Cat knew that the time for her long sleep in cryo was coming fast. Nobody had told her as much, but she could guess. The trustee that cleaned the holding cells told her that something was going on with the surviving Martians on Hell. The ones that didn't want to live with the rest of them had been sent to Hell under the Reyjak's supervision. Restless and plotting revenge was the way the trustee had described it to her. Their numbers had increased as more colony ships arrived. Almost one every five months. On each ship lay hidden a secret Martian cell waiting to strike. The Peacekeepers found out about them and quickly dispatched them with the others in Hell. They started to get nervous about Cat. Afraid she would rise from her imprisonment to lead them. As if she would. Disillusioned, riddled with guilt and repentant; she wouldn't even dare to think about helping the Martian cause. She was done with trying to reshape the society she lived in. Done trying to impose her view of a perfect world to others. All she wanted now was to forget.

Cryo would solve all her problems... and their's. She would in time be forgotten. The Martians would calm down. She would lay forgotten for sixty years in some obscure lab being monitored. She would leave in 2290 and wake up again in 2350 in a world that would hopefully be changed. She would be out of time but she would have a second chance to fit in at last. She hadn't been able to do that until she met Zack five years ago. He made her feel like she had belonged. He had this easy way about him that had made her comfortable with her life. Being Catherine Fairfax had been her way of mocking the coalition and their perfect way of life. She had tried to be the model citizen. It all had been a joke to her... until she met him. She fell for that poor scrawny boy before she even knew it. They were officially the same age. Him, small, thin and dirty. She, tall, beautiful and genetically designed to be without flaws.

But she had one flaw. She never seemed to fit in, to belong anywhere she went. Even at home, she'd been treated like an outsider. Like an Earther. When she first arrived at the military academy, she only spoke Martian Dutch and being the language of the higher families that made her look snobbish and reserved. The military unit she'd trained with had been too disgusted with her to try to befriend her. At first, they had laughed at the frail girl the high command had sent to train with them. They didn't laugh long when they got to know her and her moods. When the feelings took hold of her, she would try to isolate herself from the others. That hadn't always worked and on their last mission, after years of hidden bullying. She had killed one of them in a very bad way. Another Martian soldier like her who hated her from the first day. She changed after that, lost her innocence so to speak and she found herself more alone than ever.

But Zack had taken away that feeling of alienation. He'd made her feel like a regular girl, comfortable with herself and her life. He'd been her anchor. Her pivot. She regained some control over the feelings. Recognized the signs when they manifested and controlled them even before the chemical imbalance would affect her brain. She would retreat to some obscure part of the ship and ride it out. That had worked for a while until... Jabrina. She'd confessed her love to Zack just before leaving Earth's orbit on the four-year voyage here. Zack, surprised from being loved by the most beautiful girl on the Terra Nova, found himself returning her feelings. He still went to see Jabrina at her cryochamber every day. Cat had followed him one day, wondering where he went. She hadn't minded, Jabrina was only a frozen body amongst hundreds of them.

But when Jab woke up, everything changed in Zack's attitude. He didn't even notice it himself. But she did. Every time Jab ended up in the hospital. He was there. He got the Herrezen ready for her satellite seeding trip. Checking and rechecking every part of that old ship maniacally to ensure she would have a safe trip. All the little thing he did for her unconsciously. All those little things he never did for Cat. She had known when Jabrina Murakami woke up from cryosleep that she would loose him.

And she did.

It drove her back to her old self. That implacable chemical demon that tried to control her finally won. She gave up and became the Commander. She was now paying for it with nightmares that threatened to drive her insane. Insane with guilt. Her father, her mother, even her grandfather had firmly believed in the Martian cause. They, as far as she knew, had never been plagued with remorse at what they had to do for the cause. She, on the other hand, had started to have doubts when she met Zack. She had been led to believe that Earthlings were arrogant. That imperial Earth wanted the solar system's colonies to perish. What she saw was a desperate people trying to get off a dying planet and willing to take their brothers from the other colonies with them. They even established a permanent space bridge between Earth and Aurora so that anyone was welcome to come to Aurora if they wanted to. She saw a humbled people accept the rule of the Reyjak Queen as a condition for their stay on Aurora. They would have to submit to her ruling and guidance. That was not arrogance.

One day, as every day before that just after dinner, they brought her out of her cell to take a shower. She was under the supervision of a cadet. Amy Park. She was wearing her training armor with obvious pride. She looked happy and content with her new life and Catherine envied her. She told her so.

"Really? I mean, you're a convicted felon and I'm an aspiring Peacekeeper but... you don't seem like the lingering type. You know, you look like you've got a strong personality. The kind that can overcome any obstacles." Amy said to her from the door of the women's facilities.

"You mistake me for Jabrina. She's the one with the strong personality." Cat replied.

"Are you kidding? Jab's got more flaws than New York's got stop lights."

"Funny expression."

"My dad used to say it all the time. He loved New York city."

"I've never been on Earth. How's it like?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. I was sent hidden in a passenger ship to Mars and from there made my way to the Terra Nova. I only saw Earth from space and it didn't look too impressive. Storms and blowing sand. A lot like Mars." Cat said, drying herself.

"My dad told me that Earth resembled Aurora a long time ago. Blue, white clouds swirling, lightning flashes. We messed it up didn't we?" Amy said dejected.

"We all did. The war my grandfather waged didn't help." Cat reached for her bag and it fell to the floor. Amy bent down to pick it up and Catherine hit her behind the neck with a vicious chop. She fell to the ground unconscious.

"Sorry." Cat said as she passed the unconscious girl lying on the shower room's wet floor. Cat checked the outside corridor. Nobody. She went back to Amy and proceeded to remove the girl's armor. She knew she only had a few minutes before someone came to check on Amy's prolonged absence. Amy was a tall girl and her armor would fit in a pinch. She disabled the A. I. before it could alert the others. She had studied the Peacekeeper's armor when they made The Commander's armor with parts from the one Colonel Thonarr had used. This one wasn't much different. A few minutes after reinitializing the A. I., she felt the armor's artificial muscles wake up. It became much lighter and the helmet reformed around Cat's head, hiding her features.

She had to get out. She just had to.

As Cat had feared, the Peacekeepers were put on high alert twenty minutes after she had passed the Terra Nova's main doors. Charles Park found Amy's unconscious body when she failed to report in. He revived her and helped her sit down. She groggily came back to.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Where is your prisoner cadet?" Sleepy asked her.

Amy looked around slowly realizing what the situation was. Her eyes widened in horror as comprehension set in. "Oh no! No, no, no, no! I'm so sorry! She surprised me. Oh God no!"

"Calm down cadet... Amy. Try to remember the last thing you saw." Sleepy asked her with a soothing voice, trying to calm the panicked girl.

"We were talking about... ruining the Earth and... she dropped her bag on the floor and I bent down to pick it up..." Amy said hesitantly.

"Classic. She makes you comfortable in her presence and sets up a situation where you bend down in front of her conveniently offering your neck for her to hit. You were expertly played like a damn fiddle kid. Christ, we're really gonna get it this time. We lost a war criminal convicted of a triple life sentence."

"We should call Lieutenant Murakami first, she'll know what to do. If we tell the Colonel, we're dead." Amy said with an involuntary shudder.

"You lost her, you call her kid."

"Seriously? Big guy like you. Afraid of a little girl like Jabrina?" Amy said to Charles.

"Who's afraid of me?" Jab said as she entered the showers.

Both Parks screamed in surprise making Jabrina jump.

"What did you do?" She asked fearing the worse.

"We lost Cat. She escaped." They both said in sync.

"Taku. (Jeez)" Jab rolled her eyes skyward. "Not again. She knows there is no place where she can hide. She'll get ripped to pieces out there. She was the Martian head of their secret police, their enforcer, their Commander. God, how are we gonna explain that one to Althea?"

"Explain what to me now?" Colonel Althea Thonarr said as she entered the showers.

Now the three of them jumped and screamed.

"Althea! How are you? What are you doing here?" Jab said nervously.

"High alert. I'm the head Peacekeeper. I was alerted. Why?" She looked at the three of them from the height of her six feet. She sighed. "I was having such a good day. What happened? Miss Nightmare again? Can't you watch one little girl? She's without super-strength. Isn't she?" She said as she looked inquiringly at Jab.

"Yes ma'am. But she still has her training." Her comm bracelet chimed. "I think I know where she is ma'am."

They all looked at her, waiting for an explanation.

"She used to sit at the tables at the main doors to watch the sunrises and the sunsets. Nowadays, she can't do this anymore. She'll be recognized if she shows her face in a public place." Jab said.

"Go on Murakami." Thonarr was growing impatient.

"I installed a security system at my new house. I'm a bit too popular for my own taste and it's a security measure against curious people who do anything to see a famous person. Esperanza lives with me now and..."

"Gort. That ten foot tall Juggernaut that won't go away." Thonarr finished for her.

The monstrous humanoids that the Reyjaks had used as battering rams were supposed to retire and turn back to their sleeping form when they were not needed. The Juggernaut assigned to Jab had never returned to his hibernating ball form. Nobody knew why. Even the Reyjaks were baffled. For their defense, the Reyjaks hadn't seen their previous warmongering technology for five centuries.

"Yes Gort. I don't know what he'll do to an intruder. Anyways, I just got alerted that the motion sensors detected something moving in my backyard. Makes sense. My house is the last place I would expect her to hide." Jab said, resetting her alarm.

"Why go to all that trouble to end up in the backyard of the one you know will be looking for you? Makes no sense." Sleepy said.

"Could you bring Amy to the infirmary. I want that head of hers checked." Thonarr said.

Both Parks left. Thonarr turned an inquisitive look at Jab.

"I can bring her back without a fuss but I need to do it alone. I think she went to my house so she would not be disturbed for a while." Jab said.

"Why?"

"To see the sunset. One last sunset before sixty years of cryosleep."