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overgrown with vegetation because of the depopulation.” Peering into her curious blue eyes, he started to grin, “Did you study earth in school?”
    “A lot. I always wished I could go there.”
    The young man shrugged, “That might not be so easy. We have to get off here first.”
    The two figures hiked onto a main thoroughfare littered with the rusted hulks of abandoned hover cars. The wide expressway rose above the streets and gave them a birds-eye view of the derelict city. Situated on the bank of a wide the Norstrom River, the city spread out picturesquely against a backdrop of white peaked mountains to the east and in its day would have been numbered among the coveted quiet getaways in the known universe. 
    The expressway ran north to south, cutting the settlement in half with the easy flowing river to the east where most of the main city buildings were located. To the west, a few residential suburbs were visible and farther north was the wide-open area of the Space Port. A tall column of black and grey smoke rose to the north close to the river where they were heading. On either side of the expressway were three-meter barriers to protect the hover vehicles from flying off the road and down into the streets. Every meter a gap appeared in the barrier to make room for a tall post with lights.  
    The sun peered out from behind a reddish moon, drying the cracked pavement though a few wet patches from the morning drizzle remained. As they walked by, Torian peered into the large, dust-covered windows of a faded blue family hover van sealed and locked, and saw the intact skeletons of a family of four still buckled up. Further, up the highway they saw other skeletons, including one with its boney hands locked around the throat of another.
    “They died suddenly in mass violence.” he commented to the girl who was glancing elsewhere. The off-worlder followed her line of sight to a glass and steel structure with four mini-towers, and then checked his Con.
    “Some sort of municipal building?”
    “Underneath is a tunnel to the valley. They dragged me underneath and then locked me outside. That’s where they exile the outcasts.”
    “You ran along the streets to the Hawkeye?”
    “That’s where the voices said to go. I saw you come down. It was either that or eaten by wolves or whatever horror awaited me from the Sky Demons.”
    “Well, you seem to holding up well to all the horror.”
    “I look like a horror.”
    “No one said you had to look your best for a Sky Demon,” then he glanced at her, “I’ll bet that was a special dress at one time.”
    Siiri became somber and hastily looked away. Torian sensed that the dress was a sensitive subject, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”
    “It’s all right,” then quickly and a little shyly, “Why did you want to be a soldier and kill people on other planets?”
    With a curl on his lips, he turned to the girl, and despite her ragged appearance, it was easy to watch her round blue eyes, “I never wanted to be a soldier. They made all young men go in for a physical, then they held a lottery, and my DNA tag was one of them that got called.”
    “Conscription?”
    “That’s right. Your command of English is very good.”
    “We speak our own language at home, but in school it’s all English.”
    “We only kill enemy combatants.  Never civilians.”
    The girl responded with disbelief, “That’s a lie. I’ve seen holos of Sky Demons bombing cities and killing women and children.”
    Torian frowned, she was more informed than he had thought, and she was right, they had bombed cities and planets, “I never bombed any cities or killed civilians.”
    “That’s good.” she replied, but Torian resented how she judged him.
    “I don’t know what wars you viewed, but didn’t you see the news pods on the humanitarian efforts, we rescue colonists and refugees all the time.”
    “And that excuses burning schools and hospitals?”
    Despite all