447

[Alley]

A few minutes later, the Gallic pilot was dead, her consciousness turned upside down, absorbed by Kate Miller. Her knowledge, her experience and choices, Kate knew them all now.

"She had a daughter. Six years old."
"Freedom is not so easily obtained."
"Let’s just finish the job. According to what I’ve gathered from her, the artifact will have effect over the whole ship, aside from the Bridge. They’ve got a second shield all over it. Nothing I can’t manage."

Kate Miller was disturbed. Killing criminals was one thing, killing a mother, no matter if she was part of the enemy, was a whole different deal. She realized her acts stripped a little girl of her mother, and she would never see her again. Does anything really warrant that we hurt innocent people? The real question was in itself, "am I still even human anymore?"

Meanwhile, Aurora absorbed the Bastet inside it while Kate turned on the newly acquired Gallic Lynx, quickly having a look at the controls she already knew perfectly thanks to the Gallic. The fly path to return to the Valor they spotted earlier was in the ship. She entered the appropriate commands, heading toward it.

Fifteen minutes later, the Valor was in visual range. Interestingly, it didn’t have the usual escorts. In fact, it had none. “This is not normal… Where are they all?” thought Kate.

This valor seemed to be larger than the one she had seen until now.
Was it really the one they saw earlier?

---

Alley was right.