A box full of dusty electronics was the last item in there. Welga rifled through them for fun—a rectangular task-bot, a potted plant minder, her fertility tracker. Wouldn’t need those anymore. A small gray box. Por Qué, version one. Her agent had first lived in that device, back when Welga was seventeen years old, before she had dispersed into stellas and servers. Welga ran her finger over the indentation that used to wake her agent up.

Throw it out. We’re far beyond that now.

It doesn’t weigh much.

She slipped it into a pocket.

So damn sentimental.

Only today. Goes hand in hand with packing up one life for another.

She zipped her bag and stood.

The apartment lay bare but for packing containers, the floor back to basic, the furniture sold or hauled away for cycling. Sunlight filtered through the window and lit the empty space where the kitchen used to sit. She hadn’t given that away, not with so many of her grandmother’s pans and recipes stored in it. The kitchen would stay in a storage space on Earth, along with the couch Connor had bought her. Maybe someday, by some turn of fate, she’d be back, wanting to cook a mango molé or tamarind chutney or roasted turkey.

Connor emerged from the bedroom, his own bag across his shoulder. He took her hand and gazed at the view of the city. Hives. Sunlight. Clouds and trees. The ocean. Full gravity. Her throat closed.

“What’s it like up there?” he said softly.

“Quiet. Orderly. You’ll like it.”

“Of course I will, as long as you’re with me.”

“The food might drive me away.”

He laughed. “If anyone can fix that, it’s you.”

They rode to Eko-Yi in a passenger capsule. Welga had to carry Khandro into the vehicle. The dakini could barely keep her eyes open, those deep brown irises forever imprinted in Welga’s mind with fire and smoke and the roar of the refinery. Khandro trembled from the effort of staying upright, and her skin felt papery.

Thank you for your help, sister.

Will you survive the launch?

Dr. Kailo from Eko-Yi gives me a greater than ninety percent chance. Another month here and that number would have dropped to fifty.

Khandro and Ao Tara had a teary good-bye, with the older woman headed to the Hague for detention by the International Criminal Court. The United States government wanted to imprison her if she was convicted, but human rights and machine rights people had expressed their support for leniency. Between the responsibility for the initial deadly attacks falling on Kanata’s shoulders, and the effective death sentence if the monk remained on Earth, Welga couldn’t help agreeing. They could make her last weeks comfortable.