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“But… no offense, but how did you swing this?”

  “There was an election,” she said, looking down, almost shy.

  “An election?” Turtle echoed. He barely knew the meaning of the word.

  “That’s right,” Scarn said. “And she didn’t even need your vote to put her over the top. Every zerked-out zombie on the ship watched those vids of her risking death to save them. When they got straightened out, they voted as a block. They all wanted someone to trust. Someone who wasn’t power-mad.”

  Turtle turned that over in his mind. To the natural way of thinking among all colonists, a strong leader was the only kind that made sense.

  But instead, the people had gone through a lot, and they wanted someone they could trust, someone who obviously cared for their well-being. The timing was good—it seemed like most of the rot and cancer had been cut away from Tarassis.

  “Well, I have to get down to Horticulture on the Ag Deck,” Scarn said.

  “The Ag deck…?” Turtle began.

  “Yeah,” Scarn said, “I got the captain here to give us work assignments in the best of the down-below.”

  “We’re working on that,” Neva said. “I’m sending patrols down there again, restoring order and fixing things.”

  “You’ll like it, I think,” Scarn said. “It turns out one of the people Neva saved was a real nice girl named Jenna. I think you might like her… after all, she works in Ag…”

  Scarn was smiling.

  “Really?” Turtle said as a grin began.

  “She’s a tall, dark-haired gardener and usually has a few weeds in her hair,” Scarn said. “You want the job?”

  Turtle shrugged. “I’ll give it a shot.”

  A week later, after they’d pulled the last of the needles out of his flesh, Turtle was whole again. He grinned the whole time he got into his clothes and made it down to the agricultural deck in record time. There he found peace as the great ship swung around to a new course.

  Secretly, they all still worried. The guests and the crew were at peace again, mostly because they had hope for the anticipated planetfall. Now, every day that passed brought them new information about their potential home, none of it terrible or disqualifying.

  For the time being, the crew and guests were at peace. Everyone wanted it to stay that way.

  Maybe, this time, it would.

  THE END

  From the Authors: Thanks Reader! I hope you enjoyed BLACK PHOENIX. If you liked the story and want to read more about Tarassis, please put up some stars and a review to support the book. If you’re a fan of another series, don’t worry, more are on the way!

  -BVL & WW

  More SF Books by B. V. Larson:

  The Undying Mercenaries Series:

  Steel World

  Dust World

  Tech World

  Machine World

  Death World

  Home World

  Rogue World

  Blood World

  Dark World

  Storm World

  Armor World

  Clone World

  Visit BVLarson.com for more information.

  More books by Wayne Wightman:

  Selection Event

  The Days That Remain

  Second Species

  Life/Afterlife