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mouth. He didn’t mean that. He couldn’t mean that. Things couldn’t have gotten so bad, so quickly. We’d been so happy.
    He turned back around to face me and held me in his gaze. He waited for a few seconds, as though he wanted to drive the point home, stick the knife in a little deeper.
    â€œYou’re trying to hurt me,” I said, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice. There was a beat of silence.
    â€œNo, I never wanted to hurt you.” He said softly, and I was surprised to see sudden tears well in his eyes.
    I moved toward him. He moved back.
    He shook his head, blinking the tears away and replacing them with anger. “You don’t get it. How badly you hurt me. And I don’t want it, Hope, I don’t want less. You have to go.”
    I reached for him and he angrily strode past me and punched his code into the door and held his arm out. I stood still for a second but then, dazed, I went.
    And I wandered, blankly, through the corridors. I kept my eyes down and stared at the cheap blue carpeting and fluorescent track lights lining the ground. I wasn’t going to cry. I didn’t want to cry, then it would be real, and this wasn’t real.
    I found myself in another throng of people, bumping into me in the hallways, and it took me a minute to register that something besides the slamming final was going on.
    Where were they all going? They sounded excited. I let myself be carried along with the crowd, enjoying the feeling of some other force taking over my direction. The crowd took me to the screening room on the main deck, a large arena intended for mass gatherings and informational lectures about our new home. A large screen was lit at the front with a countdown.
    I couldn’t muster the energy to speak so I sat down next to two girls I didn’t know well who were talking. I suddenly felt like crying, and I pulled my knees up to my chest in my seat.
    â€œI’m thinking a tropical rainforest. Something really magical and beautiful with waterfalls and beaches,” she said in a high trill.
    The blonde one was more wistful, “It doesn’t matter, but I’d really like to see some mountains, like back in Colorado. Hey, I wonder how long it’ll take us to build skis?” They giggled together.
    â€œWhatever pictures the probe shows, though, that’s my new favorite, for sure. I mean, anything’s better that these freakin’ steel walls.”
    So that was it. There’d been talk of doing this once Haven was within Reflection’s sensory range. There was only this one home, this one chance that we had.
    During the World Space Age, CR-3 was discovered after scientists sent probes out to any potentially viable planets trying to find somewhere, anywhere we could go. They got absolutely nothing until the probe Riggs built managed to travel further than any of the rest. The video system hadn’t remained intact but the probe was able to take readings of the environment and match them to ours. The readings made it back to Earth long after the other probes and just in time, because we had ships ready to go with no destination and a planet that was imploding. There was a lot of rejoicing after the discovery.
    People had built up all kinds of idyllic ideas about it. But now, for the first time, we would have pictures. That
was
exciting. My emotions calmed as I focused on this new development.
    Chief Up made his way to the front of the auditorium near the screen, to watch with the rest of us. There was a podium out front, making Chief look even taller than his six foot one height because it was so small and squat in front of him. The numbers flashed down, 4…3…2… and then a picture appeared on the screen. Clouds and a beautiful darkening sky. The image shifted down. It was…strangely purple and green. And it sparkled. Not like diamonds, like…health. It looked like a healthy, vital, thriving planet, even in the dark.