The transport lifted off before dawn.
Arin sat by the window, watching the facility shrink behind him. A single light in Lina's room stayed on long after the walls blurred into grey. He touched the crystal at his neck. Warm. Steady.
Hana sat across from him, her eyes half-closed. Maya checked her kit. Dmitri was still. Ren sat at the front, watching the sky.
No one spoke.
---
The sun rose as they crossed the ocean.
Water stretched below them, endless and grey. Arin had never seen it before. He watched the light move across the surface, watched the waves that looked still from this height.
Dmitri stirred. "First time?"
Arin nodded.
"It's big."
"Yeah."
They flew on.
---
Land appeared. Red earth. Sparse trees. Dust that rose in clouds behind the transport's passage.
Ren studied the map. "The settlement is ahead. We'll land there and search. The woman's home is somewhere in the region."
"How do we find her?" Maya asked.
"We ask," Arin said. "Colony to colony. Someone will know."
Hana opened her eyes. "And if no one does?"
Arin looked out at the red earth.
"Then we keep looking."
---
The transport set down on a patch of packed earth at the edge of a small settlement.
Low buildings. Flat roofs. Pale walls. A few people moved between them, heads down against the dust.
Arin stepped off first.
The air was dry. Hot. It smelled of earth and spice. A man across the street stopped to look at them, then kept walking.
Hana stepped beside him. "Where do we start?"
Arin looked at the narrow streets ahead.
"One colony at a time."