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"Corins, exasperated, "even if I had the power to do anything about your situation, I wouldn’t, not now There are reasons behind everything we do Real, honest security risks we’re trying to avoid The regulations are there to protect you asthe schools? Li down the HV broadcasts?"
"We didn’t do that," replies Jubilee quickly "Avon’s atnals"
"But you’re the ones who changed all the access codes to TerraDyn’s retransnal at all noe’re totally cut off If you could just give us that--not even newscasts But movies, documentaries, anybeyond this life to show our children"
Her hand tightens around the grip of her gun "Do you kno they organized on Verona ten years ago, Cormac? It was clever They used a kids’ HV show, broadcast across the galaxy Coded ical creatures"
"I don’t even knohere Verona is," I retort "And we’re paying for it here, a decade later, light-years away We have no sun, no stars, no food or medicine, no power or entertain any better They’ve swatted a fly with a sledgehammer"
"A fly?" She’s fierce, every line of her tense, holding herself in check with an effort "That’s what you call the largest rebellion in the last century? They chose the slums of Verona, where people were uns, dirty bo cah Sierra were up in flames before anybody knehat had happened Those the rebels didn’t kill, the looters and raiders did Thousands Tens of thousands of people--they can’t sing or tell stories at all now"
I feel like so le city that size, let alone half a dozen of them on fire
She waits for ht shake of her head "There are reasons behind every rule, whether you see them or not Perhaps some of them are too harsh--that’s not my call to make But if you could spare one child the loss of her parents by swearing an oath, by upholding the law no matter what it took…" She ss "Wouldn’t you?"
To hear a trodaire speaking of justice, of protecting people--itSean would say she was blind Watching her in the ht from the , I don’t knohat I would say, except that there’s a pain in her words as deep as ours She’s silent, and as I watch, her features are returning to that neutral co But an awful certainty is starting to solidify in hts "Where are you from, Jubilee? Your homeworld?"
She takes a while to answer, and when she does, her voice is oddly detached "I’rew up in a city called Noveround noises of the base: shuttles taking off and landing in the distance, peoplefro to understand this soldier a little, the fierceness there, the rage underneath that stony exterior My sister would have loved her
Well, no, I correctup as an example to the other trodairí
But if Jubilee had been born one of us, Orla would’ve been her best friend
I glance once htstand I don’t even have a picture of h, her dark braid over her shoulder Little things, like the way she tied her boots; and big, horrible things, like the look on her face when she said good-bye to h It won’t ever be enough
Jubilee’s watching me as the silence stretches out between us, until finally she breaks it "I didn’t tell the about you" She sounds halfway queasy about it, irritated and confused, but I believe her
I’htharder to believe that Jubilee’s the ene truce "Why didn’t you?"
Her eyes dart toward limmer of the lamp outside reflected there before she looks away sharply "I don’t know" Her fingers twist around the sheets, betraying the conflict behind her calht not be insurgents laying booby traps on our patrol routes Because if you were arrested, maybe more of them would start"
I want to put rip My eloquence fails eness of this, sitting on a soldier’s bed in theI could touch her But I just look at her hand, fixingh, my voice is steady when I speak "That’s what scaresill happen here afterward" Her hand tightens, and I breathe out The words come from somewhere deep and hidden--not even Sean has heard them before "And I think I will die, sooner than I want to"