STORY: He waves a hand and the dozen AIs who surrounded you become red mist, floating away. You are alone, and a fifty-foot tall armored chieftain stands before you.
ALEJO: Alejo squares up, next to Tueller, shoulder to shoulder.
STORY: He takes a knee, looking down at you.
STORY: “Little humans.”
STORY: “Even now, you think you can battle us.”
STORY: “We have won.”
TUELLER: “We didn’t come here to battle.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods and shakes his head all at once.
STORY: “You have lost anyway.”
TUELLER: “So have you.”
TUELLER: “You just don’t know it yet.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods.
Chapter 110
TUELLER: “We’re shooting the moon here.”
TUELLER: “Sorry, game terminology. Big risk, big reward.”
TUELLER: “We’ve got four…I guess I could teach y’all.”
TUELLER: “But Alejo would cheat and Millie would count cards.”
TUELLER: “And you’d read our minds, so I’d be fucked.”
ALEJO: Alejo dries his hair. “I would never.”
ALEJO: He smiles.
TUELLER: “You would and have.”
TUELLER: “That’s how we got out of Ganymede alive that one time.”
MILLICENT: “Who doesn’t count cards?”
ALEJO: Alejo raises his hand. “Easier to just cheat.” He shrugs.
MILLICENT: “It’s not. How could it be easier? You just keep track of the cards.”
MILLICENT: She looks around flustered.
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.
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.
Chapter 107
STORY: The fire flashes in Ryo’s eyes, but starts to dim. He takes a few breaths himself, then mutters to his feet. “Fuck.”
STORY: “Millie, we’ve already lost.”
STORY: He’s calm now, defeated.
STORY: “Why do we have to risk dying just to show them we know it?”
ALEJO: “I’ve thought like that, Ryo, for most of my life. Survival at any cost, as though taking the next breath was the same as living.”
TUELLER: “And I lived in comfort for most of my life, not paying attention to the fact it came on the exploitation and deaths of untold numbers.”
ALEJO: “I’m not saying you’re wrong, certainly about Erwin. But doesn’t he deserve a chance at something better?”
Chapter 92
MILLICENT: “Captain Forsythe, can we assume that we’ve all made the necessary threats?”
TUELLER: “I don’t say this threateningly, but if she dies, a whole lot of other people do as well.”
TUELLER: “Including me, I suppose.”
ALEJO: “Please take care of her.”
MILLICENT: “Oh well, I suppose some of us will feel inclined to spell it out.”
TUELLER: “That’s the gist, yes.”
MILLICENT: “Fine, then. The threats are handled.”
TUELLER: “Yeah, I’m good.”
MILLICENT: “And you knew my name, so you should know that we’re quite capable of following up on them.”
MILLICENT: “Now then.”
STORY: “My friends, as much as I understand your stress reaction, you must understand it’s rather ridiculous to threaten me here.”
TUELLER: “We know that, and yet.”
STORY: “Do you know how many crew we have onboard?”
ALEJO: “We’re still finding our rhythm again. Sorry for the confusing banter.”
MILLICENT: Millie smiles. “Our specialty.”
MILLICENT: She turns to her crew, “Guys, we have to tighten this up. We’re all throwing off each other’s quite threatening vibes.”
TUELLER: “I said it wasn’t a threat!”
Chapter 91
CIRCE: “Mr. Hanaka, they’re guards.”
ERWIN: Erwin’s eyebrows shoot up as he passes the guards. He mouths “Wowsers”
RYO: Ryo frowns. “How very astute of you, Circe.”
CIRCE: “They don’t deal with the appeals.”
RYO: “Again. Can’t pull one past you. But they do have keys to the cell.”
ERWIN: “Oh, I thought he meant if they wanted a bribe they would let Loll out so they wouldn’t have to deal with an appeal.”
CIRCE: “So just offer them the bribe, rather than pretend you’re saving them work.”
CIRCE: “Is…is this your first bribe?”
RYO: Ryo laughs at both of them. “I’d rather not wind up in a cell myself.”
RYO: “And if they’re too dense to understand that I was offering one, then they aren’t going to take one.”
ERWIN: “It’s my first bribe.”
ERWIN: “But you probably knew that.”
RYO: “I guessed.”
Chapter 78
STORY: “You and Tueller are known enemies. Why should we believe your testimony for a moment?”
STORY: Sergio smiles again, looking Tueller in the eye. “What have I got to lose? I’m receiving nothing for my testimony today, no deals made. I simply wish to see justice done.“
STORY: Becker shakes his head, looks back at Tueller.
STORY: “No further questions, your honors.” He sits next to Tueller, puts a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
TUELLER: “You’re worth every penny I spent on you.”
TUELLER: “And not one more.”
Chapter 75
STORY: The Ryo lookalike throws himself against the real Ryo and they tussle on the floor for a moment.
STORY: Rolling, one flipping the other over.
RYO: The real Ryo tires to use his ring to knock the thing out!
TUELLER: Tueller tries to separate them, but, you know, I like a good doppelganger dividing set up.
STORY: Ryo, you get a good shot on him, and it really rings his bell, but before you know what’s happening you’re both standing up, both a little hazy from the combat, both ready to convince your friends you’re the real one.
RIGHT RYO: Ryo looks at you, Ryo.
LEFT RYO: Ryo looks back, adjusting his glasses.
RIGHT RYO: “That was bracing.”
MILLICENT: “Hmmm.”
LEFT RYO: The Ryo on the left dusts off his jacket, adjusts his glasses, and looks unhappily at his doppelganger. “Oh, come on.”
MILLICENT: Millie leans over to Tueller and stage whispers. “You know, it occurs to me that we don’t really have to make a choice here. We could just space them both.”
TUELLER: “That works for me.”
MILLICENT: Millie shrugs.
Chapter 74
TUELLER: “I’ve reset our course for Io, by the way.”
TUELLER: “Esi’s there so we might as well go right there.”
RYO: Ryo just looks at him.
STORY: Figgan’s standing behind Tueller, just shaking her head disapprovingly. “I tried to stop him.”
STORY: “He’s so much bigger than me.”
TUELLER: “I am.”
STORY: “This is suicide, though.”
RYO: “He’s bigger than us all put together.”
TUELLER: “No, we’ll be fine.”
RYO: “But I agree that this isn’t a prudent path.”
MILLICENT: “Oh good, you have a plan?”
TUELLER: “No.’
MILLICENT: “I’m very interested to hear your-oh.”
MILLICENT: “I see.”
TUELLER: “We’ll figure something out.”
MILLICENT: “I’d like to address some concerns I have.”