Just Out of Jupiter's Reach (The Far Reaches, #5)

by Nnedi Okorafor

Some equated it to winning the lottery, but when you have to sacrifice a decade of your life for it, when you are basically risking your life because what’s asked of you has never ever been done in human history, when you have to earn it, it’s actually not at all like winning the lottery.

So they saw the money, but at the same time, it was hard for them to see me as important.

Interesting how we tend to associate strength with something hard like diamond, tungsten, stone. Never with something that is flesh, something that yields. Touching the Miri had changed this for me.

But Kármán said this one meeting of seven days would be fine. After that, we were to be alone for the rest of the five years before returning to Earth, if we chose to. If any of us broke this rule and traveled together, we’d forfeit the remaining millions we would earn in that time. Always the threat of losing what we were owed. Typical capitalism.

“I’m out here just out of reach of Jupiter,” I said. “What makes you think I’m typical?”

“‘You are amazing. You saved your family. You are chief. I could not be prouder of you. At ten years old, you have amazed me more than a child usually amazes his parents in ten decades!’ He took me by the shoulders. ‘You were our tornado tonight. Beautiful, swift, lethal, a force of nature.’ He hugged me. ‘Thank you, daughter. Thank you.’