Chapter 1: The Beginning

Dr. Amara Osei had spent fourteen years studying the night sky and exactly zero of them learning how to apologize. Which made the current situation — standing in the rain outside the observatory with a ruined conference poster and an audience of one — particularly challenging.

"I was right," she said, because that was always the place she started.

"I know you were," said Dr. Jin Park. He didn't look smug about it, which she found somehow more infuriating. "That's never been the part I disagreed with."

The rain drummed against the dome above them. Somewhere inside, two hundred astronomers were networking over mediocre wine, completely unaware that the most important conversation of the decade was happening out here in the cold.

"The planet," she said carefully, "is real."

"Yes."

"And it is mine."

He was quiet for a moment. "The universe doesn't belong to anyone, Amara. That's kind of the whole point."