My aunt did not reply. She was still not looking at me.

“It was my plan. Zahra helped, but I was the one who decided to destroy the alien parasite. I was the one who decided to deflect Homestead using House of Wisdom. I wasn’t even sure it would work,” I added. “But I did it anyway.”

I faced my aunt as I spoke, and I did not turn away, even as the silence stretched, and stretched, and her eyes remained fixed on the gray city outside.

Finally, my aunt said, “Before you were born, Amita asked me if I would take care of you, should anything ever happen to her. I laughed when she asked. I knew nothing of children, but she was not asking in jest. I agreed because she wanted me to, and because I could not imagine anything would ever happen to her. I did not expect to ever have to raise a child. I always thought she would outlive me by decades.”

“I know,” I said quietly.

“No, Jas,” she said, finally turning to face me, “I don’t think you do. Do you want to know why I haven’t been invited to very many Councils meetings over the last couple of days? It’s a bit embarrassing, I’m afraid. I grew rather . . . heated in my response when Councilor Nyman suggested the doctors wake you prematurely to interrogate you.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I only said, “I’ve never liked him.”

“He’s a boorish, insufferable prick,” my aunt said. “Jas, I did not think a young woman who’s spent more than half her life on a desert homestead could have figured out how to revive the ship’s engines and set such a carefully calculated course. I knew who had come up with the plan from the very moment it became clear.”

“Mum’s engines didn’t need any help.” My voice was hoarse. “They fired up like they’d never gone cold.”

“Oh, of course they did,” Aunt Padmavati said, with a breathy exhalation that was almost a laugh. “As though Amita would have accepted anything less. Do you know what they’ll say about you, if the truth is revealed? If you become known as the one who destroyed humanity’s first chance at communicating with alien life? Do you know what they’ll say about your mother? Some people will understand, but others won’t. Others will only see the destruction and the death. They won’t see what was saved.”

I sat up, ignoring the twinges of pain, and reached for her hand.

“Auntie, I knew exactly what I was doing. So did Mum.”

She squeezed my hand and smiled sadly. “Jas . . .”