"We believed he was dead. My brother certainly was... My mother and I had to identify what was left, but there wasn't much. It was easy to believe there was even less of my father, supposedly much closer to the center of the explosion. He was always very big on sacrifices... He talked about Komarr's freedom constantly, and all the sacrifices we had to make for it. Human or otherwise. But he never seemed beyond all the talking to care about the freedom of anyone on Komarr. Until the revolt died and him with it I wasn't free. To make my own judgments, my own choices. Or so I thought. Life's full of surprises."