Del’sera was fuming. The tears were in her eyes, and she did nothing to stop them. She was leaving them behind; Mar’enn, little Del’anra. The science council would go after them all if she took Del’anra with her. She knew the child would be safe with Mar’enn. Trapped, forced to live without emotion. But safe.

Safer than Del’sera would be. Many had come to the big generation-ships. All united in their disagreement with the science council’s rules. But all for different reasons. The majority wanted to express their emotion freely, risk the conflicts because to feel was what it meant to be Vulcan.

But there were others. Youths who saw a chance to rebel against their parents they would likely regret taking. Religious fanatics whose customs were merely strange, but also ones whose customs were atrocious, both of which the science council had banned. Scientists whose science was no longer desired. Weapon smiths, poison brewers, spaceship builders who had built the great conquering engines. Royalists who wanted to unite the entire world under an Empress. Criminals who merely saw a chance at escaping punishment.

And they all needed each other. The emotionalists had the just cause, the public perception of legitimacy that pockets of the world-net were still arguing about. The criminals had the funds. The scientists the know-how.

Where the emotionalists feared the end of life as they knew it, the royalists had the drive to work towards a future of unity, of fairy-tale prosperity. They had the charisma and the stories that gave the downtrodden hope and a concrete goal:

Find a New World. A hallowed land. A place where they all would have enough food. Dry air to breathe. And be allowed to live as Vulcans were meant to live.

But Mar’enn had made it clear that the child would not come with. She was too young, it was too dangerous. And Del’sera knew he was right, which was why she had acquiesced to only sending a timed dispatch. Locked until they were scheduled to lift off. Del’anra would know that her mother had not left her behind lightly. But she wouldn’t be able to recklessly storm after her.

But wasn’t it the right of a Vulcan to be reckless? Wasn’t that why they were taking this leap? A distant world, hot, dry, with pockets of water, fierce vegetation, tall peaks and wide deserts, just what one needed to live.