It was the last time she'd be looking at this water, Apollonia realized.

The waves were calmer than usual today, only reaching up about eight meters up the pylons that they still relentlessly battered.

Despite their raging, they'd never even left a mark on the pillars. If only they could armor the whole damn world in the stuff.

She had the foresight to set up her system to record it the last few days of waves; she would have a video frame run it on a loop when she got home.

It had become comforting for her. She hadn't realized how many hours she'd spent out here, until Zey had commented on it.

"Huh," Apollonia had replied. "I guess I am out here a lot."

Zey had gone back up to the Craton, and Apple had wished her goodbye. It was odd, really, they'd still see each other and work together. But back up there, it wouldn't be as often, and it would involve a lot of other doctors and nurses.

Even Alisher had gone up already. Jaya had spoken to Cenz, and he had allowed her to stay for the last shuttle. It was due to leave in an hour, after all their baggage had been loaded.

Dr. Zyzus had also elected to stay. He had not said why, but he seemed to have taken a liking to her, and she found him to be a surprisingly nice old man.

Funny, she thought. She'd never have thought she'd come to be friends with several doctors.

He came up now, leaning against the railing.

"The porpishes are gone," he commented, the word even funnier in his serious voice.

Apollonia felt a sense of elation that her name had caught on so well, but it was tempered by something she couldn't name.

"I guess they sensed things are getting bad," she said.

"Likely," Zyzus replied. "But there is no escape for them. Just as there will not be for Ambassador Kell if he does not return soon."

"He's still not back?" Apollonia asked.

"No," Zyzus said. He sounded sad.

Apollonia could not feel that, not for Kell. It was deeper than just his actions back on the Chain, months ago. It was . . . it was some innate feeling from him that just disgusted her.

Remarkably bigoted of her, she realized. But it was still true, and she trusted her instincts here.

"What will you do when you return to the station?" Zyzus asked her.

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"Oh, uh. I guess I'll keep doing this," Apollonia said. "When I can. I mean sometimes I have to just be up near the bridge doing CR stuff. Like just sitting there, being spooky."

Zyzus did not smile, but nodded, his expression still serious. "This is valuable work," he told her. "But your work as a CR is not to be underestimated. You have a gift, Ms. Nor. One that many would wish to have. You can help others in a wholly unique way."

"It's got baggage," she said quickly.

"So does this," Zyzus said, gesturing to their uniforms. "I know it is not the same, not as bad. But it still exists. We in this field will carry memories of work - painful, both physically and mentally. Of the suffering of our patients, who we sometimes cannot help. And the same goes, to varying degrees, in every field of work."

Apollonia found this a puzzling direction. "I guess so," she said.

"I find myself hoping," Zyzus said, "that you will one day try to reach still higher, Apollonia Nor. Reach into that place where so few of us can go, and find there the strength to do more than any of us can."

She did not know what to make of his words. She smiled slightly to him, more out of politeness than anything else, while he looked at her with meaning hidden behind his eyes. Nodding to her, he turned and walked away.

She was still puzzling on it as she heard the klaxon call for them to prepare for boarding on the shuttle. Not long left now.

Reluctantly, she tore her eyes from the ocean, which in a way seemed dead already, without the porpishes or anything else swimming around.

It would have been worse, she thought, if they had been down there playing happily, oblivious to the end. At least for her; maybe they'd be better off playing and jumping up until the last moment.

She looked up, towards the distant shoreline. The sky was dark; not from clouds, but dust, which the many smaller impacts had already stirred up. It gave the look of a storm, and sometimes there were flashes of electrical discharges in the dirty sky.

Somewhere out that way, Captain Brooks was leading some of the aliens towards safety, she hoped. Or even better, maybe they were already strapped into their rocket and about to blast off, to escape this place.

But she doubted that. It was Brooks, so it'd come to the knife's edge.

Ah, dark take it. She just hoped he'd be all right.

Turning her back to the water and land, she started up a set of steps leading towards the shuttle.

She felt it, then; the heavy presence that gave her pause. She looked around, and saw him, standing alone; Kell, here on the platform, looking the same as he always did.

". . . didn't even see him come back aboard . . ." she heard someone say.

". . . just appeared there . . ."

Cenz went up to Kell, greeting him warmly, but Kell's reply was curt, and Cenz walked away, his electronic face slightly disturbed.

"Call to board," an electronic voice said. "Call to board. All personnel board last shuttle."

Apollonia's tablet dinged insistently. Everyone's system was prompting them, and she felt a little surge of fear, imagining being left behind.

She thought again of Brooks, but in a fit of fear for him actually being in that situation, she could not make herself look back.

Kell boarded first, she saw. The rest of them queued up, and she took her place in line, feeling a mix of apprehension and guilt.

All this time, this moment had felt so far away. Now it was here, and she had thought she would feel sad, maybe even glad to be returning to the safety and comfort of the Craton.

But she only felt scared.

How might Brooks and the !Xomyi be feeling? What about the ones who had refused the offer of help, or never even had a chance to be contacted?

Her head was dizzy as she boarded, strapping herself in.

Cenz was the last to come aboard. "All personnel accounted for," the system said.

"Let us go," he said, his voice heavy.