Page 174 of The Last Hope

I peer closer, noticing a partial word.

And my handwriting. It reads,owed to.These are the drawings that he used to ink onto pages from my journal. Back at StarDust. I never even knew Zimmer kept them.

I rub harder at my face, and I tell Stork, “Thank you.” He will never know how much this means to me. For him to carry it here.

I hug the papers.

We were the same. Zimmer and me. Fast-Trackers from Bartholo, and even when we were pretending in StarDust, even when we left Saltare-3, being with him felt like being home. The only difference between him and me was that I was human all along.

He couldn’t escape his deathday.

“Franny,” Stork says, wrangling my attention again. “Can I ask something from you?”

“Anything.” And I mean those words.

“When we land on Earth, I’m not going to have a mission. I reckon the admirals won’t give me another one for a while after this.” He touches the blue jay that swings from his earlobe. “And without a mission, I can’t find any reason not to drink again.” He takes a tight breath. “Would you help me?”

“To not drink?”

He nods once. “I just need someone to care. Support. That sort of thing, dove.”

My eyes almost glass with his. “Stork, I already care about you.” I tell him words that have never been truer. “And I’ll try to be the best support in the entire…Milky Way.”

Just hearing Earth’s galaxy again hoists both of our lips. In the future, we were coupled. We had a baby together. How long did it take us to fall for one another so completely that he confessed his love for me?

I smile wider.

Because I have time.

Glorioustimeto wait and find out.

Kinden calls Stork back over to the radio, and I continue on toward the captain’s chair where Court and Mykal talk quietly. They both keep glancing out the nearest porthole, a direct view of Earth. The planet seems to grow larger and larger as we approach.

Court cradles Zima, the baby conked out like she’s been through three blizzards tonight. Though I never imagined I’d be a mother—I know Zima won’t just be raised by me. Court has already told me as much. If we were to reach Earth, they wouldn’t put the responsibility solely on my shoulders. She’ll have Court and Mykal and Stork.

She’ll be so very loved.

“Franny, do you remember when we found you?” Court asks. I glance up at both of them. Mykal rests his bottom on the armrest of the captain’s chair and then slings an arm around Court’s hips, pulling him closer. Their lips rise and rise.

“That’s not a day I can easily forget,” I tell Court.

“I know it’s one of the worst days of your life,” Court says. “But it’s one of the best days of mine.” Tears prick our eyes. I’m not sure who’s the source. I’m not sure I care.

Mykal adds, “And mine, little love.”

My heart swells. I never truly understood love and friendship until I met them. “But you’re wrong,” I tell Court. “It’s not one of the worst days of my life. Not even close. Not anymore.”

He tries hard not to cry more by pinching the bridge of hisnose, and after a second, he says, “I know what I want to see. On Earth.”

Mykal and I share a look of surprise.

Court hardly ever knows what he wants outside of goals and missions and survival. Mykal is simple. He wants the trees—if there are any. Maybe that makes me simple too because I want to see the human cars. To fly in one.

For Court, he never really told us. Of course we guessed, but guessing for him is different than hearing him say the words.

“And what’s that?” I ask.

“Spring.” He glances between us. “I read that’s when the snow just begins to melt.”