In quieter hours, when there isn't another emergency, another fear-fueled escape from catastrophe, another desperate struggle to keep just one step ahead of their pursuers, John sometimes thinks about Crais.

A guy from what John understands is a one-horse kind of planet, drafted into the Peacekeepers rather than born to the life, and who clawed his way into senior command by the strength of his will--and brought his brother along with him.

Compared to the lives of his current companions: a creche-raised fighter pilot with limited compassion or empathy; a deposed dictator who grew up in a fishpond; and a plant -- well, by comparison, John wonders if he could have gotten along with Bialar Crais, if things had gone just a little bit differently.