CHERRY WATCHED AUBRIOT and Wilder depart across the lot, each walking in different directions. Evan had disappeared into an alleyway.
I’m sure she’ll want to see you all as soon as possible.
Ethan was no longer the Leader. It was no surprise. The position only lasted a year, and then the incumbent had to step down and call an election. Her old friend might have been re-elected a few times, but he couldn’t have served for all the decades that had passed while she’d been gone.
Yet Cherry couldn’t avoid wondering if there was another reason Ethan wasn’t the Leader any longer. Was it because he’d died?
Fifty-three Earth years had gone by in the weeks she’d lived aboard the threads’ ship. That would put Ethan in his late seventies. Aboard the Nova, Gens had often died younger than that, tho
