“It’s not all garbage, Kyso,” she told him, in as warm and supporting a tone as she dared muster.

He turned back to her, eyes moist, doubting.

“It might as well be,” he told her then began to point out the problems, the hopelessness. “This collector is useless without the filter. That magnetic polarizer is inoperable.”

A second glance at the polarizer told a different story. It looked perfectly operable, maybe even the cleanest piece in the lot

“I could diagnose it once,” he confessed, his voice tired again, with sad humor, pointed at his own head, “but my memory too, it goes….I’m probably not even passable actor anymore.”

Althea could sense that he was coming to his final point. The point he wanted her to refute – she hoped.

“It’s all like this,” he said with certainty in his voice, then simply, heavily ended with, “we’ve failed you.”

“No, Kyso,” she disagreed warmly.

“I’ve seen far worse,” That was the terrible truth. “People who’ve had more, lost all hope, fallen to– fallen completely, if they survived at all.”

They were the worst destinations of all; where she had found no survivors, nothing left for even a Macro to acknowledge or abuse.

“There are dead worlds out there,” she told him, struggling to keep her voice even, lift it up to the level of inspiring. “You’ve survived. You’ve prepared.”

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That seemed to bring life back to his eyes, to his body language. He smiled a bit. She reached out, touched his arm, felt the rough fabric of his shirt, the warmth underneath – looked straight into his brightening eyes.

“I owe you my life,” she told him sincerely.

Kyso looked pleased, but still a little uncomfortable with her praise.

“You’re very generous,” he said, some uncertainty in his voice still. She released his arm, smiled broadly.

“You deserve it.”

A moment of silence passed between them. Althea considered what to say next. She waved at the stacks.

“We don’t need this so much anyhow,” she admitted to him. She picked up the polarizer, gripped the cold metal tightly, lifting it easily. She smiled with the returned strength.

“And what we need,” she told him, light in her voice, “I can help with. Traejan said something about a lifter? I’d rather not have to walk through what’s outside. And – I do have all the trilium we should need.”

He raised his snow-white eyebrows, a glimmer of humor finding a way back into his expression.

Althea put the piece back down.

“We need people too,” she told him. “At least a few.”

He had mentioned a settlement – Panak?… something about a Ginga?

“You told me there were people – at the settlement – who might help? For profit? For fun?”

He got the message, laughed.

“Of course, for fun,” he replied, smiling at the absurdity. He motioned her over to a wall that had a crude map on it. He pointed out their location, then a collection of markings a one or two from them

“Panak, as I’d mentioned.” he drew a line over the map, from there to here, “a few days walk, in good weather, much less time with a working lifter.”

He dropped his arm, turned back to her.

“There are people there,” he didn’t use the word people in a positive sense, though. “Traders, hunters, scavengers.”

She nodded. They would likely be the best choices to take with them. How many of them, she wondered, would be Macro implant?

“Survivors,” he added, turning back to her, unknowing. “Useful?”

Yes… if all else fails . It wasn’t time to Kyso about the rest of the plan – not yet. Althea smiled at him again.

“Helpful,” she corrected. “We shouldn’t be going into Macro territory alone.”