Lucian took Emma to South Shoal on the Lev. She watched the approaching nova-deco hotels rising from the canals in awe. Restaurants and bars spilled over the multitiered boardwalks, while artificial islands spread far into the distance, filled with sunbathers and swimmers. The sky was blue, the sun was bright, and the tall silvery skyscrapers were blinding in their brilliance.

  It was surreal to be back, if only in a simulation.

  Her eyes were glued to the window in wonder. “You grew up here? It’s beautiful!”

  He joined her at the window. “I didn’t grow up in this part. It’s where the rich people live.”

  For a moment, Lucian had forgotten that she was rich. He hoped she wouldn’t notice his gaffe.

  “Okay. Where do you live, then? By the water?”

  Lucian had to suppress a chuckle. “If you count a dirty canal that’s a klick or two inland, sure. I don’t live there anymore, though.”

  “I don’t care,” she said. “I want to see it. You saw my house on Aurora. It’s only fair for me to see where you grew up.”

  If she saw where he lived, she would be in for a rude shock. He wondered how he might distract her from that.

  “You’d rather see my dingy, sad apartment than the city? We only have an hour left.”

  “Yep!” she said without hesitation.

  It was hard to say no to her enthusiasm. Rather than shift there in an instant, Lucian and Emma boarded another train. He said it was to show her more of the city, but the truth was he was afraid of how she might react to his neighborhood and wanted time to mentally prepare. The inner canals could be pretty rough, and he wasn’t sure how accurately the sim would portray that.

  They got off at the station in Lucian’s neighborhood. The buildings crowded together, seeming to lean over the canals beneath. Most needed a new paint job. Homeless people in shabby clothing clustered in dark corners. Emma did not comment as they strolled along a walkway strewn with litter and broken glass, though she stood closer to him. He had been jumped here before, once when he was fifteen. He had carried a shock baton ever since.

  Soon, they stood before the familiar door, its outside coated with faded yellow paint. Though his home wasn’t much, he still felt a strange sense of longing for it. It made him realize just how far he was from everything.

  “This is it.”

  They went inside. Its interior was as Lucian remembered, from the ratty old sofa and armchair to the faded wooden dining table. The cluttered kitchen needed organizing, while the air was hot and stuffy. And it was loud. The shouts of neighbors outside, as well as the din of motorboats below, passed through the thin walls as if they weren’t even there. Even if he’d only been gone for a little over two weeks, it felt smaller than he was used to. Was that the simulation, or had his perception of it changed?

  Emma walked past him into the living room. It was strange having her here. She wore well-tailored, designer clothing, the same as she wore outside. That clothing would make her a target here. It only took a moment for her to take in her surroundings.

  “It’s homey,” she said. A table filled with framed pictures caught her interest. She picked up the largest one, with Lucian as a young teenager posing with his mother. She wore her League fleet blues, giving a stoic smile, while Lucian wasn’t smiling at all; his expression was dour.

  “You don’t look very happy here,” Emma said, smiling.

  “My mom was deploying,” he said. “I don’t know why she kept that picture.”

  It brought back memories, most of them unpleasant. Back then, Lucian hadn’t understood why his mom always had to go. Not having a father around only made things harder. After his death during the First Swarmer War, Lucian had always known it would only be a matter of time before it happened to his mother, too. By the grace of the stars, it hadn’t.

  Lucian pushed those old memories from his mind as he gave Emma a tour. It didn’t take long. When she was in his bedroom, she looked around and took everything in—pictures, posters, and random knickknacks he had collected over the years.

  “This is where the magic happens, huh?”

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  “Too soon for that.”

  “Oh. Right. Well, you know what I mean.”

  They returned to the living room.

  “That’s the tour,” Lucian said. “Now you know how the other side lives.”

  “I’m sure this area has a lot of history.”

  “I think you meant to say, your house is as old as sin.”

  Emma giggled. “No, I mean it! You live on Earth, the cradle of humanity. It’s something of a privilege, no matter what your station is, right?”

  Lucian wasn’t sure how to answer. Spacers often looked upon Earth with a sort of longing and reverence, and perhaps even envy. Everything Earthers took for granted—blue sky, wide oceans, temperate weather, free breathable air, real gravity—didn’t exist in space. Other worlds had those things, too, but not all of them at once.

  But the reality was that living on Earth was a form of purgatory. At least half of the population was unemployed, subsisting on monthly basic income checks that were never enough. Crime was rampant outside the guarded arcologies, and wealth disparity proved an insurmountable problem for the failing U.N. government. Though technically a subset of the League of Worlds, the sheer power of Earth and the U.N. drove most of the League’s policies.

  Lucian wasn’t sure how to put all that to Emma. To him, it seemed less cruel to let her believe in a dream she’d probably subscribed to her whole life.

  Emma sat down on the couch as if it were her own home. “I thought we might talk a bit more. If that’s all right?”

  “Yeah, of course,” Lucian said, taking a seat.

  She faced him. “So, is everything okay? You’re acting a bit . . . weird. If it’s about your house, I don’t care. That doesn’t matter to me.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you do. Why is money such a big deal to you?”

  “It’s not. It’s just that it’s a big deal to everyone else, so it becomes a big deal to me, too.” She watched him, waiting for more of an explanation. “I went to boarding school, right? Well, my mom couldn’t afford it, but I went anyway. The public school systems here are . . . well, awful. You need a private education to have a shot at a good government job.”

  “That was smart of her,” Emma said.

  “Yeah, it was,” Lucian agreed. “But I also didn’t fit in. Compared to everyone else, I was dirt poor. I begged to go somewhere else. But with Mom on active duty, that wasn’t possible. When it got out where I lived, the kids made fun of me. If you don’t live in an arcology, you’re invisible to a lot of people.” He forced a humorless laugh. “I don’t know, maybe I carry some of that with me still.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” Emma said. “I guess your reaction makes sense.”

  Had she understood him so easily? Past girlfriends would have somehow used his past to make him feel guilty. Emma, though, seemed to understand him without his having to defend himself.

  “I appreciate that. I know it’s not fair to you. I have no reason to think you’re like most of the people I’ve met. Old habits die hard, I guess.”

  “Yeah, my parents are rich, but how do you think it makes me feel when people think I’m too good for them? Some rich people are snotty, sure, but I never grew up like that. I lived most of my life in a log cabin on a frontier world. I knew we were rich, but not how rich until we moved to L5. And even then, I was too sick to enjoy that wealth.”

  “I’m sorry. That makes sense.”

  “It’s fine,” Emma said. “We understand each other now, right?” Her gaze went back to the picture. “Was your mom really away from home a lot?”

  Lucian nodded. “Most of the time. I’ve had to take care of myself since the age of ten. If not earlier.”

  She smiled as if something had clicked into place. “So that’s where you get it from. All this macho, self-sufficiency stuff?”

  “Maybe. It has made me who I am today, for better or for worse.”

  “I can’t imagine,” Emma said. “My parents have always been there for me. Too there if you know what I mean.”

  “I can’t imagine that.”

  “I’m missing them a lot, though. But what choice did I have? If I don’t do this, then . . .”

  She trailed off, leaving the rest unsaid. Lucian waited for her to finish, but she never did.

  He broke the silence. “You’re not used to being alone, are you?”

  She shook her head, and tears came to her eyes. “No. I wish I could be more like you, but that’s just not me.”

  That explained why she had been so trusting of him from the beginning. If Lucian had been a different kind of person, that could have worked out badly for her. Her whole life, anytime she had fallen, someone had been there to catch her. Now, she saw him as her net.

  Even with everything he had to worry about, he couldn’t deny how he felt. With her, he could forget himself for a moment, forget the pain of his past and feel . . . hopeful again. Things had been so dark and lonely, and everything in his life seemed to be going wrong.

  Everything except her.

  “Can I ask you something, Lucian?”

  He cleared his throat. “Sure.”

  She gave an embarrassed smile. “This might sound silly, but . . . if there’s ever a time I need you, would you be there for me? No matter what?”

  They were binding words. Lucian thought about them and knew he couldn’t answer this lightly.

  “Absolutely.”

  “Would you think less of me for it?”

  “No.”

  “What about the other way around? If you ever need me for something, would you ask for help?”

  Of course, he saw the point of her question. And even if the truth was staring him in the face—that he was afraid of asking for help, of needing someone—it was the last thing he wanted to admit.

  “You’re a tricky one,” Lucian said.

  “Well?”

  “If I needed help, I would ask for it,” Lucian said. “But only if I really needed it.”

  “Well, that’s better than nothing.”

  Her expression became distant. Part of him wanted to scream that he did need her. But the words wouldn’t come, as if his throat were stopped up. He couldn’t just reprogram his mind after years of self-indoctrination. It wasn’t that easy.

  Then again, when he looked at her, he felt himself beginning to thaw. Maybe this time, trusting was the right thing to do.

  “Emma?”

  When she looked at him, he took her hand and stood with her. They faced each other for a moment, meeting each other’s eyes. His heart thundered against his chest as he moved his lips closer to hers . . .

  That was when she screamed and disappeared.