Chapter 14

What cannot be talked about

Cannot be put to rest.

And if it is not,

The wounds will fester

From generation to generation.

,

—Bruno Bettelheim

.

MIKHAIL

There is nothing more vulgar than a sunrise when you haven't slept for days. Especially when you are flying patrol over a lifeless desert where there is nothing to think about but the ghosts of old mistakes. I don't know what's worse; the fact the chief no longer trusts me? Or the memory of all the times I failed these people? Starting with the day Ninsianna's father showed up at my crashed spaceship to fetch his runaway daughter and I refused to send her packing?

What if? What if?

If I hadn't gotten involved, Ninsianna would be home safe in her own bed. She wouldn't have become a target. She wouldn't have gotten kidnapped. Sh……