This was their choice.
She remembered this as the Yang Liwei drifted amongst the stars. Her husband was currently on the bridge - one of the ship's navigators. Alice Li had been nervous about something and called him away. There was growing tension the further they moved away from earth. Away from the Traveler. It was thick in the air. Suffocating.
Puavirna hugged herself, her fingers ghosting over the secret inside her. Truth be told, she didn't realize until they were already underway. Her husband opted for her to stay out of cryo because of it. They would worry about telling the captain later. There was to much unknown until they left Sol system. Away from the coming conflict.
Fingers reach out to press against the glass between her and the cosmic sea outside. Her unease gripped her core as she steadied herself against the window.
She recalled her dream - the one she had over and over. It was her mother who sat with her in their sunroom. They shared a plate of her favorite: apple slices, of which her mother cut the apple into three distinct slivers. Puavirna hadn’t seen her mother in so long since her passing over thirty years ago. The older woman, who remained mostly quiet, eventually spoke up with something that shocked and confused her. She told her it was okay to go. To leave. Her right eye twinkled like a brilliant star as she smiled with such profound sorrow and renewed hope.
‘Perhaps you will escape them,’ she said. ‘Perhaps this time will be different.’
The childish part of Puavirna wanted to protest. To demand answers, but the look the woman gave her, made her all but weep. After a few weeks of the recurring dream, her husband returned home, bringing her news about the Exodus ship projects. It was then she made up her mind. She would go. For now.
To a place where she would raise her children. So that one day... perhaps they could return home.
She would-