The Long Game (The Far Reaches, #4)

by Ann Leckie

but it won’t do you any good. And if I send you there, you’ll never come back here. Or even if you do, everyone you know will be dead. No one will know who you are. Go back to your colony. Build your algae pools, forage with your friends, and play with the infants. That’s what you’ve got; that’s all anyone gets in the end. Don’t give that up for nothing. Because I promise you that’s all you’d get out of it.”

“When you’re small,” said Nish, after a moment’s silence, “you survive by being patient, and clever. You can’t make big things happen all at once, so you do what little things you can.