The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Seventy Eight

Grace handed her daughter a cup of hot tea and dropped into the opposite seat seat of the booth in one of the many cafes on Skygarden. Their booth was on a balcony which overlooked a concourse lined with trees which let to the shuttle bays; their next stop after breakfast. Skygarden operated independently of its host planet and kept its own time, so it was late evening for the few other people in the cafe. The lighting on the station operated on an earth-standard twenty-four hour cycle.

The trees lining the paths below were under lit by soft blue spots and cast their shadows throughout the cafe. It was night on the planet below too. It hung in space as circle of black against the glittering fabric of night, but the rim of the world was already glowing with the promise of sunrise.

Tila accepted the cup wordlessly and curled her fingers around the ceramic unworried by the heat. She sat sideways on the padded bench seat, one foot tucked under the other leg, her shoulder pressed against the seat back. Grace sipped her own tea while Tila stared over the balcony to the concourse below. Tila could see the final preparations taking place which would take them all back home. Back to the Juggernaut, anyway.

'How much?' Grace asked.

'Huh?' said Tila, startled back to the moment.

'For your thoughts. How much? It looks like a penny won't be enough.'

'Oh.' Tila turned back to the view below, and Grace could tell that although she was only sitting the other side of the table she was also light-years away.

'Are you thinking about going home?'

Tila shuffled around in her seat to face her mother until both feet were on the floor. 'Is the Juggernaut my home? Still my home?'

'I don't know. Is it?' Grace said gently.

Tila turned back to the concourse, hands still wrapped around the mug.

'You're not my little girl anymore, are you? I found you again, but you're not the same person you were. Of course you couldn't be after all this time, I know that, but...' Grace left the sentence hanging.

'None of us are,' said Tila.

'True. Time changes everything, doesn't it? And even though I know not every change is for the good, some things are. You understand that, don't you, Tila? You've grown up. You've looked after yourself and you look after others.'

Tila looked at her cup rather than her mother. Surface ripples shimmered under the overhead lights.

'Some people at home think I don't care about others.'

'Do you mean Theodore Chambers?'

Tila couldn't hide her surprise this time and looked up. 'How do you you know about him?'

'I've been in touch, thanks to Malachi. Mr Chambers had some things to say about you.'

'I'm sure he did. We don't exactly get along.'

'You could, if you want to, I think.'

'He's the one who thinks I don't care.'

'You care about different things. You have different responsibilities. He has to be responsible for everyone in your community, just like I did when I was a captain. But you don't have anything keeping you there but your choices, and you chose to stay there, didn't you.'

'It was the best option I had at the time.'

'You've been there a long time. Longer than you stayed anywhere else from what I understand.'

'Like I said, it was the best option.'

'Compared to what? What else have you been up to that last twelve years? What happened to you before the Juggernaut?'