“No, Blackjack. It’s that… I’m sorry,” he told me in tones that couldn’t begin to console me, with words that couldn’t begin to make this right. He was also the only thread of sanity keeping me together. What was one life to that of the whole world?
Everything.
It was a price to be paid. I could accept that. What I could not accept was another person paying it. I sobbed, looking out at Glory as she rose and turned to face out the window. Despite the distance that separated us, I could still make out her smile as she stared back at me. I saw her lips move, but the words were stolen by the dull roar bursting into a cacophonous thunder. The computer said something I didn’t catch. Glory and the space center were gone from the window, and I staggered over to the communications terminal against crushing pressure and the shaking of the world.