“You’re saying those are the same ones that wiped out my whole drop group!?” Sam continued in shocked disbelief.

“We are awaiting data retrieval but, until then, Sam, I can’t repeat myself enough. You two need to assume the absolute worst and get on that damned shuttle the absolute second they clear you two.”

Sam couldn’t help but look back at Sebastian who was holding his mobile in hand, motionless, call disconnected. “Dad, let me call you back in exactly one minute,” she spoke without looking back as she too disconnected the call. Putting the phone away hastily, she hurried to his side. “Sebastian, I know now’s not the time but I think we are being hunted.”

[He was right,] he struggled through his anxiety, incapable of speaking words she would understand. [I should’ve been there- I need to go back, now].

“Hey, listen, we…” she paused, seeing her incessant ways would only make things worse. She then thought to herself that the offered invitation to escape the country would even possibly anger him beyond repair. In that same moment, she even started to feel traces of frustration that once again things were laid out for her to simply follow. “You know what? Let me help this time!” she spoke as she had to stop him from dialing out a call. “You,” she now said with a calmer tone, “you came all the way out here for me. I can go all the way back with you so we can check on your family. They need you more than anyone back home needs me. They can wait another day.”

“I… I can’t lose any more people like this. Don’t be another name on the list,” he said back to her through the flurry of emotions running through his head. “I heard your father. He is a good man. Tell him thank you for the offer. I need to go back, now.”

As he once again headed back the direction from which they came, she could only call out from behind him. “Sebastian, hold on!” The panic, fear that her indecisiveness would once again be the cause for losses not only on her end but on others’ as well. Her only escape back to the safety of her home was one shuttle away, one step beyond the gate just behind her.

“Miss, we have clearance for your partner now, but we can’t wait any longer,” the officer next to her spoke up as he tapped his watch.

But, to her, the only reason she had made it this far was now walking away from her. She knew that following him would be guaranteeing absolutely nothing, and that her father was likely correct. Her ultimate demise out of one’s act of revenge was highly likely as far as any of them could tell. She could be walking into a path that would never get her back home, but something had changed her resolve that instant. “No, I need to start sticking to my decisions,” she said aloud subconsciously.

“Sorry?” the officer returned in confusion.

“I have to go, too!” she blurted out, realizing her response wouldn’t have made any sense. She tore off after Sebastian, leaving the officers in a lost but accepting position as they closed the gate. “Wait!” she continued to shout to Sebastian.

“Samantha, what are you doing?!” he responded both puzzled and upset, stopping to question her. “You need to get home! That is your only way out!”

“I can explain!” she continued, finally catching up to him. “Remember what you asked me? You said, ‘Why did you come to Colombia?’, remember? Well, I never figured that one out,” she said as he started to look frustrated at the waste of his time. “But it’s because it doesn’t matter anymore! I figured out why I will stay!”

“I don’t have time for this,” he snapped back, breaking free from her as he hurried off.

“Then let me talk while we run together!” she huffed, catching up and keeping pace.

“Go get on that shuttle! You wasted everyone’s effort if you don’t!” he continued to argue, no longer looking back at her.

Sam was now throwing the anger and frustration back at him as she continued keeping their jogging pace, side by side down the connection hallway, attracting the attention of the others passing by as she replied: “That’s not how it is- that’s not how any of it is! Let me explain, damn it!”

“What do you want!?” Sebastian now shouted back in a voice that shook her core. Both were now stopped in the middle of the corridor, staring at each other. “I have a brother and sister who need me! I need to go see them! You!… you need to be-”

“-With you,” Sam interrupted with a broken voice.

“With… what?”

Sam couldn’t continue holding gaze as her focus fell to the floor. “I don’t know how to be open about what I want, OK? That’s always been my problem.” She felt the need to back up and turn back towards the shuttle departure terminal where she had left moments ago. What… What was I thinking?! As her feet just started to slowly drag her that direction, she could hear Sebastian’s heavy sigh.

“But… you said…”

“I think I said too much,” she mumbled back as she turned away. “My life really needed a reset. Thank you for at least-”

“-Wait” he said as he grabbed her wrist to stop her.

“Oh, now you want to talk?” she said with her guard back up. She was then briskly pulled back the other direction along with him as she awkwardly fought back. “Hey, what the hell!?”

“You said you wanted to be with me, so now you have to go same speed as me and same direction as me,” he bluntly retorted, keeping focus ahead, suddenly feeling as if something was calming him down.

“What the hell? That’s not what I meant, clearly!” she dryly fussed back, freeing her wrist from his grip. “I meant-”

“I know what you meant,” he said in a less sharp tone. “Show me if you were serious, because I have to stay serious for now, OK?”

Sam had forgotten what it was like to feel herself fighting back a blush, unable to send a proper response back. “I was- I mean, I am.” Internally, she was smacking her forehead as she thought: When the hell did I become some damn awkward. This whole train back is about to be the most awkward day of my life.

“This is going to be uh… how do you say…”

Read my mind. “Awkward?”

“Is that the word?” he asked as he fumbled around for his boarding pass.

“Hold on, stop real quick,” she said as she carefully reached inside his inner jacket pocket to reveal the boarding pass she noticed him putting away earlier. “There,” she said with a bit more relaxed smile.

“Oh, thanks, yes this is going to be awkward. Very awkward train back, but we must get going,” he said, unable to return the relaxed look as he was not only still caught off guard, but had been hit with a reaction he wouldn’t have been capable of imagining.

The two were now once again sitting in a similar setting as their trip there prior. Everything up until this point was a blur. So many conflicting thoughts and unexpected turns had Sam still reeling emotionally. She was still unable to come up with a proper response to the question she knew still remained unanswered. Sebastian was still on his mobile via earpiece, watching him look out the window as he had been long talking between calls to Infinity operatives from Cuba CCC (Communications & Command Center), the Vera’s from Downtown Bogota, and the hospital to which his siblings and the other pilot were rushed to. The least she felt she could do was patiently wait while he finished his business. It didn’t stop her from frantically searching for the best words to speak once he was done, however.

[Thank you. Tell him I will be there in about an hour,] Sebastian replied to the other end of the line before disconnecting. He let out a long sigh of relief as he put away his mobile and headset, attempting to rub the stress from his face. “Renzo is awake, now. He is responding to the doctors.”

“Oh, that was the hospital? About time they gave you some good news. What about Dani?”

“ICU,” he said as he looked back to his watch, looking at the time. “They think she is stable, now, but that’s why I want to hurry. I don’t like this. At all.”

Sam never found any words to start to explain how she felt. Her hands instead found their way over his tense, tired hands that rested on the table top separating the two. “You’ve always been there for me. That’s what changed my mind.” Perhaps it was the warmth she hadn’t felt since the first day they met that gave her the sudden confidence to express what had remained balled up inside. “It wasn’t just because you rescued me. It was every other moment when I needed someone to be there for me that you were always there. I want to be there for you, now.” She then gathered the strength to look back up to him, seeing that he was looking still at the table. “I don’t know what made me come here, but I am done doing what is either expected of me or what is laid out for me. Today, I start doing what I want to do. Saying what I want to say. And I am not going home, yet. I chose to stay with you and I don’t care why.”

“You are good at words,” he chuckled as he shook his head, loosening himself up a bit from the stress that still had him wrapped up. “Boss said you had a dangerous mouth and that I should watch out for you.” He then looked back at her with an equally calmed smile. “I have been trying so hard… so hard my whole life… to help who I can because no one else helped me or my brother or sister. Maybe I need to let others help, and not get mad when they try.” He started laughing under his breath again, confused but unable to stop. “I am so bad with words.” He took his hands and put them around hers, finding the words he had been looking for as well. “Thank you, Samantha. I need to let you speak more. I need to listen, more.”

“Please, just, Sam,” she smiled back, now finding herself beginning to laugh under her breath as if it were over a week of confused emotions finding their way out, relaxing both of them. “I had been wanting to tell you that since day one.”

●　● Akkadia One, Eden Space Territories

Al’s office was less chaotic than it was compared to his first week. Less screens were open at the same time, but the sense of haste from him had remained unchanged. He turned his chair to look at a set of materials delivery schedules and orbital drops on one screen as a chime rang out from one of his devices. Without looking or shifting direction he clicked a button on his headset. “Yes… hold on Amelie, one second,” he spoke as he continued rearranging schedules while reaching over with his left hand to silence another program temporarily. “OK. I can hear you now.”

“I take it the silence means Sam changed her mind,” she stated in a depressed tone.

“I never did call her back. I mean, she sounded upset. I think she has attachments we won’t be able to comprehend at this point in time,” replied, still working around supervision and schedule conflicts on the other screen.

“She hung up, first? Didn’t you offer to cover the boy as well?”

“Of course, I did. I already had a means to get him fully accounted for. All they had to do was pass through one last gate. Maybe Sam has other priorities, now?”

“I fear more and more every day ever since she left that she might end up going down the same path Isaiah did… now this has me thinking she has.”

No, that’s not it. Al paused his work for a moment in thought upon hearing that line. “I, however, fear that one day it might be our own doing that pushes Sam down the same path as Isaiah. That, Amelie, is why I have elected not to call Sam back.”

“Knowingly allowing her to put herself in the most dangerous position possible?!” Amelie fussed back in a flash of anger.

“I told you, I couldn’t. I can’t,” he said as he rubbed his brow. “I offer what I can. I can only let her make the decisions as of late.”

“You know this was all your fault she took off to that hell hole in the first place, just so you don’t forget.”

“Hell hole? She had a whole entire family network voluntarily protecting her from day one. Sounds like anything but Hell to me. And my fault? I didn’t make any decisions for her- damn it Amelie she is a full grown twenty-five year old adult. Why are we still pushing her to make choices we arrange for her?”

“Because she still can’t do it on her own, clearly!”

“Clearly she can or she’d be on that damn shuttle! Ugh, I’ve got work to do,” he huffed as he disconnected the call, quickly getting back to where he was on screen. Sam, he thought to himself, taking one last pause before fully refocusing on his duties, please tell me you know what you are doing. Even I know you won’t come back at this rate.