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the rest was just noise.
    After her mother’s death, this clip, and the hope it represented, gave Meriel something to hold onto and sustained her with the dream of a home for the orphans. She and Elizabeth dreamed about Home and researched it obsessively. Even after the troopers put all the orphans into protective custody and fostered them out on different ships, Meriel and Elizabeth searched the archives for different versions of this video clip that might give them additional clues.
    But before that first year ran out, the dream was gone. When Meriel was just thirteen, too young to protest, they gave her a psych evaluation and put her on meds to control her nightmares. The meds numbed her emotions, and she stopped caring about pretty much everybody and everything and hid herself in her work. She never told Elizabeth she had lost faith in Home, and she excused her apathy by calling the vid an amateur production, a teaser for a screenplay. By then it was too late; the social workers contracted Meriel out to another ship to split her from her sister, and Meriel drifted away.
    So what can I do now? she thought, playing with the sim-chip. In less than twenty days, the Princess will be gone and this will only be a dongle.
    Meriel put the sim-chip back on her necklace and fiddled with it while she switched back to her incoming messages.
     
    Elizabeth K ET 2187:58:14.3
    Hey, M, miss u!
    I finished nav-2 training and am ready to solo, not that I really need to solo, but I can’t rightly tell the test committee I jumped a ship when I was ten, now, can I.
    Met Penny at her last stop at eIndi. Some pretty face on the Murititius has turned her into a love-sick puppy. He’s sweet but dull as a bolt.
    M, regarding your last question about my well-being…squawk…hiss…reception is breaking up. Ha. How am I doing? Feeling low. My LI (love interest) swapped ships for a promotion, and I won’t see him for at least a month. I don’t know if it was me or the new contract, but either way, he dumped me. That leaves me the only eligible female on the boat. His replacement is a horror, some hairy beast who thinks he’s gonna move in, and I can’t be caught alone. There’s a slot in security on the Tjana that matches my marine-2 qual. If the troll persists, I’ll transfer.
    I’ll be at Etna about the time you are, and maybe we can meet. LU always. Littlebit.
     
    Crap! I don’t want her dragging spacers out of a drunk tank .
    “Reply,” Meriel said to the console. “Sis, we want you on the bridge, not in security. Don’t volunteer to be in the line of fire yet. Stay with comm for now; it’s safer. And use the marine training to tame your admirers.” What can I tell her about the Princess that would be helpful? Nothing. “Bad news from the lawyers. I’ll tell you when I see you. Love, M. End reply.”
    She clicked on the message from twelve-year-old Harry Fisher, who still missed his older sister, Anita. A vid of Harry popped up. It looked like he was in his bunk with the covers over his head.
    “Meri. I wanna be with Anni,” Harry said on the vid. “I don’t like it here. The captain’s fine, and Ms. Lanceux is OK, but the kids tease me about being a foster. They play pirates all the time, and it’s creepy. They don’t get it, and I can’t tell them.
    “I haven’t seen Anni in a year, M, and I’m not gonna see her for another month. I want to be with Anni, M. Please, please, please.”
    God, what do I say to him ? she thought . His fosters have their own plans, and they’re never gonna put him back with Anita.
    “Reply. Audio,” Meriel said aloud. “Begin. Harry, hon, hang in there. I’ll do what I can. The logs show you at Cygni about the same time as Sam. I’ll make sure that you touch base. M. Stop. Send.”
    Harry’s birthday is coming up . That’s the worst of this, not having family at your birthday. It’s like celebrating on an asteroid all by yourself. Sure, friends help, but family is different.