Prologue
"There are many places that I've been, and many more I've yet to go. But no matter where I go, no place will ever matter more than where I am right now. But where that is exactly, I'm not entirely sure."
Josie stopped reading. She had never come across a book like this in her lifetime. Writing in a journal was a thing of the past.
"Mom?" she called across the house. Her mother walked into the room, and Josie saw her eyes widen at the silver box on the floor.
"Where did you find that?" she asked, her voice rough.
"In the closet," Josie confessed. "I thought you might be able to tell me who wrote this journal."
"Shh," her mother whispered, tears beginning to form in her eyes. Josie watched her mother very carefully. At first, the woman simply stared at the book. Then a sign of recognition washed across her face, and she sat down on the couch, her right hand across her heart.
"I haven't seen that journal in years."
"Why did you hide it?"
"Plenty of reasons! I didn't want it to be ruined! I didn't want you to find it. Josie, you weren't old enough to understand-"
"I'm seventeen!" Josie interrupted. "How can I not be old enough to know, when it seems like everyone else does! Why didn't Dad tell me?"
"I told your-, I told him not to say anything to you. And Dead God forbid that you will ever truly know the pain that I've lived through."
"Well, I guess that since I'll never live it, then that's more of a reason to tell me the story then, isn't it?" Josie said as she sat next to her mother, wrapping her arms around the woman's waist.
"I do suppose you're ready to hear the story," her mother said with a sad smile, returning the hug. They sat still in this embrace, the silence weighing in around them. "You're almost an adult."
"So you'll tell me!" Josie said, sitting up excitedly.
"Yes, but you must promise me that you will not interrupt."
Josie rolled her eyes. "I promise."
"Good!" said her mother. "I've told you all about the Robot Wars, and about the early victory of Starship 15A2 on Bug Planet. And it's in all of the textbooks about how 15A2 revealed Space-Claw as an evil bastard. Now, I'm going to tell you the story about what happened after Space-Claw was revealed, the story that is seldom told."