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He lifts his eyebrows, the expression taking away sorimness about his face There’s a curious warmth to his features when he lets therief and denial Then he speaks, and ruins it

"Just try to stay on your feet Do you think you can hness?"

Much better "Don’t patronize me," I snap

"Only an idiot would patronize you, Miss LaRoux" The warain, and he stands up in one s the forest around us as though he recognizes so in it He’s at home here He can read this place like I read the tiny shifts in a crowd, the back-and-forth of couples and conversation, society executing its slow revolutions around me like the stars in the heavens Known Charted Fa of this To ray, every tree like the next, nothing of sense to be gleaned from them I’ve been in nature before, but then, all it took was the flick of a switch to change the holographic projector froarden terraces to a sunny, songbird-filled forest It s with flowers The earth was rich and uniforh to sleep on

When I was littleme to that forest for picnics I’d pretend the forest with its cathedral canopy washi the inconsequential secrets ofwithout hesitation As the light waned I’d pretend to fall asleep in his lap, because then he’d carry me home in his arms

But this forest is thick and alien and full of shadows, and the ground has rocks in it, and when I try to use a nearby tree for support, its bark scratches htmare

And yet the major nods to himself, like he’s read the next step froe of jealousy runs throughme up

"I don’t kno much battery power the pod has," he says, "so we’ll use as little as possible I’ll get you a bed set up in there and we’ll keep the lights off, and toure out if there’s any chance at all we’re sending a signal for rescue ships to read"

He’s still talking, taking so little notice ofto hi stock, having so some rest I promise you the pod is only a short distance away Can you stand?"

I push myself onto my knees Now that we’ve stopped, my ankles have stiffened, and I’ out a sob I’ve sprained an ankle or two on the dance floor while s was fine, but it was never like this Then, all I had to do was summon a medic and the discomfort melted away

I swat his hand ahen he extends it

"Of course I can stand" Pain ry His expression locks down tight, and he turns to lead the way back

He’s true to his word, and in only a few h the trees From this direction I can’t see the iroove in the earth carved by the pod as it rolled and skidded to where it rests I see only trees, hear only inco Even the stench of scorched plastene and corroded reen and wet and earth

I drag forth enough energy to look up Not a single rescue ship in sight--not even a shuttle or a plane from a colony The sky is empty but for a pale sliver ofthe trees Shading ht that should indicate that we’re broadcasting our signal to the rescue ships There’s only the broad expanse of pitted, twisted metal So much of the pod is wrecked--how did we survive?

How could anyone else? But I push that thought down, lock it away This will all be over in a matter of hours--a ship as fao doithout setting off a thousand alaralaxy

The major has continued on into the pod without a word, but he is only a few steps away, and I cannot let rieve yet

I cannot think of Anna, and her face as she ept on down the corridor by the panicked crowd, stripped suddenly of its coy confidence Maybe she got into a pod Maybe there was a ot hers free in tiht, no beacon, nothing to tell our rescuers where to look for us My father will come for me, no matter what He’ll move heaven and earth and space itself to find ain, never have to feel so incapable

When I step over the lip of the doorway into the pod, theone of his supply checks Like he thinks he can so inventory

How can he just stand there, hunting through that stupid bag? I want to shake hi, that nothing’s going to have ically appeared inside it to put the Icarus back into the sky where she belongs

"Well?" I e to sound civil "You always knohat the next step is--what now?"