Chapter 96

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For the first time that night, Eddie wasn’t thinking about Kaeva. He’d stepped outside, at the back of the Med Center for a breath of fresh air, and he’d gotten lost in the view of the heavens. It wasn’t the stars that had his focus, though. Eddie’s mind was so beyond the stars that he barely knew they existed. It was up, up, up in the sky, a million miles away, and it was thinking of a red planet where a comic book hero floated in a white-blue light. But it was his father’s voice, doing that thing his father always did, wherein the story was never enough and the moral must be investigated lest the author’s reasoning be missed, that Eddie heard.

But why did he leave Earth, Eddie?

Because he wanted his people to be safe.

That’s just the obvious view of things, son. He left because he was scared.

Super heroes don’t get scared, Dad. That’s silly.

Everybody gets scared, Eddie. Everybody.