Elena chuckled. “I suppose I should feel homesick, but I don’t, really. For one thing, the home I knew must be unrecognizable, and for another… I always wanted the stars.”

“You were brave as hell to do it, way back then,” Callie said. “Traveling in space is dangerous now. In those days it was…”

“Suicidal, I think was the word you used.”

Callie winced. “You heard that? Sorry. The difference between brave and suicidal is a matter of perspective.”

Elena sipped, then nodded. “We knew the risks. We just thought the potential reward made those risks worthwhile. Competition was fierce to join the goldilocks crews. The selection process was grueling, but I wanted to see the light of other stars on other worlds. To be part of the next stage of human development. It suited my sense of adventure, too. Even if we never made it anywhere, I knew I’d get to spend at least one day every several years awake on a starship, hurtling toward the barely-known. I never found anything more intoxicating.”

“You’re in luck, then. You can explore a lot of other worlds now.”

Elena laughed. “I’m not sure how I’m going to afford it, since you’ve all disappointed me greatly by failing to create a post-scarcity utopian society. I suspect my scientific skills are a bit out of date. I have as many valuable skills here as a barber-surgeon from the 1600s would have in my time.”

“Nah, you have options. There aren’t many people around these days who lived on Earth five hundred years ago. There are probably a lot of people who’d pay for your story and insights.”

“Oh, good.” Elena’s voice went dull: that bleakness again. “I can be a sideshow. A curiosity.”

“I was thinking more a writer, or a lecturer, but there are other options. The Anjou is still floating out there, in need of a tow, and as the only member of the crew around, the ship belongs to you. I told the local authorities on Meditreme Station we’d found a wrecked ship with a survivor on board, and they tagged the Anjou in their system, so no scavengers will carry it away in the meantime. No legal ones, anyway, and illegal ones won’t try to steal a ship that’s tagged. Not around here. They know I might come after them. You can sell the Anjou – I’m sure it has some value.”

“It’s really mine? It was never mine. Our ship and everything on board was the property of the One World Emergency Government.”