MILLICENT: “I can think of one (former) Ya’Makasi who’s got his head on straight. Straighter. Straight-ish.”
ALEJO: “I hear that.”
ALEJO: “And a second who’s . . . brilliant, if a pain in the ass.” Alejo smiles briefly at Ryo.
STORY: “You literally owe me three gigantic favors and you’re calling me a pain in the ass right now.”
TUELLER: “I think he’s flirting.”
STORY: “Gross. Not my type.”
TUELLER: “Also a faux pas in front of Doc.”
MILLICENT: “It is very strange timing.”
MILLICENT: Millie smiles at Ryo.
Chapter 95
TUELLER: “I hear you’ve gotten up to some shit.”
STORY: Thasht blinks at you. She releases Alejo and stands, nodding.
STORY: “I have.”
ALEJO: Alejo stands up slowly. “It’s so good to see you, Thasht,” he smiles tearing up a bit.
TUELLER: “Anything good?”
STORY: “We have conquered many.”
TUELLER: Tueller smiles.
MILLICENT: “Atta girl.”
TUELLER: “Thank you for saving the ship, by the way.”
STORY: She nods. “Half.”
TUELLER: “It’s unclear whether this is a visit or the start of your newfound freedom, but we might need to get your word of honor that you won’t kill anyone on this ship.”
STORY: “Absolutely not. It would be a dishonor to myself and my people not to kill my captors.”
STORY: “Now free me.”
MILLICENT: “I’m confused.”
Chapter 94
STORY: Tueller lifts a large rock, but he’s not used to the gravity on this asteroid and fumbles it. Alejo is quick enough to grab on before it crushes Tueller’s foot, but in doing so he creates a small tear in his suit. The rock’s out of the way, but Alejo has to use both hands to hold the hole in his suit closed.
ALEJO: “So, our usual luck seems to be back.”
MILLICENT: Millie comedy wobbles in her suit behind him. “I kind of missed this.”
TUELLER: “Doc, patch that.”
ALEJO: He awkwardly holds his suit together, stumbling a little as he turns around to smile at her.
STORY: Doc, you have no patches on hand. You have to get somewhere with atmo.
TUELLER: “Shit. Doubletime it here.”
ALEJO: Air keeps escaping in little bursts.
TUELLER: Tueller heads towards the security shuttle as fast as he can.
MILLICENT: Millie wobbles behind. “Did you think I wasn’t going to patch it if I had the ability to?”
ALEJO: Alejo limps along, picking up a very funny looking but surprisingly fast rhythm, sort of like someone skipping.
TUELLER: “I don’t know; I don’t count on us having the same responses ever.”
MILLICENT: “Like, I looked at air escaping the spacesuit of the man I love and I’m like, cool, that looks fine. I’m okay with this situation. Gonna just let all that air escape and hey come back here my sarcasm is wasted on your overly toned ass.”
Chapter 93
STORY: “Open her up, please.”
STORY: Jac’s watching the skies and the radar for pursuit, but there’s none coming yet.
MILLICENT: Millie kicks her feet in her chair and whoops. “It’s been a while!”
MILLICENT: “Just good old fashioned crime!”
ALEJO: Alejo nods, impressed. He unstraps and goes towards the crate.
MILLICENT: “What a hard lifestyle to get up, I think I’m beginning to understand the current recidivism rates.”
STORY: The code key from the briefcase works. Tueller, what’s in the crate?
TUELLER: Three orbs in a triad, about the size of large bowling balls, one glowing red, one glowing blue, and one vantablack.
STORY: “They intact?”
TUELLER: Tueller goes and grabs them without hesitation, and shifts them around.
TUELLER: “No cracks. No deformities. They’re glowing, except for the one that’s obviously NOT supposed to glow.”
STORY: “Good. Seat belts, please. Everyone make it out in one piece?”
TUELLER: “I got egg on me.”
STORY: She turns around at that.
STORY: “Huh. Okay.”
TUELLER: “Hollandaise too.”
Chapter 30
MILLICENT: “The next time we lose a member of this crew you will put aside your personal feelings and make an announcement. The same goes, but less so, for significant assets like ships and technology.”
STORY: Kahn laughs. “Next time.”
STORY: “Because there’ll always be a next time.”
TUELLER: “We’re a crew. Not slaves. Free to come and go.”
ALEJO: He spins to Millie. “She just left!” Then he turns to Kahn. “Yeah, okay. Enough of your shit. You know it’s a lot more complicated than that I strung her along.”
STORY: “Pretty simple from here.”
TUELLER: “Gotta shit or get off the pot, man.”
ALEJO: “That from the man who clearly understands romance and love.”
STORY: “Go fuck yourself, captain.”
MILLICENT: Millie blows a whistle that she’s wearing. “Stop this childish backbiting immediately. This is a crew meeting. You may discuss your relationship problems in private.
TUELLER: “I can’t see, was that aimed at me?”
MILLICENT: Millie blows the whistle again.
TUELLER: “Seems like it could have been aimed at me.”
Chapter 29
MILLICENT: “I think friends talk about these sorts of things and I would very much like to think we were friends.”
TUELLER: Tueller is silent. Not dismissive. But silently thinking.
TUELLER: “We are friends. Millie. I don’t want you to think what we’re not.”
TUELLER: Another pause.
TUELLER: “But I don’t know who I am or what I can say right now even to myself, much less to my friends.”
ALEJO: “And I’m sorry, Jac. I’m probably just being a fool, as always.”
STORY: “And this is what you always do.”
ALEJO: “Jinx.”
STORY: “Jump to the new thing. Ignore the old one.”
STORY: “What are you running from? We’re free. We got free. You can stop running.”
ALEJO: He looks at her for a long moment. “When’d you get so damned wise?”
STORY: “I do a lot of listening.”
ALEJO: “Maybe I should be listening more to you.” He leans forward. “You’re not wrong.”
STORY: “Not right enough, though.” She leans back and looks away, frustrated.
Chapter 27
TUELLER: Tueller rolls around and punches it hard, holding onto spines like it’s a pommel and pummeling it as he goes.
TUELLER: He snaps off a spine and stabs it into the neck of the lusus and drives it deep.
STORY: Tueller basically rides this creature as it flails around the room, punching it with unnatural force in the spine until he stabs it and it stops bucking him and settles, dead, on the ground.
TUELLER: Punching it with his glove into the general region of the brain.
STORY: You’re surrounded by dead fish.
STORY: Tux stands. “Shit! That was amazing!”
ALEJO: Alejo sort of just collapses to the floor, in a half sit, half just faint. “Well damn. That actually worked.”
STORY: Jac taps on Tux’s console. “You got an alarm there.”
Chapter 26, Part I
TUELLER: “Can you guys…not tell Loll? This is…going to complicate things.”
STORY: Kahn mimes turning a key in front of his mouth.
TUELLER: “I really do like cows, though. That you can talk about.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods, “Is it the number of stomachs?”
MILLICENT: “I’ve always found the number of stomachs to be remarkable.”
STORY: Kahn shakes his head and starts walking.
TUELLER: “Yes. It’s the number of stomachs. That’s definitely it.”
STORY: He may be laughing at his captain.
MILLICENT: “Four.”
Chapter 25
MILLICENT: Millie puts a foot on the rail, using Tueller for some slight leverage
MILLICENT: “1”
TUELLER: Tueller looks at Millie, and then down.
ALEJO: “2?” Alejo adds, still confused. “We really doing this?” He half whispers.
TUELLER: “3!”
TUELLER: Tueller grabs everyone and drags them over the side of the roof.
ALEJO: “Guess so!”
STORY: For a few seconds it’s like flying. Then your stomach drops and so does the world, the ground coming at you impossibly fast.
Chapter 24
TUELLER: Tueller, fairly low: “Come on out. Safe now.”
STORY: There’s a hesitant voice from inside the cabinets.
STORY: “…No.”
MILLICENT: “How can we convince you we’re not the psionic nightmare beings?”
TUELLER: “No. Not really safe. Not yet.”
TUELLER: “But getting there.”
MILLICENT: “Do you know where we might find Vorlou?”
STORY: “…No?”
ALEJO: “Seriously, come out of the cabinets. You’re safer with us than in there.”
STORY: There’s an even longer pause.
STORY: “Is that fuckin Soto?”
TUELLER: Tueller barks laughter.