.
The mission had failed, completely and catastrophically. We had lost. And we would go on losing.

Forever.

.
“They’re captives, but they’re still people. People with hopes, dreams, fears . . . . If Cleo’s mother loses her only remaining child, she will suffer, and that suffering will be real to her.”

.
“A bad chance is better’n no chance, girl, and right now, ‘no chance’ is where we’re sitting.”

.
The probe is like the first, tentative touch of a fickle and dangerous god. It is the howl of coyotes on a moonless night, the acrid smell of danger and the frisson of infinite possibility . . . .

“I don’t want to survive,” I said abruptly. “I want to win.”