Vasti tucked a strand of silver hair behind her head frills. "Nothing," she said. "I have nothing to say for myself. I did what I knew to be right."

"Good men died because of you."

It wasn't a lie. Those men had entangled themselves in something that was meant only for the stars. They turned out the lights, and the darkness smothered them. Still, she'd had a choice. Her or them.

"I did what I knew to be right," she whispered.

The commander's gills contorted with rage. "We could have powered half the city with those stones!"

"We didn't need them. She did."

Rage twists into something softer, yet more venomous. Disgust. "Your monster."

"She wasn't a monster."

"Not a monster." The commander's tentacles flexed. "You saw what was on that ship."

She had. The Cypod was...she gulped.

But she knew what a monster was, and she hadn't seen one that night.

"I'm putting you on a shuttle. Autopiloted, of course," he added, with more than a hint of contempt. "You'll await your trial on Vortexia. I can't tell you how lengthy your sentence will be, but I wouldn't make any plans for the future. Goodbye, Caretaker."

Sweet Amphibius, she deserved this. One life was not more than another. It was not her choice to make.

She let them down. She did what she knew to be right. They died because of her. It wasn't worth it, but it was. If she could go back, she would do it all over again.