is right. He
gets in their faces and pisses them off, on purpose Eliot thinks. Why do we gotta keep risking out
lives for those Vectra, skip, one of them asks. He tells the ungrateful little grease monkey
because I said so, dammit. And if you don’t care about what I say, then get the hell outta here!
Some of them actually threaten to jump ship, some right to his face, most not, but he keeps
making his rounds and howling at them to get their asses to work, and their moaning and
groaning always ends pretty quickly.
Everyone else tries to keep a close eye on the newslinks whenever they’re passing near
inhabited systems and happen to intercept a signal. It’s Otego now—Eliot’s getting a drink when
the transmitter bleeps! He runs out and hollers for everyone to come, but after a couple seconds
and no one shows up, he hurries back and activates the transmitter.
“…pressure within the ITO may force certain governments in the alliance to sever ties with
one another. It’s clear that most of these governments wanted nothing to do with the hostilities
we are seeing between the Vectra Group of the Human Republic and the Soran Foundation.
Some have even come out and denounced the Vectra’s methods of response to the Soran attack,
while others still say that the Soran have overstepped any boundaries of diplomacy and are
displaying their penchant ‘God’ complex. Meanwhile, battle rages in many of the border
systems, oh, we have some clips for you—a large battleship, it looks Vectra, takes a hail of
plasma from a squadron of MAWS, Soran maybe, begin to surround it—Sky Marshall Spencer
has already moved a significant number of ships into the Igome system to help with the defense,
and has prepared to launch a large number of ships into Korivo to retake the Capital system
from Foundation control. Battles have also broken out in Lygat and along the border, though
reports on the condition of these combat fronts are limited to speculation…”
By now, Albert, Jinx, Naomi, and some other mechanics from the workshop have already
rushed in and are crowding him. He hasn’t been around so many people since…I don’t
remember. It’s strange.
Eliot stays and watches while many of the others leave over the next few minutes with their
shoulders hanging down. Everyone else is gone by the time he turns around to leave, except
Naomi. She stands there, with her arms folded, and glares at the vidlink screen.
“Looks bad.” he says.
She huffs, “What do you know about it?” And she leaves.
Nothing I guess.
Eliot goes on his walks every time a newslink comes through, and stops by each station to

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keep the others updated. It keeps him busy. It gives him something to do—something to
contribute. Everyone stares into nothingness when they don’t think anyone’s looking, or
whenever he is, at least, like the weight of things is getting greater even though it’s so quiet most
of the time.
He makes his final stop each time at the stern, where the doctors are bunked. Sometimes
they’re gone, but most of the time they’re inside. He stops and talks for a couple minutes before
he goes. No need to linger. This time they aren’t around, so he goes back toward the front of the
ship, and ends up inside the lounge. He finds Ada and Albert there, watching Aurora doing some
exercises. She stretches out pretty far…he tries not to stare too long. The next day, somewhere in
one of the middle corridors, he bumps into Ada. She’s alone, not with Aurora, and looks like
she’s in a hurry, so he just says hi and keeps going. She calls back to him, and when he turns, she
asks if it bothered him to be the “messenger of death”. Maybe he answers her, but afterward he
can’t remember. It had probably been a lie.
Sometime after that, maybe the next day, Ada saw him walking along the opposite side of
the lounge from her and Aurora, on the other side of the shrubs and trees, she swore that he had
been looking their way before she looked back. She told Aurora to go say hi. The girl looked
across at Eliot, mostly hidden by the plants, then back at her, and said, “I don’t want to bother
him.”
“Do you think you’d be bothering him?” Ada said, peeking over at Albert’s massive frown.
“He’s just walking.”
So Aurora looked over again and walked across the lounge. He was hidden by shrubs, but he
must have looked over and seen her approaching, because he slowed his stride. She crossed the
grass and came to him. Their heads bobbed up and down, a couple words exchanged, then he
looked over and waved. Ada hissed at Albert to wave back, so he did, and she did too. When
Aurora came back a couple moments later, Ada could hardly contain her laughter—the girl’s
face was beet red! Albert did not share in the joke. Ada asked what he said to her.
“He said it was nice to see me.”
Meanwhile, with Hugo doing “his thing” with the crew, Melvin kept the helm more often
than not. He was standing beside Loni’s station as the they left the vicinity of the Otego System.
Their next stop was Hass.
Naomi fired the laser iron into the opened LLR line on her suit’s right leg. She called back
to Naddy to increase the slack on the cable, and used it to burn the hole shut. She got up, took the
mask off and stared up at the suit’s curves…the bitch is beautiful.
“What’re you looking at?” her friend asked.
She sighed. “What d’ya think?”
“I was just asking…”
“Huh? No, I meant what do you think?” Naomi tossed her gloves away, rubbed the sweat
from her forehead, stared into her hands, her dirty, dry, chapped hands. Not a girl’s hands. “Can
we fight those bastards off if they come after us?”
“Oh. I don’t know. Maybe, if we get lucky.”

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“Luck?” Naomi spun around. “Come on, Naddy, you gotta have a little more confidence
than that.”
“Why, because you want to hear me say it? Will that make you feel better?”
Obviously, her friend wasn’t in the mood for a decent conversation, so Naomi put a hand up
fine and walked away to the other side of her suit. She focused on the legs, any part near the deck
so she could keep her head down.
“Naomi, I’m sorry,” said Naddy, “I didn’t mean it like that either. I’m just…I’m trying to
stay realistic here. There’s only three of us. Three MAWS can only do so much. And this time,
we’re the ones going after them, technically.”
That’s right. “But we can still hold our own. Huh?”
“I don’t know.” Naddy took the laser iron off the deck and went away to put it back in the
case, off somewhere behind her. “I hope so.”
Naomi held her sides tighter. She was still staring at her suit, farther up the leg now, almost
level with her eyeline. “They’re definitely gonna come after us, though. If they started this war
over that stupid girl, they wouldn’t give up that quickly.”
“No, they wouldn’t.”
“But they aren’t dumb enough to just send an entire fleet after us.”
The clanking of tools. “Not unless they wanted to draw the Vectra’s attention to us also.”
“Yeah. That’d be pretty dumb.” Naomi looked farther up, to the midsection. Are they dumb
enough?
“Most likely, they’d send a bounty hunter or some kind of specialist.”
“Like that masked guy everyone else said they saw on Ferha…they said that bastard was on
Korivo, too.”
“Maybe the Vectra hired him, then.”
Naomi chewed on her lip. She looked over at last, saw her friend crouched over a tool box,
doing something. Well Lieutenant thinks we’re gonna be needing our suits. “If we fight, we can’t
win.”
“What was that?”
“Hmm? Oh, nothing. Sorry.”
“W-Wait,” Naddy spun around. Her jaw was all the way to the damn deck, practically.
“What did you just say?”
“What’d I say?” I said all kinds of things about the suits and that stupid girl and fighting
bounty hunters then I said we can’t w—wait… “I said w—”
“You said sorry!”
Sorry? “Sorry! You’re making a big deal about sorry?”
Naddy got to her feet and moved closer. “Tell me the last time you ever said sorry about
anything, to anyone. Just tell me, and I’ll stop.”
She tilted her head.
“There’s something definitely wrong.” Naddy wagged her finger at her. “You haven’t been
yourself since we left Nesq.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’ve been different.”
“We’ve all been different, Naddy! What do you expect? The crew’s anxious. It’s an anxious
vibe, and it’s been rubbing off on me.”
“You aren’t worried, are you?”
“Me? Worried?” Naomi faked a laugh. Pathetic.

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“It’s okay if you are.”
“I’m not. You know, the lieutenant’s really been riding me. It’s so damn hard—”
Naddy crossed her arms, her mouth contorting into some kind of smile-smirk-grin-laughing
freak mutation. “Really, now?”
“Yeah! He’s uh…no. No! Not really, he’s—” Dammit!
“So,” Naddy’s eyes narrowed into crosshairs, “How hard is it working under the
lieutenant?”
Naomi didn’t even dignify her with an answer.
Relaxing was an interesting activity for Aurora even though it seemed awfully similar to
what she did whenever Ada had nothing to say to her. She sat on the bench in the lounge and
beneath the shade of the tree and watching the stars outside and took a deep breath like Ada told
her to and let it go. They had been on the bench for a while now. She and Ada that was—Albert
stood against the wall and next to the big window. He did not look relaxed at all like Ada was
but when she asked about it he said he was. People are different.
“Okay, Aurora.” said Ada. “I want you to explain to me what you find enjoyable.”
“What I find enjoyable? That’s not the same as you…”
“Probably not, but out of the things we’ve been doing together, what’s the most enjoyable to
you? Or what haven’t you done that sounds enjoyable.”
I’m different and they’re different…but do they ask me questions and why do people in white
coats take me away and why can I do the things I do…if we’re all different.
“Aurora, are you alright?” Ada asked.
“I’m fine.” she said.
Ada did something with her digipad and said the question again.
“Enjoyable?” Aurora repeated as well in what she supposed was her usual voice—Ada
called it soft and monotone at times…whatever that meant. She looked at Ada and then at Albert
who was staring into the floor then he looked away from them. They were different and she was
different yet she had to answer questions and exercise and they took notes down about her.
“Maybe enjoyable isn’t right…oh!” Ada shook the bench. “What’s fun to you? Something
you do that you want to keep doing, because it feels fun?”
“What is fun?” She looked at Albert again. What is she doing that for?
“I got it!” Ada shook the bench even more this time. “You know when we talk about things,
just you and me?”
“Yes.”
“How does that make you feel?”
“I feel…safe.”
“Is that something you want to feel on all the time?”
“Yes.”
“Good! What do you want to do on all the time?”
She saw it still. Spread out above her floating no gliding along the wind the white feathers
dancing and the wings flowing up and down it was free the entire world open it could see
everything and go anywhere and nothing was going to stop it so she followed it away from ada
and albert and she walked through many people but kept her eyes skyward its movement smooth
unwavering as much a part of the wind as the wind was a part of it not part of its feathers and
wings but part of it its being part of the feeling that drove her the feeling that she felt differently

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and felt it then and followed it to the fountain it flew away when she got close and she waited
there for it to come back please come back so I can see I want to see where can I go take me
there— “I want to fly.”
“Fly?” Ada said.
“Like the birds. I want to fly like them.”
“Where do you want to fly?”
“Everywhere.”
Ada played with her digipad and said, “What else?”
“I want to look at the stars.” She pointed at the view outside the big window…something out
there somewhere out there I must go but where? I know I am and if I am then I must have
someone else…mother and father…
“Stars?” said Albert.
“Interesting…!” Ada kept playing with her digipad so Aurora looked away why am I so
interesting I just want to fly and see the stars like a bird, “Aurora, what is it about the stars that
interest you?”
“I don’t know.” she said.
“Exactly! You don’t know why you enjoy doing certain things, they just feel enjoyable. It’s
the same with everyone. I like reading, probably because I learn things from it, but really, I can’t
say why. Albert likes to garden, and he doesn’t know why. That’s the beauty of loving
something; you don’t need a reason, even though there are probably a bunch of them you can’t
quite put your finger on, you just need the desire.”
“No reason?” Aurora said. But everything had a reason. How could something exist without
one? It just was and it always was? If a feeling does not need a reason then what else did not
need one? I have a reason. I know I do.
Ada smiled and rubbed her arm. “Sure. No reason at all.”
Aurora turned back to the view and held her gaze enjoying the view of faraway stars. I have
a reason for looking at the stars and I have a reason I want to fly and I have a reason for being
me for being like me for being different. But try as she might she did not know what it was.
“Everything that happens has a reason, Aurora,” said Ada and she slid closer, “But emotions
are different. They have to be perceived in order to exist, unlike the stars or birds, because they
exist independent of ourselves. Your feelings are influenced by things like stars or birds, but in
the end your feelings are determined entirely by you—there doesn’t have to be a particular
reason why you like birds and someone else hates them. It’s the individual. Your mind doesn’t
need a reason, either. All you need is the desire. Well, it’s goes beyond that. The emotion of
loving something, for instance, is an instinct that no one can really explain. Sure, you can use
fancy psychology and say that certain activities by certain people affect chemicals in the brain
and cause a state of euphoria, but that hardly delves into the greater truth. The fact of the matter
is that individuals enjoy doing things because they just enjoy doing things. It’s what helps us
maintain sanity in a universe of constant change. I think I’ve told you all about how people need
change to keep from going crazy, to help avoid a routine, but constant change is potentially
hazardous. We also need constants in our lives, and what we enjoy is something built from a
familiarity or kinship we might feel for something or someone.”
“Constants and variables?” Aurora said. “Is life so technical?”
“Not at all, but it sounds a lot like that when you look at it from a scientist’s point of view.
That’s just our way of rationalizing everything. It doesn’t do good for a person’s morale to know
that so much is out of one’s control. People hardly have the opportunity to dictate how events

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turn out. We’re basically just here for the ride.”
Albert added, “Hope it’s a good one.”
It was quiet for a moment.
“Are you enjoying the ride so far?” Ada asked.
Aurora hesitated for half a second somewhere out there is me I am there in the stars and I’ll
fly there with wings and I’ll find me that’s what I desire but it was long enough. “Yes.” she said.
The alarms wouldn’t shut the hell up. Hugo had to growl at his people to turn the damn thing
off as he charged into the bridge and saw people just about throwing their arms up and running
around in circles screaming for dear life. Mel was over Loni’s console, pointing at something on
her monitor. The ship rumbled goddammit we just finished all the frickin’ repairs! and he oof!
slipped. He climbed up, stumbled his way to the helm, and saw the overhead viewing screen,
dozens, hundreds of unknown sigs and anomalies across the scopes.
He mouthed the words before he growled, “What’s all this shit!”
Mel looked back. “It appears as if there’s some kind of static field in the area outside
hyperspace disrupting our radar.”
“Do we know that?”
“What do we ever know, skip?” said Loni.
He bopped her beside the head and said, “Run a scan. Find out the hell’s happen’n to my
ship!”
“I already made the order.” said Mel. “We should be getting the results momen—” The
viewing screen was already beginning to display the results of the space-time field scan.
Hugo looked over it halfway and just about leapt into his chair. He pulled his harness on.
“Deactivate hyper drive converter! Decelerate to minimum speed, now! Hurry!” Not good.
Definitely not good.
The hyperlane melted away and turned into a mist, faded into a dark blanket of streaking
white lines that shrunk and shrunk till they were only dots, but round them were other lines,
brown and gray, shrinking into themselves but not as much as the dots. They formed
rocks…giant rocks. Some bigger than giant. And other streaks that became smaller, spiked orbs
that floated around at random. Hundreds of them.
“Its an old mine field!” Loni screamed.
Somewhere across the bridge someone shouted, “It’s a damn asteroid field and a mine
field!”
Hugo chomped his teeth. “No frick’n shit!” A rock half the size of the Wingling tumbled
their direction, coming from the underside. Smaller rocks fired into the big boy’s side and
exploded into shrapnel, zipping through the vacuum at even higher speeds, a machine-gun fire of
razor sharp rock. More alarms. Pressure leaks here and there. Shit. This is gonna be close. “Get
us outta this!”
Loni used her entire body and pushed into the controls, forced the nose on a negative plane,
toward the big mother fucker but away from the others. The field rolled round, floated there a
sec, the giant rock from underneath came round to the front. The long end was coming down
from the topside and closing—collision detectors rang out. The bastard’s underside had to be
right there!
“Do it now.” Hugo threw his fist out. “Hit that sumbitch now!” The thrusters kicked the ship
forward and shot them out past the other side of the fucker. Hah! Burned his ass! But the view

7. Valdez / 361
opened to hundreds more, some bigger, smashing and firing round randomly. Then some of them
burst out from something else—the mines. They were blowing the rocks into bullets, spewing
them into other ones, making them into bullets and…he glazed over it again, to Mel right under
him we don’t gotta choice do we then back to the field. “Aim the bow toward the field. Activate
all the automated turrets and lock on the mine signals—they’re prolly magnetic, so get a trace on
the signals and program it in. After you rotate, activate the starboard side thrusters!”
“B-But skip…” Loni gulped. “You want me to fly us right into it?”
“It’s already come’n at us! If we stop and make a run for it, we’ll get torn to shreds. Just do
it, Lon!”
Her eyebrows flew up to her hairline and she went back to her controls. Already, the
automated turrets began firing at unseen targets—the bursts that came from them sent rocks
flinging out crazily. Maybe this was a good idea. The ship started toward the bigger ones, the
ones bigger than the old broad, and they were getting even bigger…uh maybe I got a ‘lil ahead of
myself.
“This is insane!” someone screamed. “We’re gonna fly right into a freaking asteroid field!”
“’Course not!” Hugo growled back. “We’re gonna blow our way outta this one!” It’s our
only shot kid cut me some slack. He snatched the com and spat into it, “Hold on to sumthin’!
This is gonna be a rough ride!”
The portside viewing screen came to life, and the starboard screen, and together he saw that
they were definitely surrounded by cascading asteroids and were probably screwed. Mines
appeared to port and plasma shot out. The concussion shook the ship, knocked his brain loose
from the steam for a sec.
“Nose turrets!” Hugo pulled against the harness to lean forward. “Target the mines and
smaller asteroids!”
From behind the portside viewing screen, six flashes popped out, bursting against the mines
ahead. The razor shards of the mines burst out, at the ship, at the rocks around it, slicing through
the vacuum.
“Geez! Target the smaller asteroids! All guns fire!” he shouted.
The flashes went in every direction. The monitor blooped! and bleeped! and the little dots
blinked and popped. And outside the field grew bigger and…and…they would never make it
through the cascading, tumbling, exploding, razor-sharpness without something,
someone…anything…
Davies jumped up immediately from his seat in the cargo control room and ran outside into
the open hold.
“Ace!” Hugo’s voice boomed overhead. “Get yer MAWS out there an’ help us! We need ya
to clear the way! We got aster—”
A rumble interrupted the voice. Asteroids? He said asteroids. Whatever it was, the
squirming in his gut drove him harder across the hold to where his pilots had been working. He
found them huddled on the deck talking with some of the mechanics; he didn’t stop, moving past
and shouting orders as he closed on the lockers against the near bulkhead.
Corporal Bright must have gotten up after he passed and was jogging after him. “Sir, what’s
going on? Why’d we rotate? I thought we were in—”
“Weren’t you paying attention?” He yanked the locker open and started throwing his clothes
to the deck, yanked his piloting suit out. She jumped back as he did—he looked over his

8. Valdez / 362
shoulder and saw her at attention, turned away from him. “What’re you doing?”
“I couldn’t hear. We were just talking about—”
“Just get suited up! They need us out there, and they needed us five minutes ago. Got it?”
He heard something but a rumble drowned it out. Another quick glance back and both
Bright and Jinna were charging their lockers. They threw their clothes to the deck as he pulled
the zipper up and bounded toward the MAWS across the hold.
“Sir!” Bright kept calling. “Sir, what the heck’s going on?”
He spun around and shouted an answer.
She shrieked, “A-Asteroids!”
It took a minute for a voice to come over the com: “Captain? Davies. We’re locked and
loaded. Open the cargo airlock doors!”
Hugo smiled. “You got it, Ace! Now get those fuckers off us. Don’t you go let’n me down
now. I got faith in ya.”
“Let’s hope that means something.”
The monitor blipped! and three signals separated from the ship’s. Hugo waited for them to
move to the flanks before releasing the breath he’d been holding in. He glanced up at some
imaginary point above them, then went back to the viewing screen, glowing over the shadow of
the view port shutter. You hear that you bastard? Stay the hell outta our way.
The big mother fuckers were up ahead, and the turrets weren’t going to do a damn thing to
them. All the MAWS could really do was keep the mines away enough to give them a chance to
get through the field…if they could even do that. No choice. Stop worrying. No choice. Fuck it.
“Awright, folks!” he said. Let’s just not get dead. “Nice an’ easy!”
Then one of the MAWS appeared at the front view port. It had a long, rocket-launcher
looking plasma weapon in one hand and a large shield in the other and moved above the
overhead.
“Right.” Hugo grabbed the com. “Clear out the smaller ones and keep those minds offa our
asses! We’re moving right into the middle!”
“Got it.” said Davies.
The other two suits spun into view and circled into a formation, side-to-side, sweeping
through the turret fire and letting loose with their own long rifles, thick bolts of plasma that
flashed and pounded the rocks and mines coming at them. The smaller rocks burst into dust, and
they covered themselves with the shields when the shards came. Pings and loud crashes boomed
through the shutter and shook the bridge, but it held up.
Loni used her entire body to push and pull and yank the controls each way, and now the ship
started to descend along its plane of suspension, moving around a big one and thrusting through,
past it and out round to the next field of smaller rock shards and blinking mines. The MAWS
kicked into gear and dropped back, along the flanks, between the pair of turrets on each side.
Two of the little blinking sons a bitches swung passed a flash of plasma and suddenly jerked
toward the ship’s starboard flank. Damn magnets! He cringed. The suit over there fired a burst of
chaff, caught the fucker just as it made it’s motion toward the ship, blew it apart. The concussion
must’ve been hell, because the suit was flung toward the ship and only managed to boost away as
it kissed the AAD field. A low, rapid shriek rose out from the ship’s gullet—the rifle scraping
along the hull.
A half dozen other star force command ship-sized rocks loomed ahead of them. Mel judged

9. Valdez / 363
the relative trajectory of each one into the computer and shook his head. Hmph. Point taken.
“Rotate back! Forty-five degrees!” Then the ship bucked to port, a loud shriek of metal and
alarms. Everyone’s grips on the sides of their work stations tightened. Hugo’s loosened. “What
was that? Ace, keep those things away from us.”
“Right. No problem…”
“We have pressure loss in section 2-D.” said Mel. “No crew present in compromised
compartments. Sealing off.”
“Fires?”
“Small ones. Sprinklers are taking care of it.”
Hugo shook his head. The suit on the portside was moving around crazily, firing and
thrusting between the turrets, then firing again, and thrusting back, like the bitch had some kind
of grudge against those rocks. Just keep it up! And those no good rocks had already scratched up
the side of his ship. They deserved whatever punishment they got.
In front, two monster rocks tumbled close, one in front of the other, but their angle left a
hole right through the middle. “Loni, see that crease right there? I want you to take us through
that and into the gap between these ones and the next ones. That should give us enough time to
adjust for the asteroids’ courses and make another move. Ya think you can do that?”
“Of course, my captain.” Loni said without taking her eyes off the viewport.
“You know I love ya.”
“Whatever. Just sit back and let me get us killed here!”
“If it happens I want a divorce, eh? Awrighty, adjust the ship for a forty-five degree roll and
rotation, and maintain speed. When I give my mark, and want you to hit the thrusters and fire
right through that gap! Shh—” The rumble rumbled. Another hit. A hard one. A mine. There
must be more of them than he thought. “On my second mark, I want you guys to hit reverse and
counter thrusters to match our current speed, then roll us back onto our current axis. That should
be good enough to get us through without a scratch, huh? Loni, I’m gonna need you hot on that
stick. Got it?”
“Always, skip.” she answered, then yanked the sticks back. The underside thrusters threw
the nose higher along their plane, then the bow, around a MAWS-sized rock that had come out of
nowhere from the front side.
Hugo shook his brains back into place and brought the com up. “Ace? We’re go’n up the
gut. We’ll meetcha on the other side. Make sure the open’ns clear for us, eh?”
“Crystal.”
The MAWS formed a triangle formation at the nose and fired together, massive flashes of
plasma blowing chunks of rock into the view port shield as they cowered beneath their own
shields. They shot the last mine in sight, and it sent a large rock billowing away, but his gut told
him they were due for a good mine schlawackin’ on the other side of the big sumbitches.
“Adjust the artificial gravity for the roll.” The crease between the asteroids got closer, and
wider. Right ahead. There! “Quick!”
On cue, the suits scattered, and the big old broad rotated, the monitor scale tipping end over
end and the plane of their spatial traction shifted, the asteroids on the left and right now above
and below, smaller rocks streaking toward them, through them, exploding under the turret fire,
alarms and detectors sounding off, the screams and shrieks and thumps of bodies flailing around,
voices in the com, cursing marines, the loud, monster bellow of the ship just barely scratching
along the rock above dammit, then below shit, then the opening at the end right ahead, each
passing second shrinking a little more, about to close on them—

10. Valdez / 364
“Now!”
The thrusters threw the ship onward, like out of a cannon, through the opening as it closed
on the vacuum, an explosion of rock and dust, shards of jaggedness into the stern. Alarms and
red lights pulsing around the bridge, up and down the length of the ship, but it was still moving.
“Now!”
The reverse and topside thrusters fired, and the old bitch rolled back, the monitor scale
tipping back, the gravity shifting again, people floating then falling back to the deck, the scale
leveling off, and the roar of rocks striking their portside.
“Hey!” It was the goddamn Ace. The suits were coming around the far side of the asteroids,
closing on the ship. “You made it!”
“Yeah, but we ain’t gonna last for long!”
As the suits passed across the nose of the ship Hugo caught sight of the path ahead and his
heart and gut and flesh ran ice cold—thirty thousand meters of mines, an entire field, and four
massive asteroids at the end. Something set one of the mines off, and the concussion ignited a
series of bursts that sent the mines slamming into each other and exploding and slamming into
each other.
“Geez.” he murmured beneath the rumbling of the ship. “I thought we agreed on crystal
clear.”
“We kinda got tied-up back there. We’re on you now.”
“Awright, let’s rock!”
The broad’s nose guns opened fire right into the center of the field. The flashes joined the
MAW’s rifle fire, and the field turned into a massive bubble of bursting waves of air. Dozens of
shockwaves at once. The ship shook and threw him against the back of the chair.
“C’mon!”
“Sorry!” Loni shouted as she edged the portside of the ship along the side of a rock,
narrowly avoiding it. “Sorry.”
Yeow!
The ship swayed along its axis, left to right. Heads bobbed and bodies flung. Loni swore
again. They were rotating again. A rock zipped by beneath them. She leveled them off. A mine
exploded. The concussion shook them, nearly threw Mel off his feet. More bleeps! on the
monitor.
“All guns, aim forward!”
He blinked, and there on the viewing screen was an unending stream of red pulsing forward,
a pulsing shockwave that pounded the ship, boom!-boom!-boom! brought alarms. Getting
pounded. Not by mines or rocks, but air. The ship shook with each wave, threw Hugo back,
whipped his head back and forth. Holy crap! This ain’t no kinda ride! “A-A-Ace! Do sumthin’
‘bout this!”
A flash of plasma burst from starboard, and an asteroid across the field burst into chunks,
some hurdling directly into the field, running over mines and blowing up and throwing more
shards at more mines.
Loni pulled the ship back again, an underside thrust then a forward thrust, and an oblong
rock the size of the bridge passed by, then a downward thrust on their plane and it leveled off
with the field—halfway through now, almost there just a little more and home free…not exactly
but get us the hell outta this thing! The ship bucked again damn! and Hugo growled what
happened, the sound of crunching metal echoing all around them, rising from the ship’s lower
intestine.

11. Valdez / 365
The alarms went off. A mine. Another frick’n mine! Screens lit up with red windows and
diagrams of cross sections with blinking parts and words. Portside aft storage compartment. Was
anything in there? No. Whew. Awrighty! Seal it off! Don’t you dare try to stabilize pressure. All
power redirect to cannons and AAD generator. Right on skip! Loni, don’t you let up! I said hot
on that stick!
“Benjamin,” Melvin said, “I don’t think we can take many more hits like that. We’re in open
space, and there aren’t any friendly systems between us and Hass.”
“I don’t care about any uh that! I just wanna hear that we’re gonna get out of this.
Awright!”
So Mel, the only guy on the enter ship who wasn’t sweating, shut up.
Naomi hit the reverse thrust, spun her suit aside and hit another thrust, narrowly skipping by
the ship’s AAD field, but she managed to miss the rock by a few feet. Whew! She went onward
with a thrust, passing by the nose again, eyeing the other two up front firing their rifles and chaff
into the field ahead. We’re almost through we’re actually almost through this! The end of the
minefield was up there, the four massive rocks and an opening past them. That’s our shot right
there.
An asteroid the size of two MAWS slammed into another rock above her suit’s head,
ricocheted at her. One, two, three quick blasts from her plasma rifle and not even a chip came
off. Shhhheeee—! She hit the reverse thrusters, spun out of the way. “Captain! Cominatcha!”
A large, glowing stream of light burst from a wide hole in the side of the ship, slamming
into the fat part of the giant rock, blowing it into chunks of nothing. The concussion of the blast
sent her spinning and tumbling away.
“Crap!” She already had control of her suit and used the thrusters to stop herself as the stern
of the Wingling went by. Alarms. Two more rocks coming at her—she shifted and stomped
down on the thrust, bolting herself away and after the ship.
“Bright? We need you up here!” the lieutenant shouted.
She smirked. I’d better make an entrance. She rolled and dove across the underbelly of the
ship, then came over the top and jetted close to the noise, watching the other two moving up
ahead, firing their rifles at the last of the mines. She matched her speed with the ship, and kept
her suit just above the nose. He’s gotta like that little move. “Heya!”
“Stop playing around!” said the lieutenant. “Help us take these things out!”
Guess not.
Naddy’s suit didn’t even turn to look at her.
“Hey, I’m just—”
“I don’t give a damn what you’re doing! Are you a child? We have to keep the ship alive!
Now get the fuck over here!”
But I practically saved the ship already sheesh.
She hit the thrust and caught up to them. By that time, the minefield was past, and they were
closing on to the final stretch of rocks.
Finally she frick’n moved! Hugo looked into the back of Loni’s head. She mumbled curses
to herself. He thought he heard bitch in there somewhere. He sniffed and scratched his nose, then
it was time. “Everyone, on yer toes! We’re gonna have to do a little finessing in order to get

12. Valdez / 366
through that. Once we hit the other side, we’re outta this. Awright? Then let’s do it!”
The MAWS stayed ahead this time, falling into a single column, just the kind of path marker
he liked. Loni rolled them and dipped along the axis, pushing their gravity behind them, aiming
at the asteroid to port and into the dark abyss in its center. She hit the main thrusters and shot the
ship directly through the teethy stalactites of the cave, blowing them out and plowing the ship
through to the other side.
Someone below hailed, “I scanned the next asteroids. It looks like there’s another hole in the
middle one on the right side. It reaches all the way through.”
Ahead were three more monsters, five thousand meters ahead, just about the same size,
tumbling next to each other. No time to think about it. Even less time to react. Loni did it—she
brought the ship up on its plane and rotated again. The gravity shifted, then settled. The thrust
forward brought the ship past a group of smaller bastards and up to the big ones. Then she threw
herself at the console, fell over it, forcing the ship on a downward plane, rotating again and
shifted their view to the asteroid’s former underside. The nose was aimed directly at the cave
opening now, and they dove straight into it. Darkness. Complete darkness. The specks of stars
swallowed up. Endless, it seemed. It could’ve been. They were dead and this was nothingness.
His chest pounded. Thumpitty thump!-Thumpitty thump!-Thumpitty thump! The ship growled. A
metallic cry. Near miss. There, the stars are—the ship burst through.
“Nice move, Loni!” Hugo said. He just about swallowed his adam’s apple. “Now don’t ever
do that one again.”
Two more. They tumbled end over end at them, and another thrust brought them directly on
them oh shhh—! The nose dropped underneath the long end of the rock and rolled against the
axis, moving more toward the far rock, moving away from the tumble of—it was right there. The
long end, coming down over the view port. Downward thrust, then another roll, put the first rock
beneath them. Screams and gasps across the entire bridge. He might’ve cursed. Voices on the
com. Watch it! Incoming! Crap!—alerts and bleeping—I’m hit! That came out of nowhere!
Spatial traction dropping…son of a—! But not dead. Hugo looked. One of the suits moved over
and took hold of the damaged one and broke into the space between the two asteroids, and
through to the opening on the other side. The old broad followed them there, and out of the field.
“Nice fly’n.” Hugo said, and patted Loni’s shoulder once he was up out of his chair. His legs
were about to give out so he went back and sat down.
Across the bridge, someone said, “We got two breaches in the hull, but nothing major.
Stabilizing pressure and oxygen now. Recommend complete seal-off of Storage Bay C and
Company Quarters F until repairs are made. No one was in the areas when the hits came. But we
got some injuries.”
Hugo nodded. His ship was bleeding. Again. But she was a strong ol’ bitch. Whoever I
needa thank for this you got it. He let himself breathe again, and when his breath was back, he
went to the com. “Awright, Ace,” he said, “Bring ‘em in.”
Once the battle with the asteroid field was over and Ada’s heart no longer threatened to
pound through her rib cage—some time the next day—she was able to take Aurora for a walk,
heading back to the lounge. On the way, she heard the damage to the ship’s hull was
considerable. It would not prevent them from continuing on to Hass, but the repairs would, once
again, be the crew’s central occupation for a couple weeks, given they were still alive after their
next stop. She smirked to hear about Davies chewing out Naomi for playing games when they

13. Valdez / 367
were trying to protect the ship—she supposedly got hit by debris and her suit lost an arm. Her
hair stood up when she had first heard it, and she quickly asked if the girl was okay, but after
hearing it and letting it soak in a few more minutes, a smirk grew. Naomi was grounded from
flying until she could find a way to repair her suit, which did not sound momentarily possible.
So she kept a slight grin beneath her face as she scooted closer to Aurora once they got to
the lounge and took their bench closest to the edge of the starboard observation port. The trees
above them moved calmly in the wind blowing from the overhead vents, and it kissed her face as
he brought her head back and let a long, exaggerated breath out.
“Are you tired, Ada?” asked Aurora.
“No.” Associating actions with feelings now. “I’m relaxed. Aren’t you?”
“I think…yes.”
“But you feel relaxed, don’t you?”
“I think I do. If this is what it is.”
You think a lot don’t you?
A shuffled sound drew her attention back; Ada turned and saw someone great just when we
had some privacy walking in. It was a man, hands tucked in his pockets, dressed in a pair of
cargo pants and a polo shirt, a familiar one. It was Eliot. He must have decided to go on his walk
early. He had his head down, on the other side of the bushes and trees where he could not see
them. Should I? She watched. He just walked. Hmmm…
“Hey there!” Ada called without realizing it. Aurora whispered something and squirmed
around. When she looked back, the girl was standing up, hands behind her back.
Eliot looked up and quickly found them. He waved. “Oh. Hey, you guys. I-I usually come
around later…did you need me to leave?”
“Oh, no!” Ada shook her head. “Don’t even mind us—” please do “—we’re just talking.”
“Alright, sounds good. Where’s Albert?”
“He went off with Melvin to go over the landing details. It’s just us this time.” So stop by
and say hi? She giggled inwardly. Her eyes peeked back at Aurora, who was staring straight
across at their new friend.
“I see. Alright, I’ll just be, uh, around.” He waved again and went off along the far side,
across the lawn and behind the other trees and bushes.
“Ada,” Aurora said, a whisper, “I’m not…I don’t understand other people.”
“It’s fine.” Ada got up and went to the girl never bothered being around anyone else why
him? who feigned a step back until she put a hand on her shoulder. “Be yourself. You can do
that, right?”
“Who is that?”
“What?”
“Who am I?”
Ada stared at the girl, without a good enough response. She waited for the moment to pass.
“Most of us don’t know who we are…let’s start your exercises. When you’re done,” she peeked
across the way, “We’ll sit and talk about it.”
Aurora nodded, then led Ada to the grass path around the other side of the bushes. She tried
to get a good look over again, but the shrubbery across the opposite oblong lawn blocked any
view of the other compartment dweller—but he was not walking around anywhere. He must
have taken a seat on the bench back there…she stepped aside while Aurora started her
cardiovascular work.
She watched hard to believe and smiled just a month ago you could hardly give one-word

14. Valdez / 368
answers her feet shuffled out of her way now you’re doing her stretches, lunges, sit-ups and
push-ups somehow. Amazing. Then Ada led her in tai chi forms just taught her five days ago
stepping and moving her arms along, up and around, lunging forward and rotating on the balls of
her feet she’s already better than me how does she learn so fast? She shifted her weight, first
back, then went forward, knees bent, toes brushing along the tips of the grass blades, rotating on
her hips, hands out, palms up and down, then leg out, knee bent, straightening, hands always
moving, gliding along the air. Beautiful. It’s perfect. Hands up and out. One leg up, hovering
there, then stretching back, neck arched straight up, the neck of a swan.
“How does this feel?” Ada asked.
“It’s…” She rotated away, hands flowing around in circles, head perfectly still, facing the
other side. “I feel—”
“It feels good, doesn’t it? On the inside.”
“Yes.”
Her voice was still flat, still a mask to what her words really meant, but that had to change
sometime. When she gained her voice, that was going to be the day she would no longer need a
s—
“Strange, isn’t it?” said Ada, both feet planted in the grass, one knee bent, her hands, their
open palms, guiding her body forward, then back, and forward.
“Do you mean this feeling?”
“The one inside.” Spread her arms out, bringing her leg up and extending it all the way. “It’s
deep inside, isn’t it?”
Aurora’s leg extended straight up, legs separated as far as they would, foot to the tree
branches. “Yes.”
So she felt it, but had no idea what it was. It was just a feeling, something deep inside,
strange and unknown. Being at peace? Such things were scary, not that Ada expected to see any
fear on the young woman’s face because of it. That which she did not understand she found
curious, and this would be no exception—she had no reason to think it was a bad thing. Ada tried
to catch a glimpse of the girl’s features as she brought her body around, palms out, stretching
forward, ready to realign herself. Nothing. No sign of fear. No sign of uncertainty. Nothing. Of
course she doesn’t understand the feelings enough to express them that feeling…it might be
anything.
And yet, there was still that thing about Aurora that she had expressed so completely, equal
parts shock and fear, that no one else knew about. Except herself, and…she looked over as her
palms came together, and her body straightened, peering into the shrubbery across the way at
whatever they were hiding. He saw it. He knows. She had not asked him about it yet, and neither
had he, but she knew, in her chest she knew, that he knew. He was there, and he had seen that
light coming out of Aurora maybe that’s why he’s always looking that could be it! Her eyes went
back to the girl. If those feelings are those and they aren’t reciprocated…she tried to visualize
what might happen, but it was too hard to imagine. Do I even dare think it—no. I won’t. There’s
no reason because nothing will happen. Not even Albert knew about it. She had not told him,
and did not plan to. If something happened and if he saw it himself, then so be it. There was no
reason to worry him, and no reason to worry herself. I can handle it. Whatever it is. Once I have
some answers I’ll know what to do and I’ll help Aurora understand and we won’t have to run
anymore we can be happy we can I’ll save h—she met Aurora’s blank stare, those endless eyes
piercing through her. Then, just as Ada was gathering the strength to pull away, Aurora looked
over, across the compartment to the shrubs and trees. To Eliot, though he had not come out of

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hiding yet.
“Did you want to go sit down over there?” Ada asked.
The girl’s gaze jolted back. “I told you, I don’t understand other people yet. They…” She
stared off into space somewhere, some kind of imaginary point where the word she sought
waited for her to reach out and take it with her lips.
“What is it?” Ada asked. “What’s wrong?”
Aurora shook her head. “They look at me. They look at me like I’m not like them. I’m
different.”
“Does that make you angry? Or sad?” Ada took the girl’s hands.
“No. I don’t know. It’s strange. Inside.”
“Is it the same—” Ada’s eyes kept darting back to the bushes he’s right there “—as the other
feeling inside?”
“No. The other one feels strange, but I think…” she huffed what was that? “I think it’s okay.
I think…like it. But I don’t like this one.”
“It makes you feel bad.” Ada peeked over. Nothing still. She felt herself drawing further and
farther away. Then she realized she was indeed leading the girl back to their own bench, so far
from the other side, hidden behind its own leaves and branches.
“I think so.” said Aurora, as they lowered onto the bench again.
“Why is that?”
“I…I don’t like being called different. I, I don’t think. I don’t like being different at all.”
“But we’re all different.”
“I’m more different.”
Ada adjusted herself, fighting a grin. Am I actually going to get her to talk—“You haven’t
spoken about it yet.”
“I know.”
“Are you talking about that now?”
The girl turned to the observation port. Her lips stayed together.
“Aurora,” Ada took both the girl’s hands now, “Listen, everyone is different. We’re only
similar insofar as we experience the same kinds of feelings and we share similar interests, things
that deal with the external world. But inside, deep inside, we’re nothing alike. Albert is nothing
like me. I’m nothing like you. You’re nothing like…uh, Eliot, and he’s nothing like Melvin, you
see? We’re all individuals, and that’s a good thing. How boring would life be if everyone was
exactly like you, or me? If everyone was exactly the same, we would never experience anything
new. I’ve told you the saying, opposites attract? It’s for a good reason. Oftentimes, people are
attracted to what they aren’t. It’s a kind of unknown quality that feels exciting.”
“That’s what it feels like?”
“Uh-huh. It’s really hard to describe, but you’ll know it when you feel it. The first time,
though, that’s when it really hits you hard.”
“It does?”
“Oh, yes! The first time you feel it, it’s the greatest possible thing. Or at least you’ll think so
when it happens.”
“That means there’s an opposite out there for me.”
“Quite possibly. I believe it.”
“I—I want to.”
Ada reached out and softly placed a finger under the girl’s chin and turned her face toward
hers. “Then what’s wrong? It’s just me here. No one else is listening. Whatever it is, you don’t

16. Valdez / 370
have to ashamed. Ever.”
“Why am I different like this? I makes me feel strange.”
“What’s wrong with who you are?”
“I don’t know. It’s a feeling, but I don’t understand. Maybe I like it, and I just don’t realize
it because I don’t understand…”
“Aurora, what is it—?”
“You tell me I’m supposed to feel happy, and sad, and scared, and relaxed, but I don’t feel
anything. I, I might feel happy at times, but…but everything else is strange. You say it’s normal
to feel all those things and I don’t, so I’m not normal. Then I feel something, deep in me, trying
to come out, but it always sinks back inside. And when I think I am beginning to understand
what it is I feel, it…it happened. You saw it. It happened, and it’s different. Too different. That’s
how they look at me. That makes me feel…something. I don’t know. I don’t understand who I
am.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I did was impossible. Wasn’t it?”
“Yes. But you’re dif—special.” Damn it! “You’re special.”
“Why do people look at me like that? I don’t understand how to feel that happy, but I’ve
seen you happy. They are not happy.”
“Honey, don’t say that. Are you afraid people won’t like you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Look at yourself. Believe me, you don’t have a thing to worry about. You can trust me on
that one.”
“They saw me. They’re afraid of me.”
“But sweetie, no one saw you.”
Aurora’s face, though already calm—unable to express the obvious frustration she was
experiencing—seemed to relax. Or perhaps Ada only wanted her to.
“No one?”
Ada shook her head.
“Not—” Aurora looked back quickly, only moving her head, toward the other side of the
lounge.
“No.” If he did he knows to keep his mouth shut. “Only me. As far as I know. But no one’s
brought it up to me.”
“But who am I?”
Ada swallowed. Rejection that’s what it is she’s starting to understand rejection that’s fear
she’s afraid of being alone she doesn’t want to be alone because she hasn’t found herself yet and
she doesn’t understand she’s afraid to be lost Albert’s just going to love this. “No one’s afraid of
you. And I think it was very interesting. Seeing that makes me want to know more about you,
even more than before, if you can believe that. You’re my best friend, Aurora, but there are still a
lot of things we don’t know about each other. That was just one thing I didn’t know about you.
I’m going to tell you something you didn’t know about me. That way we’ll be even, and next
time maybe you can share something with me.”
“Yes.”
“You know Dr. Nash?” she said why am I saying this?
“Albert.”
“Yes…Albert and I used to be together…in love…before. You know that already.” Ada
squirmed. “This was a while ago, when I first graduated from the academy back on Korivo. This

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is something we don’t—actually, I’ve never told anyone. You’re the first. The only other people
who knew about us are somewhere else. They probably don’t even remember us. And Albert and
I, I guess we just ignore it.”
“You two were in love…you felt it inside?”
Ada associating feelings nodded. “We were very much in love. But like all things, it came to
an end.”
“So love is difficult…?”
“Yes, and painful.” Ada said before stopping herself. She huffed a smile and rubbed the
girl’s arm. “I’m sorry, I’m probably scaring you. What I’m saying is, things are always going to
be hard. Life is a constant struggle, and there are going to be many disappointments and failures.
Maybe even more than not. But that makes the good things that happen feel that much better. It
lets us know what the good truly is.” She huffed again. “I think I’m still mad.”
“About what?”
“Myself, for wanting so many things and convincing myself that I had them. I broke
someone’s heart, Aurora. And I’m mad at myself because I don’t feel bad about it.”
“Why?”
Ada smiled even wider now. “I don’t know.”
“It makes you sad?”
“No. Not sad. Only mad at myself…but you can’t change the past. What matters is what you
do here and now. So if you have the opportunity to do what you think is right, take it.”
They were silent for a short while until Aurora asked, “Why do you choose to ignore the
past?”
“That’s just the way people are. We hide from our deepest fears because we’re afraid of
failing. We’re afraid that we might not get what we want. It’s…it’s human nature.” Ada sighed.
“If you’re ever afraid of anything, let me know. I’ll help you fight it.”
Aurora turned back to the stars. “I’m not afraid.”
Hunched over the other side of the table, Naomi was just about the most miserable thing
Nadine had seen in, in…forever maybe. There were at least fifteen other people in the galley, and
this display of misery was bringing every single person down with it, and Nadine was the only
other person at the booth. Her slumped friend drank her drink and kept her head down, barely
even looking at the others who went by their table, and looked up at her even less. This went on
for about ten minutes, and Nadine had had just about enough.
“I’ve had just about enough of this.” she said.
Naomi’s eyes drifted her way, then up. The glint in her eyes, not from the lights overhead
but from that burning, guilty rage that always came out whenever she was doing or thinking
about doing one of those things that Nadine always had to get her in check for. And from
beneath her crossed arms came the muffled, “What am I doing wrong now?”
“Are you thinking about what I think you’re thinking about?” Nadine’s eyebrow shot up.
“I don’t know. What’re you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking about you thinking about the lieutenant grounding you, and I think you’re
thinking about how much everyone else is at fault for that.”
“Well, if he wasn’t such a big—” Naomi stopped as she saw her look, and lowered back
down. “Forget it.”
“You’re so obvious! You messed up, and just because you’re being punished for it, you have

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to make everyone else’s lives a nightmare. Girl, you have got to grow up. Sometimes when
people do something stupid, it’s actually they’re own fault!”
Naomi’s hand came out, “I know. I know! I’m just upset, alright?”
“R-Really?” Nadine set her drink down. Is this actually happening? She’s going to fess up
for—wait what the heck’s so different about this time?
Her miserable friend nodded. “I lost an arm. Now if something happens and the ship needs
us I can’t do a damn thing! What the fuck, I’m useless. Just because I was being me.”
“It’s just a dumb mistake.”
Naomi shook her head as it lowered back into her folded arms on the tabletop.
“Yes!” Nadine said. “The lieutenant will let you out again, it’s just punishment. Once we get
to a docking colony, probably in neutral space somewhere, we can trade for some stolen MAWS
parts and get your suit fixed. Just give it a little time.”
“I know, I know.”
“Then why are you so down? You think there’s going to be trouble in Hass?”
“It is a Soran-controlled system. And we are at war with them now. Pshht! I wonder why.”
“Do you honestly think Dr. Ueda is responsible for every action the Soran take? Don’t you
think they have just a little control over what they do?”
“Whatever.”
Nadine smiled that’s the bitch I’m used to. “Even if we do run into trouble, there’s no point
in worry about it if there’s nothing we can do, right?”
“I know,” Naomi waved a hand, and sat back against the booth. Her head hung to one side,
staring into the bulkhead. “I’m not worried.”
“Then what is it?”
“I lost an arm.”
“Yeah, and we’re going to get it fixed.”
“No. I lost an arm…what if I’d been somewhere else? What if I’d died?”
Oh. Nadine leaned forward. “You’re fine.”
“But what if!” A tear fell down the side of Naomi’s face. She never turned away from the
wall. “I could’ve died. I might’ve died. I-I can’t die. I can’t let them down, Naddy. I can’t! If I
do, I-I’ll, I’ll, I’ll die! ”
Nadine reached across, touched the back of her friend’s hand, but Naomi snapped away.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”
“Of course you didn’t.” Her teeth ground. “They weren’t your family.” She snarled behind
quivering lips. “It’s my problem.”
“I’m here to help you, though.” Odd, Nadine had not seen her so, so, so self-reflexive for a
long time. “Naomi, I’m your best friend!”
“I won’t let them down. I swear to you, Naddy, I’ll never do that. I’m going to be the best
pilot and going to prove to them that I didn’t. And I won’t let someone like the Soran or Ada
Ueda get in my way.”