"Yeah—I'm on my feet."
"Can you fight?"
"Nothing bigger than you," I said. "What's going on?"
"He's crazy, Ash. That plan of his—I'd never heard it before. All he told me was that he was going to take humanity out to the stars—he said he didn't trust Earth government to do it."
"Yeah. I know. For that dream, I would have done what you did, too."
"I didn't love him, Ash. He—I don't know, he was his dream, somehow, and in spite of it all, he was a better, stronger man than anyone I ever knew. Except you, Ash."
That was good enough. That was good enough to give her everything I had or could get. And that made my spot even worse. It wasn't just she that was going to get hurt—but she was the most important one of them all.
I couldn't even stay with her, here in the cell.
But she knew that too, and there was more to her coming here than that.
"Ash—they've finished assembling the drive in your ship. They've finished repairs on her bow, too. They're going to run the tests in a few hours. Everybody's sleeping, except for the maintenance crew, and they're scattered through the base. Ash—I think we can get out of here. If we don't run into any guards, we can make it to the airlock. There'll be a few suits in a locker there. We can make a run for the ship." Her voice was urgent, and full of hope, and bitterness for the desertion of a dream—a sick, tainted dream, but her dream for so many years at Thorsten's side.