Chapter 15

The screens lining the walls of the main atrium show a holographic recreation of Earth being hit by Halley’s comet. Petra is deeply affected by the sight, but none of the Collective members or the other Zetas seem to be bothered. The Chancellor then delivers a speech explaining that the destruction of Earth created an opportunity for human beings to leave war and conflict behind. The Collective is committed to a peaceful existence, and they have erased Earth’s history in order to prevent the mistakes the previous generations made from being repeated.

After being dismissed, Petra sneaks into another part of the ship, hoping to find her parents. At the bottom of a long staircase, she finds a room filled with stasis pods. However, rather than containing sleeping people, the pods are all empty. Petra searches for the pods bearing her family‘s names, and she is utterly distraught when she realizes that her parents have both been purged. She collapses on top of Javier’s pod, unable to bear hearing his fate as well.

Chapter 16

A distraught Petra returns to her room. Rather than continue living with the grief of knowing her family is dead, she resolves that she will tell the Chancellor she still has her memories. Whether she is reprogrammed to forget everything or purged, Petra figures that it will be better than remaining as lost and alone as she feels now.

However, Petra is woken up by the sound of Zeta-4 having a nightmare. The little girl cries out for her mother, and Petra gets out of bed to go comfort her. Although Zeta-4’s memories are meant to have been wiped, it seems as though her dreams still subconsciously reflect her experiences from Earth. In order to help calm her down, Petra sings an arrullo—or lullaby—and tells Zeta-4 a story that Lita once told to Petra. As she tells the story and softly strokes the little girl’s head, Petra decides to call Zeta-4 “Feathers” after the silky texture of her hair.

After the story ends, Feathers ask Petra if she will sing for her and tell her another story the next night. Petra agrees, so long as Feathers doesn’t tell anybody about what they are doing. Rubio, the other little boy from the Zeta unit, also promises not to reveal the secret, having been awake and listening to the story.

Petra realizes that her family would not have wanted her to give into her grief. She resolves to keep up the act of a brainwashed Zeta so that she can keep her family alive and protected in her memories.