No more chatter. And the Tremist had even stopped their attack. Both fleets hung separately in the black that was no longer Earthspace. It was just regular old outer space, plain and featureless. “There was a sun…” Tom said slowly. “Through the gate.” No one said anything. Merrin took her hands off the control sticks and let them fall to her sides. “There was a sun,” Tom said again. “Wherever they took Earth, there was a sun. They didn’t just drop them into the cold black.” “Doesn’t matter,” Stellan said, sniffling. “The calculations needed are too precise. They could never position a planet in the exact right space to keep conditions on the surface the same.” “That’s exactly what we wanted to do,” Jeremy said, “with Nori-Blue.” “It’s different,” Merrin said. “Nori-Blue isn’t full of sentient beings. If the ESC messed up, they could reposition it. Even if there were adverse weather changes on the surface, it would’ve been worth the price of stealing it.”
