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Chapter 112

MILLICENT: Millie rolls her neck. “Well, then. Any last words, boys?”
TUELLER: “Uh, I believe ‘It’s been an honor’ is the traditional?”
MILLICENT: “A classic. It’s been an honor, captains.”
TUELLER: “Though honestly I’m mostly thinking about how this is the most stressed I’ve ever been for a woman to like me.”
ALEJO: Alejo laughs and takes Millie’s hand. “My best days have been with you two. Thank you.”
TUELLER: “Aww, back at ya, kid.”
ALEJO: “I’m not missing this opportunity ever again.” He kisses Millie.
ALEJO: “One way or another.”

STORY: “…Where’s Noma?”
MILLICENT: She pulls out a stethoscope and does a quick check up while trying to stay out of her way.
STORY: She’s okay, Millie. Like someone who has been in a coma for a month.
TUELLER: “Oh, she went home.”
STORY: Cali nods.
STORY: “I remember her.”
STORY: “I just don’t have her in there anymore.” She points to her head.
TUELLER: “And, uh, we think she’s explaining to the Collective why we should all be friends.”
STORY: “Well, that’s good.”
STORY: She looks around.
STORY: “Do you think it’ll work?”
MILLICENT: Millie shrugs and grins delightedly. “We don’t know!”
TUELLER: “I certainly hope so! If not the universe drowns in fire!”
ALEJO: “They’re just hedging their bets. Yes. It’ll work!”
STORY: “Huh!”
STORY: She sits back.
STORY: “Well, either way it’ll be interesting.”

STORY: Three idiots and their companions take off in our beloved ship, dozens of smaller craft chasing them through the atmosphere, bullets and lasers flying around them as they dodge and weave and disappear into the black.

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Chapter 109

ALEJO: Then Alejo goes to the bay, gets buck naked, and crawls into the tank. “Damn! This is colder than last time. Seriously!”
TUELLER: “It was open to space for a bit, buddy.”
TUELLER: “These things happen.”
STORY: “Space is cold,” Erwin says, then sinks into the water.
MILLICENT: “There wasn’t enough time to add the seat warmer.”
STORY: He pops his head back up. “I just realized those might be my last words and wanted to come back and say something better.”
MILLICENT: “Oh shit me too.”
MILLICENT: “You first.”
STORY: “Well… honestly, now that I’m here I got nothing. Can we go with ‘space is cold’ again?”
STORY: “Space is cold,” he announces formally and then dips under the water.
ALEJO: Alejo dances a bit in the water of the tank before nodding and sinking down slowly. “Space is fucking coooollld.” Alejo finally is in all the way. “Shit.” He puts his head under the water.
STORY: There are little mouthpieces for the humans to get air through, Alejo, so you can pop that in while you float and watch Erwin and wonder which parts of him are representing clothes and why he got to keep his on.
MILLICENT: “I’m going to go with ’The only journey is the one within.”
MILLICENT: “Because I have read a book.”
MILLICENT: Millie grins and ducks under.
TUELLER: Tueller waits until everyone else is underwater, “I love you guys, goddammit.” Then he goes in too.
STORY: “I HEARD THAT,” Figgan shouts over the intercom. It’s the last thing you hear before the water floods your ears.

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Chapter 108

TUELLER: Tueller starts to go after him, but thinks better of it after all his history. Shuts the door, clangs the lock on it.
TUELLER: “Doc, get us our ship back.”
MILLICENT: Millie attempts!
MILLICENT: “I’ll get the ship back you see if you can seal decks around Alejo!”
STORY: Alejo, the next meaningful sealable hatch from the bridge is one that locks down the top deck from the other two. It has to be cranked into place manually.
STORY: And there’s kind of a lot of wind happening, and it’s already getting a liiiiittle thin up here.
TUELLER: “Oh hell.” Tueller reconsiders, opens the door, and leaves the bridge, shutting it behind him.
TUELLER: He hurries off to assist Alejo, significantly behind him.
MILLICENT: “USING THE COMPUTER! USING THE COMPUTER SEALS!”
MILLICENT: “Goddammit.”
MILLICENT: Millie gestures at the empty seat next to her.

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Chapter 88

TUELLER: “We can’t signal for our ride without fearing that we’ll alert the AI.”
TUELLER: “And if that happens we’re all dead.”
TUELLER: “So we need to hunt down and fuck up that piece of shit Ghost. For us. For Noma.”
TUELLER: “We can’t find the ansible. I searched, until I realized how fucking stupid that was.”
TUELLER: “Like there’d be the glow of Cherenkov radiation, I’d hit it with a sledgehammer, and we’d go on our merry way.”
MILLICENT: “It’s a nice thought.”
MILLICENT: “But I agree, I think it’s time we take on the AI.”
MILLICENT: “Kill or capture?”
TUELLER: “Fuck him up and flush him down.”
MILLICENT: “I vote capture, it leaves us with more options down the line.”
MILLICENT: “Cap’n?”
ALEJO: Alejo sighs. “Fuck. Capture. We need answers.”

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Chapter 87

TUELLER: “Guys. Sorry, I’m having a thought.”
TUELLER: “I want to run it by you all because it’s a crazy and stupid and maybe dangerous thought”
TUELLER: “This is a giant photocopying and casting machine.”
TUELLER: “And what we have here is a universal conspiracy that we need to get the word out.”
MILLICENT: “Wow.”
TUELLER: “So this has to get to the Ark, too.”
MILLICENT: “Someone’s coming for my throne.”
TUELLER: “We need Earth as ready as possible, but the Ark needs to know.”
MILLICENT: “That is possibly the most reckless and rash idea I’ve ever heard.”
MILLICENT: “Not that I let you finish.”
TUELLER: “I was going to say we should split the party.”
MILLICENT: “Oh.”
TUELLER: “But I think maybe we should do both.”
TUELLER: “Go to the Ark and to Earth.”
MILLICENT: “I thought you were going to say we should free the copies that are here and convince them to carry the message to every Ark civilization in the ships we make for them.”
TUELLER: “Oh maybe that’s a better idea than mine.”
MILLICENT: “Hail to the Queen, baby.”

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Chapter 86

STORY: Millie, Calixta steps into the back area. “So. The bodies are still everywhere, and also the crew knows now about them. And us. Basically they know everything important.”
TUELLER: “That was me.”
TUELLER: “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
STORY: “Well, actually they don’t know about this,” she waves to the rows and rows of bodies.
MILLICENT: Millie lets out a breath.
TUELLER: “I have some good ideas.”
MILLICENT: “Interesting.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. And keeps nodding. “Okay. Okay.”
TUELLER: “I just can’t tell the difference between them.”
ALEJO: He’s still nodding.
MILLICENT: “Well. Okay, that advances our clock.”
TUELLER: “The good ones and the not good ones.”
MILLICENT: “So, let’s review and then brainstorm.”
STORY: “It was a good speech.”
TUELLER: “Thank you!”
ALEJO: “So, about an hour?” He looks at Cali.

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Chapter 85

MILLICENT: “You’re okay, Tueller. You’re here with me. Alejo and Noma cleared out the other Nikaus. They’re headed down to the basement to get the last one.”
TUELLER: “Oh shit.”
TUELLER: “I just sent the entire security force down to the last one.”
MILLICENT: “…”
TUELLER: “To get here.”
MILLICENT: Millie is speechless
MILLICENT: “Buh buh buh”
MILLICENT: She shakes her head, reaches her hand behind her ear and activates Alejo’s speaker, “ABORT ABORT OH GOD ABORT”
STORY: Alejo!
STORY: You step into the cafeteria on B1 and see the following:
STORY: Manaaki, dead, sprawled on the counter.
STORY: An open deck, still running some kind of program.
STORY: Roughly twenty security guards, who are all standing in this room and in unison turn around when you enter.
STORY: What do you do?
STORY: Oh also, Millie’s yelling in your ear about aborting, and you’re pretty sure you know why.
ALEJO: Alejo does the Han Solo slide to a stop. “Oh, hiya.” He says weakly and waves as he takes a very quick pause to look around for the nearest cover or exit, which he moves towards at top speed.
STORY: There are a few tables just to your right.
ALEJO: He puts it between him and all of them, and assesses what sort of weapons they have.
STORY: All standard issue, they’ve got stun batons that will also hurt a lot if you get hit with one. No guns, from what you could see. You hit the deck behind a table to the sound of most of them removing said batons and powering them on, and then one guy in the back saying, “isn’t that the guy who cleans the toilets?”

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Chapter 81

TUELLER: “So the plan is to put us in the system as new hires, go in, ace our interview, and then take the Director, some unspoken fifth step, and then, profit!”
ALEJO: “It’s been a while, but seems like one of our better plans, honestly.”
TUELLER: “One of the best plans we’ve come up with in at least 18 months.”
MILLICENT: “It has six steps!”
MILLICENT: “I’m optimistic!”

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Chapter 80

TUELLER: “This is literally messianic, Millie.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods.
STORY: Calixta blows air out of her mouth.
TUELLER: “Except instead of saving the human race you’re now talking about saving the universe.”
MILLICENT: “I. I know it’s big.”
STORY: “I call the one with the sword.”
STORY: “The flaming sword? Right?”
STORY: “I always wanted a flaming sword.”
TUELLER: “The flaming sword was what was used to keep people out of Eden.”
MILLICENT: “Uriel.” Millie says absently.
STORY: “Well this time we’ll let them in with it, smarty pants.”

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Chapter 79

MILLICENT: “We need a supercomputer. Well, we need a network of supercomputers. And they must be in the Sol system.”
RYO: Ryo nods and tilts his head thoughtfully, listening for the rest of the details.
MILLICENT: “And I doubt anyone who owns such an array in the Sol system will be amenable to the idea of Noma and myself commandeering their use so we can peer under the hood of the most advanced and crucial tech in the system.”
STORY: Calixta moves over to a console. “You mind?”
RYO: “Please.”
STORY: She pulls up a star chart.
STORY: Pointing at the current locations of the planets in the system, she explains. “Got a couple options. We can all become priests and use the Exodus supercomputer on Enceladus. We can break into Chandra’s base on Titan, good luck with that one, or, well, there’s Io.”
STORY: “But I suspect Esinam Ya’Makasi isn’t interested in letting us borrow some time on her rig.”
STORY: “So basically we’re fucked three ways.”
MILLICENT: “One of three ways.”
MILLICENT: “Now we must simply choose the manner of our fucking.”
RYO: Ryo nods in agreement. “Spoiled for choice.”

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