Choices by Tara OShea

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It felt like coming full circle, which, Devon supposed, it was. The Ops crew had already boarded hours before, and Sheila had gone through every check imaginable. All that was left was to say goodbye to the small group of passengers clustered around the open hatch.

"It's funny, to be a passenger and not crew." Teresa laughed nervously.

"Yeah, I bugged Sheila to see if she'd let me sit up front just because I wouldn't know what to do with myself otherwise."

"You'll manage," Devon assured him, her eyes slipping past him to the Christenson family.

John and Caroline were silent. They had kept to themselves ever since the funeral, Devon had only seen them once, and that was when they had come to tell her they would be going back on the colony ship. Jack looked tired, and she could see Miko Nomura hanging back, trying to pretend she wasn't watching him. Devon flashed back to that moment in the bar, when the seventeen year old boy had managed to put an entire room of fighting adults in their place. She was sorry to see him go.

She was sorry to see them all go. But they had made their choices.

Danziger came up beside her, and she drew strength from his presence, as always.

"They all set?"
"Nothing left to do but say good-bye," Devon confirmed.

Alonzo Solace looked around the cock-pit, committing every detail to memory. After all, it would most likely be a lifetime before he ever saw the inside of one again.

"I wish you were coming with us, Ace." "Sheila--"
"I know, I know," she held up her hands. "But I figured, hey, one last try." She offered her hand, grinning.

Alonzo shook her hand, and she pulled him into a hug. "Take care of yourself, Willis."
"I always do, Ace. I always do. Hey, anything you want me to tell the folks back home?"

"If Cassidy's still around..."
"Yeah."
Alonzo handed her a data chip.
"What's this?"
"It's a message, for Jennifer Heller if she's still alive. Julia would have given it to you herself..."

"Okay. I'll deliver it, if I can." "Thanks Sheila. I owe you one."
"I'll come back some day to collect, and I expect grandchildren."

"I'll do my best to comply."
"Yeah, I *bet* you will." Sheila laughed, and the on-board beep impatiently. "Hey, that's your cue. You'd better get off, or I'll end up kidnapping you."

"Aye-aye, ma'am." Solace saluted, with the wrong hand she noted with some amusement, and disappeared down the corridor towards the airlock.

"It's just you and me again, baby." Sheila whispered to the silent cock-pit.

"Jack, it's time to go," Mary said stiffly, and her son picked up his bag, looking back over his shoulder.

"Mom, can I just...?"
"Go on," she smiled wanly. "You've known each other since you were kids, you can't leave without saying good-bye, I know."

"Thanks, Mom," he pressed a kiss to her cheek, and then ran back down the ramp.

Miko tried to look detached, like she didn't care, but the second he dragged her into a hug, she could feel her eyes stinging with unshed tears.

"Do you have to go?"
"It's my family, Mike. They lost Sasha, I can't leave them alone. I'm their son, their only child now. Do you think you can understand?"

"I hate it, but yeah," she said into his shoulder, impatiently wiping at her eyes.

"Think of me, eh kid? You never know, maybe someday..." "When I'm old and grey," Miko laughed, and it came out half a sob. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight, and he laid his cheek against her soft black hair.

"Someday."

The roar filled her ears, her heart, her soul, as Devon watched the behemoth of a ship slowly rise into the air. The wind whipped her hair against her cheek, and she tucked the loose strands behind her ear, craning her neck as the colony ship grew smaller and smaller, until it finally disappeared into the upper atmosphere, and the clearing became silent once more except for the distant call of birds and the warm breeze rustling through the grass.

"C'mon, Adair," Danziger tugged at her hand, knowing she would have spent half the day looking up, worrying. She turned and met his eyes, and he gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. Hand in hand, they made their way back down the hill to the town.

Alonzo sat in the grass, carefully demolishing a wildflower that had been uprooted by the ship's ramp. A hand fell on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Julia. She was wearing leggings and the old ratty blue sweater he loved, and her blond hair was loose, masking her face as the breeze stirred it. She impatiently brushed it away so that she could look at him, and he held out his hand.

Smiling, she took at and curled up on the grass next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder while his thumb caressed her wrist.

"Are you sorry you let it go?"
"A little. But I'd be sorrier if I'd gone." He brushed flower petals from his pantleg. "I gave her the chip."

"What did she say?"
"If she's able to deliver it, she will." "If I know my mother, she'll be furious." "Why did you tell her? You know any reply will take twentyyears to get here."

"She won't reply. We said our good-byes long before I left with Eden Project. But she deserves to know the truth. The truth about me, about the Council, about this Planet. And she really does believe in the system, I think she wants to believe the Council are trying to help. Maybe, with this knowledge, she can force them to help. It was something I had to do."

"I know," he kissed her forehead.
"So John and Devon finally took the plunge, eh?" Julia changed the subject, and Alonzo chuckled.

"Looks that way."
"Who won the pool?"
"Bess. Are you kidding, how else would they have gotten that house up so fast?"

"Yeah, I never quite bought that 'volunteer' thing." "I don't think Danziger did, either." "Well, all I can say is, it's about time." Julia stretched out on her back, and watched the clouds moving lazily across the sky, her head pillowed on one arm. Alonzo stretched out at her side and ran his finger along the inside of her other arm. She giggled.

"You know, querida, Sheila said expects grandkids by the time she gets back here. Fifty years can just fly by--"

"So you think maybe we should get a head start, flyboy?" Julia rolled onto her side, and he brushed her hair out of her eyes.

"Maybe we should start on that white picket fence," he suggested, and she traced the line of his smile. He kissed her fingertips, and leaned forward to taste her lips.

"Grandkids, huh?" she murmured against his mouth, and those were the last words between them for a time. And that was just fine by Alonzo.

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