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“The planet can be reached in about nine years.” The man held up a hand when the crowd erupted into excited talking. “Please! We have very little time. I’ll turn over the description of the planet to the young man who found it. Arthur?”

Waverly cried out with delight, and Seth lifted his head up for a moment, long enough to see Arthur Dietrich taking the microphone from the man.

“Um,” Arthur faltered, and there was an uncomfortably long pause, but then Arthur said in his characteristic brainy monotone, “The planet wasn’t charted by the mission designers.”

“Why not?” called a man from the back. He was immediately hushed by a dozen annoyed people.

“The nebula we just crossed shielded the star system from Earth’s telescopes. All they could tell was that it was a likely candidate, which is why I started studying it.” Seth heard the rustling of papers through the microphone. He looked at Waverly’s face. There was a light in her eyes he hadn’t seen in months, and she smiled with such hope and eagerness, he wished he could freeze this moment in time.

“The planet,” Arthur went on, “is about fifteen percent smaller than Earth, and its day is 22.64 hours long. The atmosphere has a composition similar to that of Earth, though the carbon dioxide is quite a bit higher. Once we begin planting crops and establishing ecosystems, that level should drop.”

He cleared his throat again, and Seth smiled at his extreme nervousness. Arthur had never been one for public speaking, and Seth didn’t blame him. The only thing more terrifying than giving a speech was going on a space walk. Seth lifted his head long enough to steal a glance, and he saw Gunther Dietrich, Arthur’s dad, standing behind his son, beaming with pride.

“The planet has three moons,” Arthur went on, “and about sixty percent of it seems to be covered with water. There are polar caps, but they are small and may be subject to seasonal fluctuations.”

“Is there freshwater?” a woman called from the front of the crowd.

Arthur paused uncomfortably. “We can see evidence of rainfall. The oceans may be full of salts and minerals. That will take further study.”

“Is there life?” asked an old woman in front.

Another pause. “There must be plant life, since the atmosphere contains oxygen. We see no evidence of large fauna.”

“Is there an ozone layer?” a man called from the back.

“We’re still waiting on that data.”

“What’s the weather like?”

“Weather?” Arthur asked, unfamiliar with the term. For some reason, the adults all laughed, along with the man who’d asked the question.

“Are there harsh storms?” the man clarified. “Winds? Is it cold?”

“Right. I’ve only been observing the planet for a few weeks,” Arthur said. “So far the average temperature in the temperate zone is around sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit, which is around eighteen degrees Celsius, if you prefer metric. There are frequent spiraling atmospheric disturbances that begin over the oceans. The largest one I’ve seen covered about…” There was a rustling of paper. “That storm covered about five percent of the planet’s surface. When it hit land, it diminished.”

“Continents?” called a woman.

“Difficult to say, actually,” Arthur said. “I’ve counted five large landmasses, but there are lots of large islands that cluster around each continent, which can make it difficult to tell where one continent begins and the other ends.”

“Does it have a stable orbit?”

“That’s on the Goldilocks Contingency Checklist,” Arthur said. “I wouldn’t have kept studying the planet if I’d seen any possibility of an unreliable orbit.”

“Have you named it yet?” called a squeaky little girl’s voice.

The whole crowd laughed, but Arthur was kind enough to take her question seriously. “The name should be determined by democratic process.”

Waverly raised her hand to ask a question. “What if we change course only to find out a year from now that the planet can’t support life?”

This question silenced the room completely. Seth raised his head to look at the stage and saw that Arthur was handing the microphone over to Kieran Alden. Kieran looked bad. He was bent over, obviously in pain, sweating and pale. Seth glanced at Waverly, who had lowered her eyebrows with worry.

“That’s the most important question anyone has asked,” Kieran said. Seth thought everyone in the crowd must be holding their breath. “This ship is stable for now, but it suffered a major catastrophe. Chris and his crew think that it’s worthy enough for a journey of up to twelve years…” The crowd erupted into a wave of whispers, and Kieran raised his voice, though the strain of doing so was obvious. “But that’s with constant vigilance and maintenance. In other words”—he paused, and people quieted down—“this could be a doomed mission.”

“So if we come with you, we could die,” said a woman.

“We can’t make any guarantees,” Chris said as he took the microphone from Kieran, who sat back down, looking exhausted. “The heat from the explosion may have denatured some of the metals in the underlying girders. This ship definitely won’t make New Earth.”

The crowd accepted this with a dense, worrying stillness.

“This is why we wanted to give you a choice,” Chris went on. “All of you have had a hard time on the New Horizon. Anne Mather is gone, but there’s no telling what the command structure is going to be. I have Selma Walton here to report on what the church elders have been discussing since the Pastor’s death.”

Seth was glad to see Selma again. Even from here he heard the jingle of the bangles she wore on her arm. “Thank you,” she said. “As of now, Dr. Carver plans to place his adopted son, Jared Carver, in the Captain’s chair.”

“That thug!” a woman called angrily from the middle of the crowd.

“I have been a loud critic of Jared Carver from the beginning,” Selma said, “but I can tell you the rest of the elders tend to go along with the doctor. No one knows what will happen, but if any of you thought that Anne Mather’s methods were violent, I can’t imagine what life would be like under Jared Carver.”

“Damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” a man muttered.

“Now,” Selma said and waited for the crowd’s grumbling to diminish, “I’m afraid that we can only give you an hour or so to make this decision. Dr. Carver does not want to let go of this vessel. Our best chance to avoid bloodshed is to run before they can regroup.”

Seth looked at the faces around him, many of them crew members from the New Horizon. They looked scared and worried as they processed what Selma had told them, but they also looked determined and very brave.
Good people,
he thought.
They’re going to make it.

Selma put her hand on Chris’s shoulder, and he smiled. He had a glint of mischief in his eyes that Seth liked. “Chris is going to take anyone who wants on a very quick tour of the Empyrean to look at repairs and to see the surviving ag and eco bays. And of course Arthur Dietrich, Kieran Alden, and I will be up here to answer any questions.”

The crowd moved forward, leaving Seth and Waverly a little more space. Seth could hear Kieran’s voice rising above the crowd as he tried to answer questions, but Seth was too tired to pay attention. Besides, he didn’t need to know any more.

“We’re going to the planet, right?” Seth said to Waverly, stroking her fingers with his thumb.

“Hell, yes,” she said.

They smiled at each other. She’d become the vibrant, beautiful girl he remembered from months before, the girl he’d only been able to watch from afar as she gave this ebullient smile to someone else. Now the smile was for him.

He lay back, letting himself drift off for a while, his consciousness floating on top of the murmurs from the crowd. He felt at peace.
If I die now, I’ll go happy,
he told himself.

“Oh my God,” someone said right next to him. He knew that voice.

“Maya!” he cried out. He tried to sit up, but he felt as though a boulder were holding him down. The steroids Dr. Jansen had given him were already wearing off. Maya smiled hugely. “What happened to you?” Seth asked her.

“I’ve been in the brig,” she said angrily. “They were keeping me there to manipulate Anthony.” She extended a hand to Waverly. “I’m Maya Draperton.”

“How do you two…,” Waverly asked, taken aback, and Seth realized Waverly knew next to nothing of what had happened to him for the last several weeks.

“Maya took me in when I first got to the New Horizon,” he explained.

“Your arm!” Maya cried out. His stump had slipped out from under his blanket. “My God! What
happened
?”

Seth had to shake his head. He couldn’t talk anymore. Waverly rushed to explain, “He got blood poisoning.”

“But you’re going to be okay?” Maya asked, looking between Waverly and Seth.

“Yes,” Waverly said firmly. “Are you staying on board?”

“Oh yes. You?”

“Definitely.” Waverly looked at Maya’s swollen belly, but she didn’t say anything about it.

“I guess I’ll see you both around,” Maya said as she rubbed Seth’s good shoulder. “I’ll come find you in the infirmary.”

Waverly looked around worriedly. “Have you seen Felicity?”

Seth could only shake his head.

Suddenly a loud
ping
sounded over the speakers as though a microphone had been dropped. With a shaky voice, Selma cried out, “Anthony? Get up here now!”

Seth caught a glimpse of Anthony, the doctor who had treated him on the New Horizon, as he ran onto the stage and bent to someone sitting in a chair. Seth craned his neck, but he had to lie back down right away. “What’s happening?” he asked Waverly.

“It’s Kieran,” she said, her eyes wide with fear.

Anthony called out, “I need to get him to the infirmary!”

The crowd divided as the man and three other people started to carry Kieran off the stage, but then Arthur rushed to whisper into the doctor’s ear. Anthony looked outraged. “
What?
”

Seth tried, but he couldn’t hear what Arthur was saying. “Go!” Seth said, pushing Waverly’s hand away. “Find out what’s going on.”

Waverly fought her way through the crowd and pulled on Arthur’s shirt, but the boy shook her off, his hands tearing through his hair. Then suddenly Anthony was pushing through the crowd, coming Seth’s way. “I need that shuttle!” he yelled. “Everyone clear away.”

Waverly came back to Seth, looking ashen. “There’s no infirmary here,” she said disbelievingly. “Arthur and Sarek tore it down.”

“
Why?
”

“I don’t know!”

“So…” Seth shook his head, uncomprehending.

“They have to take Kieran to the New Horizon.”

“But…” Seth caught a glimpse of Kieran’s face as Anthony and two other people carried him past. His skin looked green, and his eyes rolled in his head. Kieran’s mother stood to the side, her face pale as she stared with childlike dread at her son.

“Anthony!” Seth saw Maya rushing past to pull on Anthony’s arm. “You’re not leaving!”

“He’s going to die, Maya!” Anthony said as he backed up the shuttle ramp, Kieran’s ankles in his hands. “I need an operating room!”

“No!” Maya stamped her foot.

“I can’t just let him—” Anthony started to say.

“I’ll go.” Dr. Jansen stepped forward. “Anthony, you stay.”

Maya and Anthony looked at her, their faces long. “Miriam, we can’t ask you to—”

“You didn’t.” She jogged up the ramp and shouldered Anthony out of her way, taking hold of Kieran’s ankles.

“Miriam!” Selma rushed to Dr. Jansen. “What are you doing?”

“He needs a doctor to survive the journey,” Miriam said, but she looked so sad.

“But our plans!” Selma lifted a hand.

The two women looked long at each other, then Selma stroked the back of her finger along Dr. Jansen’s cheekbone.

“Please.” The word was spoken small-voiced by Kieran’s mother.

Dr. Jansen broke her gaze from Selma’s and started dragging Kieran up the ramp, shouting to the two men helping her, “Strap him here!”

Anthony knelt on the floor to secure Kieran, and the two traded medical terms, sounding to Seth as though they were speaking some foreign language.

Somehow a pilot was quickly found who wanted to go back to the New Horizon, along with a few other people who had already decided not to stay. At the last moment, Selma cried, “Wait!” and ran up the ramp as it started to close. Through the gap Seth could see Selma wrap her arms around Kieran’s doctor and kiss her. The shuttle ramp closed, and Seth felt himself being pushed away as the engines fired and the ship lifted off the floor to ease into the giant air lock.

The air-lock doors closed behind it.

And that was it. Kieran Alden was gone.

A falling sensation took hold of Seth, and when he gasped, he realized his lungs had filled with fluid again. The steroids had worn off already, and Dr. Jansen had told him another dose would be too risky.

“I won’t let them leave him,” Waverly said under her breath, and she rushed from Seth’s side, headed out of the shuttle bay.

Wait,
he wanted to call after her, but he didn’t have the strength.

Anthony came to his side and put a cool palm against his forehead. “Miriam told me your condition.”

“Wave—” Seth said. He was in a panic, and he tried to get up.
I can’t die without her. I can’t do this alone.
“Please…”

“You’re not there yet, buddy,” Anthony said, his fingertips on Seth’s pulse. “You’ve got some time. We’ll get her back before…” He stopped there, letting Seth understand his meaning.
One breath at a time,
Seth thought and lay his head back on his pillow.
One breath, and another, and another …

GOOD-BYES

“We’re not leaving him!” Waverly screamed as she entered Central Command. Sarek Hassan and his father were alone there, huddled over a com screen, staring at it with deep concern.

“Two shuttles,” Sarek said.

“Probably a lot of men,” his father muttered and put a hand on his son’s shoulder.

“They’re coming,” Sarek said to Waverly.

“Who?” Waverly asked, stepping forward.

“Is that Waverly Marshall?” A hateful voice filled the room, and she rushed to Sarek’s side. Dr. Carver sneered at her from Sarek’s com screen. “Did you think we’d just let you go?”