“Damn it, Scorpia,” Lyre says from behind me. A moment later, her small hand grips my free one. When I open my eyes and look up, she pulls me to my feet with a loud sigh and slips an arm around me. “You can’t keep doing this.”

“Why not?” I ask. “Who’s gonna give a shit?”

She wordlessly nudges me ahead. I step slowly, focusing on my footing, while she stays by my side and takes as much of my weight as she can handle. I frown down at her.

“You’re helping me,” I say, that fact only now reaching me through my drunken stupor. I study her face, but nearly lose my footing as a result, and have to look down at my own boots instead. “Why?”

Again, Lyre doesn’t answer. She pauses in the kitchen—leaving me leaning against the dining table—to fill a metal canteen of water.

“Drink,” she says, pressing it into my hands.

I drink the canteen in three big gulps, and she fills it again before resuming her post under my armpit. Together we make the unsteady trek to my room. The moment she releases me I crumple onto my bunk, stretching out on my back with a long sigh. Lyre sets the water on the shelf beside my bed, and hesitates there, looking down at me.

“I need to tell you something,” she says. “Are you going to remember this conversation?”

Her serious expression sobers me enough to pay attention. I raise myself up on my elbows, scrutinizing her. She points at the water, and I take a long drink before answering.

“Yeah, sure. What’s going on?”

“I’ve been monitoring the radio and radar while the rest of you have been… busy,” she says, lowering her eyes. “I’ve noticed an unusual number of unmanned drones flying out to Titan. I thought the other planets must have noticed that something had happened. And today, we picked up a message from Deva.” She glances up to check I’m still listening, and nods at the water. I drink. “They know Titan has been destroyed. There’s going to be an Interplanetary Council on Deva. All of the leaders have already agreed to attend.”

“An Interplanetary Council?” I repeat, trying to shake off the drunkenness and focus. This is a big deal. The last council was before my lifetime, held to determine whether or not Nibiru was at fault for the spread of the plague on Gaia. After that ended with Gaia closing its borders to visitors and the other planets soon following suit, no one was eager to try again. None of the current leaders have ever met in person before now.

“As long as we aren’t delayed, we can make it on time,” Lyre says.