Fifty thousand? That's hardly anything. [It sounds like a lot until you consider that was to colonize a planet. There's a touch of a laugh as he talks about Piotr, a shake of her head in wry amusement.] Hardship breeds survivors, or so they say.

The base I grew up on was sub-arctic, and whether or not we officially existed depended on the year. Cold, snow and ice most of the year.

[She was a survivor too, in ways she would never tell.]