Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1)

by Amie Kaufman

Blue for the leadership corps. White for Cat and her fellow Aces. Green for the Brains in the Science Division. Purple for the Gearheads. Red for the Tanks. And lucky me, a bright, sunny yellow for the diplomatic corps

Go with dignity. You are more than this.

“A lot of those stars actually died millions of years ago. It’s just they’re so far away, the light they created before they died hasn’t finished reaching us yet.” He waves at the galaxy beyond the glass. “You’re looking at a sky full of ghosts.”

If you gotta fall, fall fighting.

I feel the vastness around me, how small I am, one tiny mote of animated carbon and water amid an ocean of infinity.

“There is a gravity to everything, Aurora,” I finally say. “Not just planets. Not just stars. Every cell in our bodies, every cell in creation exerts a gravity on the objects and people around it. And…that is what I am feeling. For you.”

“I think,” says Zila slowly, and I brace for incoming tactlessness, “that if your sister and mother were given a choice between you being dead or believing you were dead and never knowing they were wrong, they would choose the latter. If my family could be alive, but the price would be my ignorance, I would pay it.”

The elements we’re after have a half-life of a few million years. If they’re here, a little bit of weed won’t hurt them.”

“Do moons choose the planets they orbit? Do planets choose their stars? Who am I to deny gravity, Aurora? When you shine brighter than any constellation in the sky?”

“Almost every particle in the universe was once part of a star,” she says softly. “Every atom in your body. The metal in your chair, the oxygen in your lungs, the carbon in your bones. All those atoms were forged in a cosmic furnace over a million kilometers wide, billions of light-years from here. The confluence of events that led to this moment is so remote as to be almost impossible.” She puts her hand on my shoulder. Her touch is awkward, as if she doesn’t quite know how to do it. But she squeezes gently. “Our very existence is a miracle.”