The food on her tongue tastes like ash. Maybe it is ash. She could have done that.
They landed on a wild planet six days ago, and since then she has been alone most of the time. Albel leaves early in the morning and returns at night, once she is pretending to sleep.
All she does is pretend now.
"What am I doing?" she wonders, not for the first time. "Why run? What is there worth running from?"
Sunlight pours through the foliage onto the forest floor in dappled patterns of gold and she wonders.
She is not in opposition to this new Federation. She supports it; she was involved in its creation. She hopes it will do well- she knows it will, with people like Cliff and Sophia and Fayt at the top.
She sees Fayt's face in her mind as he turns…
He turned away.
The sunlight tastes like ash on her tongue.