“We’ll get a ship,” Corvus says, more confidently than he has any right to be, considering the rareness of spacecrafts—let alone on Nibiru, of all places. I’m about to argue, but his smile stops me. “We always figure something out,” he says.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I kick my feet restlessly, looking up at the stars and wishing I was up there rather than stuck down here. I’m already getting the itch. “Even if we do, it won’t be the same as Fortuna.”

“True.” He glances down at me. “I’m sorry about that, by the way. We all loved that ship, but I know how much she meant to you.”

“And she was finally mine,” I sigh out. But after a moment, I shrug. “Whatever. Too many bad memories. Maybe it’s for the best.” I chew my bottom lip. “It was never really about the ship, anyway.”

Corvus’s eyebrows rise as he looks down at me.

“Huh. That was going to be my line.”

“Gross, look what spending time with you does to me. Making me all introspective and shit.” I groan and sit up, nudging his shoulder with mine. “Is this what all your brooding feels like? This is terrible. Why do you do this to yourself?”

“Better habit than drinking,” he says.

“Agree to disagree.”

I laugh. But as the sound fades away into silence, a somber mood settles over us. In the distance, the Gaians’ alien ship slowly rises into the sky once more, hurrying off to shuttle the next wave of refugees over. I watch it disappear, quiet for a long while, until I can no longer keep down the question that’s been eating away at me all night.

“What if we made things worse?” I can’t meet Corvus’s eyes, so I stare out at the water instead. “Lying about Leonis? Letting the Gaians come here? We still don’t know what’s really happening on their planet.”

We tried so hard to be good, to help people, but I can’t fight off the doubt that we haven’t really made anything better. I can’t help but feel that some huge, terrible thing has been set in motion, and everything we’ve done has only slowed it down… or maybe even done the opposite.

Whatever happened back on Gaia, I doubt Leonis is telling the full truth. She never does, and we know how dangerous she can be. What if we put the Nibirans in danger by letting the Gaians come here? What if we lost Fortuna and endangered our brother’s life for nothing? What if the lives we saved will mean greater loss in the future? I let out a gusty sigh, splashing the toe of my boot across the water. So many questions, but only one really matters.

“Do you think we did the right thing?” I ask.