For years, Vasti wandered space alone. She had no home. No family, no friends. No purpose. Not anymore.

She thought of Vortexia often. Its aquamarine waves still sloshed in her mind. The sand burned between her feet, and colourful buildings painted the horizon. It was a place she'd taken for granted, even despised sometimes. She hated the way it placed her right at the very bottom of society. It didn't afford her the same dreams as others. Still, it was home. It was her.

She tried to imagine what Ceraphos would say if he were here. What would his reaction to her actions be? Shocked, angry? Scornful? Or would he guffaw in that stupid way of his, thinking she was joking, that she'd never condemn an entire ship full of people to death?

She couldn't picture it. Perhaps the woman who had sung to her like a mother had whisked his memory away along with the rest of him.

She didn't know what became of Phaedra, though she heard tales from travellers of fates similar to that suffered by Vortexia. Sometimes entire planets vanished, and only the ghost of singing remained. The gentle creature she'd sought to protect was a plague. Still, if she could go back to those moments, she knew she wouldn't have it in her to condemn Phaedra to death. She'd try to save her. She'd do the right thing, which was the wrong thing, all over again.

What that made her, she didn't know. And did it even matter, now that everything was gone?

The first time she saw the head frills framing Captain Desiris's aquiline features, she thought she was hallucinating. Then she was mad. She marched up to him indignantly, ready to demand an explanation for why he thought it was okay to impersonate a noble race that was no more, but when she locked gazes with him, she knew. He was no impersonator. He was Vortexian.

There had been other Vortexians who were off-planet when Vortexia was destroyed. Desiris had found them, scattered throughout the galaxy, and brought them all together. He aimed to start a new Vortexian colony, and was in search of an uninhabited planet with vast oceans and fertile land.

Vasti found herself clinging to this last shred of Vortexia. She joined Desiris, and with her determination and aptitude for learning, eventually found herself captaining the ship beside him. Desiris didn't mind her being female. The other Vortexians, who had travelled widely by now, no longer insisted on adhering to ancient traditions.

Eventually, they found a suitable planet. The waves weren't quite the same shade of aquamarine, and the city was enhanced with technology that didn't exist in the times of the old Vortexia, but it felt like home. Together with Desiris and the other surviving Vortexians, Vasti got to work building the Vortexia she'd always dreamed of.

In this new Vortexia, females could pilot shuttles. They could go into space and have grand adventures. It was a society that valued love and joy as much as it valued efficiency.

It was a society that Ceraphos would never see.

When sunlight meandered below the horizon, and dusk settled into the coral, Vasti wondered if it was worth it. They'd lost so much. Ceraphos wasn't here to paint the air with his stupid guffaw. Pallades wasn't here to glare at her, and Ceres wasn't here to have any more grand adventures. Yet, all around her was the Vortexia of her dreams.

Was it worth it?

Did she do the right thing?

Despite the years marching on, the universe never provided Vasti with those answers. During the day, she lived in the Vortexia of her dreams. In the stillness of night, with the gentle crash of waves on sand the only sound to be heard, she dreamed of another Vortexia. A Vortexia of rigid societal structures and limited opportunities. A place where her dreams were bottled. It glistened in her memory, like the embrace of a mother.