563 One Hell of a Slippery Slope... or Two

Aron walked into his suite in the Cube and sat next to Rina on the couch in his lounge. He sighed and fell over on his side, resting his head on her lap.

She stroked his hair and asked, “Long day?”

“Five million,” he replied.

“Five... million?”

“Five million people are about to leave the solar system. It was... a lot. Never had a speech take so much out of me,” Aron sighed again.

“Why’d you have to do it personally? Couldn’t you just have someone fake being you to deliver the speech?”

“Couldn’t do that.”

“Haven’t you done it before?” Rina tilted her head, losing herself in thought as she petted her fiancee.

“I owe it to them to do it myself. They’re the first manned exploration mission humanity’s ever sent past the Oort Cloud and they’re risking their lives for us... no, for me. So the absolute least I can do is personally send them off.”