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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 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 106

ALEJO: “We hack the Weave a second time, that also shows strength. Gives us maybe a bit more bargaining position.”
ALEJO: “If, you know, we don’t die.”
TUELLER: “Yes, well, there is that.”
MILLICENT: “I mean, the math for determining when to start the dream so that the optimum number of sentients from each system is sleeping alone is going to be a monumental task.”
TUELLER: “It’s always night on half the systems.”
MILLICENT: “But not every planet has counterweights continents like ours.”
TUELLER: “Anyway, that’s my proposal.”
MILLICENT: “I like it. It’s ambitious and utterly insane in a way I suspect was calculated to make irresistible to me.”

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Chapter 104

TUELLER: “What kind of scientific rigor do we need to establish that we have two genetic identical Alejos at hand?”
TUELLER: “That’s a long way of saying, do we need to take the head? Or merely borrow it?”
MILLICENT: “Well, the full-on head would be ideal. Rather dramatic, though. If all we were looking for was proof for ourselves that he’s been returned we could just get a sample of the DNA, but if we need to prove this to the system or the galaxy then we’ll need the full thing to prove where the samples came from.”
MILLICENT: “I suppose we could return it when we’re done? But I think we’ll all have more pressing concerns at that point.”
ALEJO: Alejo looks over at the box with his torso in it. “I’m no scientist, of course, but . . . don’t we have DNA now? Why do we really need the head, other than to make sure they’re not doing something gross or whatever with it?”
MILLICENT: “Attention galactic governments, in this beaker I have DNA from the man standing behind me and in this beaker I have DNA from the same man’s head which I pinkie promise was removed from his body no you can’t see it stop asking.”

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Chapter 103

ALEJO: He nods. “All good. You said the Exodus folks came and took the . . . my head right after I died?”
STORY: “Yes, and clearly reattached it to whoever’s body you’re walking around with now. Why are you asking me to repeat what you already know?”
TUELLER: “We have some gaps.”
STORY: “I’m impressed they found such a good match to your physique.”
STORY: She peers at his neck. “And no scarring.”
STORY: “Impressive.”
ALEJO: Alejo smiles again. “Well, this has been . . . enlightening. What Tueller said. Fun, thanks for the body.” He looks at Tueller and Millie. “We got what we need, yeah?”
MILLICENT: Millie swallows and nods.
TUELLER: “We are trying to track down what happened here to fill in the gaps. Do you know what system these particular Exodus folks were part of?”
TUELLER: “As Alejo says, he has some gaps, and so do we. And, as you say, this is very good work and we want to pursue it further.”
STORY: “Hm?” She’s distracted from her leering. “Oh. R&D, I believe.”
STORY: “Roti division.”
ALEJO: Alejo closes his eyes and sighs. “Right.”

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Chapter 102

MILLICENT: “Noma, do you think you could send us through?”
STORY: “On a skip drone?”
MILLICENT: “On our ship, preferably.”
TUELLER: Tueller gives Millie a dubious look.
ALEJO: “Where are you wanting to go, Doc?”
MILLICENT: “To the Ark. The only place we can make our case to every major sentient race at once.”
STORY: “A wild jump?”
MILLICENT: “I was thinking more than you might be able to take over the Sol relay.”
STORY: “Let me share my thinking with you.”
STORY: “I’ve been calculating the probability that the loss of life from opening all doors on this base is lower than the assumed casualties of war with the Collective.”
STORY: “Which means calculating the probability of war with the Collective as you each add to this plan. It’s a bit of a moving target, so you’ll forgive me for being preoccupied.”
STORY: “If I am being honest with you, Dr. Breedlove, I do not believe I would succeed at my part in your plan because I do not believe I would want to.”
STORY: “Fewer people are hurt if the three of you disappear.”

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Chapter 100

TUELLER: “This is a more modest dreamspace than our last time. The familiarity is nice, at least.”
ALEJO: “It didn’t start great. For me. But it’s getting better.”
TUELLER: “Let’s go find the Doc and speak to the manager.”
ALEJO: He nods.
TUELLER: “Bad memories?”
TUELLER: Tueller gets up and goes to open the door.
STORY: You open it and emerge in boarding armor, standing on the surface of the fungal planet.
TUELLER: “Well this makes sense.”

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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.”

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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.”

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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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