Grace handed her daughter a cup of hot tea and dropped into the opposite seat seat of the booth in one of the many cafes on Skygarden. Their booth was on a balcony which overlooked a concourse lined with trees which let to the shuttle bays; their next stop after breakfast. Skygarden operated independently of its host planet and kept its own time, so it was late evening for the few other people in the cafe. The lighting on the station operated on an earth-standard twenty-four hour cycle.

The trees lining the paths below were under lit by soft blue spots and cast their shadows throughout the cafe. It was night on the planet below too. It hung in space as circle of black against the glittering fabric of night, but the rim of the world was already glowing with the promise of sunrise.

Tila accepted the cup wordlessly and curled her fingers around the ceramic unworried by the heat. She sat sideways on the padded bench seat, one foot tucked under the other leg, her shoulder pressed against the seat back. Grace sipped her own tea while Tila stared over the balcony to the concourse below. Tila could see the final preparations taking place which would take them all back home. Back to the Juggernaut, anyway.

'How much?' Grace asked.

'Huh?' said Tila, startled back to the moment.

'For your thoughts. How much? It looks like a penny won't be enough.'

'Oh.' Tila turned back to the view below, and Grace could tell that although she was only sitting the other side of the table she was also light-years away.

'Are you thinking about going home?'

Tila shuffled around in her seat to face her mother until both feet were on the floor. 'Is the Juggernaut my home? Still my home?'

'I don't know. Is it?' Grace said gently.

Tila turned back to the concourse, hands still wrapped around the mug.

'You're not my little girl anymore, are you? I found you again, but you're not the same person you were. Of course you couldn't be after all this time, I know that, but...' Grace left the sentence hanging.

'None of us are,' said Tila.

'True. Time changes everything, doesn't it? And even though I know not every change is for the good, some things are. You understand that, don't you, Tila? You've grown up. You've looked after yourself and you look after others.'

Tila looked at her cup rather than her mother. Surface ripples shimmered under the overhead lights.

'Some people at home think I don't care about others.'

'Do you mean Theodore Chambers?'

Tila couldn't hide her surprise this time and looked up. 'How do you you know about him?'

'I've been in touch, thanks to Malachi. Mr Chambers had some things to say about you.'

'I'm sure he did. We don't exactly get along.'

'You could, if you want to, I think.'

'He's the one who thinks I don't care.'

'You care about different things. You have different responsibilities. He has to be responsible for everyone in your community, just like I did when I was a captain. But you don't have anything keeping you there but your choices, and you chose to stay there, didn't you.'

'It was the best option I had at the time.'

'You've been there a long time. Longer than you stayed anywhere else from what I understand.'

'Like I said, it was the best option.'

'Compared to what? What else have you been up to that last twelve years? What happened to you before the Juggernaut?'

'Maybe I'll tell you sometime.'

'We have all the time you need.'

Tila smiled shyly into her cup. It was still strange, speaking with someone you thought was gone forever. She wondered if she would ever get used to it. She hoped not. No one should take a mother for granted.

'Theo has never said anything to me like that,' said Tila to change the subject.

'Did you ever ask?'

'Well, no. He would shout at me.'

'He said you would shout at him.'

'That's right, because he shouted at me.'

'Malachi said you would say that.'

'Malachi? What else has he been telling you?'

'Mainly how different you and his father are. It doesn't surprise me, from the little I know of him. He sounds like one of life's politicians, or one of life's negotiators. He has to spend a lot of time mediating to get results, whereas you...' She left the obvious conclusion unspoken.

'I think people talk too much,' Tila said.

'Some people do,' her mother agreed, 'and sometimes it's necessary to get the job done. Not everything can be resolved with anger and fists, and whatever that is.' She pointed at Tila's staff. 'And sometimes you have to care to get the job done. Theodore cares for the community, for everyone in it. Not like you.'

'I care. You just said I care.'

'I don't mean you don't care at all. I mean you care for those you are close to. You're like a fire that warms the people you care about and burns everyone else. You care about individuals. And about one in particular.'

'Ellie.'

'I know you love both of your friends. When we were on the Solar Forge it was obvious. And Malachi told me what you tried to do when you thought Ellie was lost.'

'I would have done the same for Malachi.'

'I think you care for her more deeply than that. It sounds like you are more than a friend to her. More than a sister, even.'

'Oh? What does it make me?'

'It makes you a mother.'

Tila's mouth dropped open. She slammed the cup against the table, sending droplets splashing over the rim.

'A mother? Are you joking? She's a pain in the neck sometimes. She doesn't listen to me. She thinks she knows best all the time. She has absolutely no idea what dangers are out there. I have to look out for her. She needs someone to look after her, and... why are you nodding?'

'Because it all sounds so very familiar, that's why. I think I said some of those very words to your father once, about you.'

'A mother?' Tila repeated. She felt like she had been insulted, but then how could she be when she was sitting here relishing the company of her own? 'So what does that make you? A grandmother?'

'Careful,' said Grace. She paused in the act of sipping tea to raise one warning eyebrow. She put down her cup and looked Tila in the eye. 'I'm not ready for that quite yet, but I'll tell you what it does make me. It makes me proud. Very proud.'

Tila turned her face away, flicking her hair from her shoulder to hide her glowing cheeks. The tea felt cool by comparison.

'So now what?' said Tila, her eyes fixed back on the concourse again. It looked like it was almost time to go.

'Now we go back to the Juggernaut, and you have a decision to make. A choice.'

'What choice?'

'About where your home is.'

Below them, the thin crescent glow of yellow was starting to creep around the horizon, as if unsure it would be welcome. They watched the world turn in silence for a few moments before Grace broke the spell by moving around the table to sit next to Tila.

'The sun's coming up,' said Grace.

'Uh huh.'

'I thought you would look happier than this. Is something bothering you?'

Tila's shrug was her only reply for a moment, then she added 'I don't know. I can't tell'

'Try,' she placed a comforting hand on her daughters shoulder. Her fingers teased at loose strands of hair 'You used to tell me everything that was bothering you.'

'It's been a long time since we could talk like that.'

'That doesn't mean we never have to talk again'

Tila was silent for a moment longer. On the planet below the glitter of city lights was fading as dawn approached.

Then the words spilled out of her. 'It's just...I don't..I don't know what to do now. My life is so different now. Everything that's happened, everything has changed so much, so quickly. I can't tell if this is the end or the beginning.'

She heard her mother sigh gently, and take a slow breath before replying. She remembered this. She loved that her mother would never speak to her without thinking. It meant she cared about the things she said. It meant that she would always give her daughter the wisest answer she could.

'It's both. It's an end and a beginning. Everything is both of those things all the time. All we have are moments of transition. At the time we can't see things clearly enough to define the start and end of everything, it all flows together. All we can do is decide that something is complete when the moment has passed.' She pointed at the planet below. 'What do you think is about to happen down there?'

'The sun's about to come up.'

'And?'

Tila shrugged, unsure what her mother meant.

Grace continued. 'Yes, it's sunrise for those people, but on the other side of the world a sunset is happening too. You know, if we wanted to we could fix the orbit of this station so all we see is the moment of the sunrise, but if we did that we would only ever have the potential of the days to come. Until the sun rises the day can never dawn. It would be a perfect, frozen moment but it would only ever be a promise of an opportunity not taken. It would never allow us to fulfil the hope that each day brings. Every minute down there is just a moment in the transition of a day. They decide what to call those moments.'

'So what do I call this moment? What do I do next?'

Grace smiled at her daughter, and squeezed her shoulder as she pulled her close.

Outside bright yellow sunlight flared as it crested the edge of the world, and a new day burst from the heavens.

On the far horizon of the planet below Tila watched the darkness fade as a new dawn consumed the night. The light of distant stars was slowly overwhelmed by the richness and hope of the new day. A golden thread of summer sunlight, arcing across the horizon, began to pool on the equator of the world. The rising star of bright yellow flared with brilliance as it flowed over the edge of the world. Like liquid through a dam of night the light burst forth with the hope morning. It broke the surface of the planet and crashed down upon hills and valleys, rivers and lakes, flooding the earth with golden warmth.

'That's up to you, Tila. It always has been.'

Tila stood next to her mother as together they watched the new day dawn. Tila waited for the moment to pass, knowing it would have to end, praying it never would, and made her choice.