MEREDITH HAD REQUESTED that Cherry pay her an informal visit at her private residence. The ‘request’ was not something Cherry, as the colony’s general, could refuse her Leader, but she didn’t mind going to see Ethan’s daughter. Her grief at Ethan’s passing and missing out on a lifetime of his friendship had, over the years, become something she could lock away. It was only during quiet moments she had to herself that she allowed the pain to surface. Also, as time had passed, remembering Ethan increasingly brought her many moments of sweet nostalgia.
As Cherry’s autocar approached the Leader’s Residence, she noticed that Oceanside had grown larger since the last time she was there. The streets of one-story houses spreading out from the central district at the clifftop had grown longer and
