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my right hand as hard as I could against the far wall that was actually the floor of the level before the Orion had been tipped on its side.

CRACK!

The bottle slammed into the hard wall of the Orion with enough force to not only explode but send shards of glass and the nasty bubbly fluid painting the impact zone.

Without waiting, I sent the next bottle through the air. It smashed against the wall, sending another spray of glass and bubbly liquid in every direction. It didn’t take the pain I felt away, but it sure felt good to give my pain an outlet.

“You should try it,” I said, looking back to Elon. “It feels good to physically let go of your anger. It feels great, actually.”

Elon looked at me like I was crazy for a second. I was used to seeing that look. Then he hobbled to his feet, grabbing another bottle from the crate on his way over.

He reared back, a bit off balance, and then flung the bottle forward with his left hand. It didn’t strike the wall with the same violent impact as my own, but it was enough to do the job. The bottle broke on impact.

Elon’s face turned into a huge smile. “It does feel good.”

“There’s nothing we can do about the past,” I said as I watched him hurl his second bottle at the wall. “We just have to learn to live with the pain somehow.”

“How?” Elon asked, panting a bit from the exertion of his throws. “How do you live with the memories?”

“I can’t really answer that for you, but I know that Natalie wouldn’t want me to kill myself, and I’m not going to let her down again. My only other choice is to keep on living,” I said. “For me, it’s as simple as that.”

Elon slowly nodded.

“Don’t put too much stock into what I say,” I said with a grin. “I’m sure there’s some sort of priest or holy man or something on board that could give you better advice than letting go of your pain through violence.”

“Thank you, Dean,” Elon said as if he were seeing me for the first time. “Thank you.”

“Anyone could have told you to break stuff.” I shrugged.

“No, I mean for being willing to open up and share about your wife,” Elon answered.

“Yeah, well, I don’t talk about her much these days.” I paused, fighting back emotions while I searched for the right words. At the same time, it was painful and great to talk about Natalie again. I didn’t know which feeling was winning at the moment. “She’s gone, and there’s nothing I can do about it now.”

“I think she would be proud of the man you’ve become, and the one you are becoming,” Elon said as we walked back to the crate. “You’ve helped and are helping a lot of people here.”

My temporary lapse in trust had quickly come to an end. I nodded toward Elon. “Well, I’m going to get back to work. There’s a suit captain that thinks he’s in charge of a military invasion out there. I’m supposed to help him build a wall or something. You good here?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Elon said, looking down at the crate of bottles. “I think I’m going to stay here a while and destroy some more bottles. That felt really good.”

“All right, good talk,” I said, turning to go.

“Thank you, Dean,” Elon said to my back.

I didn’t turn around. My eyes were misting. Had to be my allergies. I needed to get out of my own head and throw myself into some physical labor.

5

It was already getting late in the day. I ate my midday meal on the go. One of the cafeteria levels on the Orion had been repowered and was serving food once again.

Out of the one hundred thousand Transients, two Eternals, and Cognitive that made the trip from Earth, only two thousand nine hundred and seventy-three of us had landed safely and found the Orion.

Not two thousand nine hundred and seventy-three, I reminded myself. We lost Ira today. Two thousand nine hundred and seventy-two.

The sandwich I put into my mouth and chewed as I traveled back out of the Orion wasn’t bad. I knew the taste was there. It was the mood I was in. It was hard to enjoy any kind of meal while thinking of someone’s death and not just Ira’s. Natalie, who was always a second away from being in my thoughts, was pushed to the forefront of my mind since my talk with Elon.

Riding in the cylinder-shaped elevator that traveled on its side was something I was still getting used to. The elevator was barely wide enough now for me to stand straight. My hair touched the top of the wall that now served as the roof.

When I reached the last available level, the elevator came to a rough halt. The doors dinged open, and I was given a view from the last level on the Orion. A hastily constructed staircase had been made traveling down to the ground.

Three stories of rough metal steps reminded me of the scaffolding I used to work on back on Earth. Scaffolding always made me think twice. The steel bars—put together like a child’s toy—never looked like they could hold as much weight as they could.

Three stories below me, the colonists were already at work. Captain Harold had every available hand searching for scrap metal from the Orion crash, gathering the pieces in a single location. Another group had already begun working on constructing a wall. They had started on one corner of the Orion and were working in a semicircle to come around and connect to the opposite side.

The Orion itself would serve as one fortified side. The exposed end of the ship would be protected by the metal wall. I traveled down the steps, speed-chewing the last of my meal, not necessarily for enjoyment, but rather the fact that I knew I needed the