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“And now?” Bobbie went on, “I work thirty hours a ith veteran’s outreach And I’ veteran like you a break”

He turned, and her hand went out to his elbow faster than he could pull away His face twisted with fear and pain She drew him close When she spoke, her voice was careful Each word clear and sharp

“Find Another Story”

“Yes, ar said “I will I’ll do that”

The car shifted, decelerating into the first Breach Candy station She let hio and stood up His eyes went a little wider when she did Her genetic line went back to Samoa, and she so her Sometimes she felt a little bad about it Not now

Her brother lived in a nice middle-class hole in Breach Candy, not far from the lower university She’d lived with hiot back ho the pieces of her life back together It was a longer process than she’d expected And part of the after Fahts was part of that

The halls of Breach Candy were sparse The advertisenition tracking her and offering up the products and services they thought she ym memberships, take-out shwar Bobbie tried not to take it personally Still, she wished there were more people around, a few more faces to add variety to the mix To let her tell herself the ads were probablynearby Not for her

But Breach Candy wasn’t as full as it used to be There were fewer people in the tube stations and hallways, fewer people coram She heard that enrollment at the upper university was down six percent

Hule viable colony on the neorlds yet, but the probe data was enough Humanity had its new frontier, and the cities of Mars were feeling the competition

As soon as she stepped in the door, the rich scent of her sister-in-law’s gu her mouth water, she heard her brother and nephew, voices raised It knotted her gut, but they were family She loved them She owed them Even if they

“— not what I’,” her nephew said He was in upper university now, but when the fa, she could still hear the six-year-old in his voice

Her brother boo of his fingertips against the tabletop as heas a rhetorical device Their father did the sa

“Mars is not optional” Tap “It is not secondary” Tap “These gates and whatever’s on the other side of the effort —”

“I’,” her nephew said as she walked into the room Her sister-in-law nodded to her fro roo space where a es of unfalasses speaking earnestly between the to have a lot of new data Data That’s all I’”