TUELLER: “We’re not pirates, by the way.”
MILLICENT: Millie leads, using the directions from the public message
TUELLER: “Not anymore, and not for years.”
TUELLER: There’s a little steel in that.
STORY: “What are we, then?” Calixta asks.
TUELLER: “Fucked if I know, honestly.”
TUELLER: “Right now, knights in shining armor, I guess?”
RYO: Ryo acknowledges this with a mea culpa bow of his head.
TUELLER: “Though that didn’t work out so well the last time.”
TUELLER: “Let’s go figure out who we are.”
Chapter 68
STORY: “You see that?”
STORY: Calixta points at the screen.
MILLICENT: “It’s a bathroom.”
STORY: “Jump relays aren’t crewed.”
STORY: “What’s a bathroom doing inside one?”
MILLICENT: “It’s kind of a nice bathroom.”
MILLICENT: “What’s living on the jump relays?”
Chapter 67
STORY: You watch dozens of employees converge on the cargo bay, taking up positions around the Augusta King, some armed, some just there to see what they can offer.
STORY: They don’t see you, since you’re on the other side of an air vent, but you’re about 20 meters from the ramp into the belly of Chandra’s ship. It’ll be a quick and dangerous run.
STORY: And as you wait for whatever distraction Calixta’s arranging, you realize you’re not likely to all make it out of this. Tueller, you assume, is onboard. But three people running through a firing squad?
STORY: Your luck is going to run out.
MILLICENT: Millie reaches her hand out, still staring out at the troops.
ALEJO: Alejo gets them both into place, ready to make the run when that distraction comes. “Doc, when the moment comes, you run. You run and don’t look back, alright. That’s a gods damned order. You have to make it. I can’t do this without you. You can without me.” He takes her hand.
MILLICENT: Millie stifles a laugh. “Yes, captain.”
MILLICENT: “Mr. Soto?”
ALEJO: He smiles and shakes his head. “Cap to you.”
ALEJO: He squeezes her hand. And then gets serious again.
MILLICENT: “Cap. I’m so very glad you chose my ship to steal.”
Chapter 59
STORY: Millie, you type the command, and the prompt hovers for a second, not executing.
STORY: Then the console shuts off.
STORY: “Captain Soto. I have detected a virus in your onboard systems. Shutting down nonessential consoles.”
ALEJO: “Thank you. Please shutdown, however. We need manual control.”
MILLICENT: “Okay, look. I didn’t really want to make this a confrontation.”
MILLICENT: She says this to the air.
STORY: Tux looks positively panicked, and rushes downstairs. You hear him calling for Erwin.
TUELLER: Tueller sits down and closes his eyes.
STORY: “I’m sorry, Captain Soto, you do not have permission for that command. Please speak to your system administrator to address.”
Chapter 58
MILLICENT: “I’m pretty sure that Tux is about to do something monumentally stupid.”
TUELLER: “Well it is a weekday.”
ALEJO: “’Course he is.”
MILLICENT: “I don’t have any details. I practiced some extreme restraint. He asked me to help him with something, fine, no problem, and not to Alejo, which I, using my extreme restraint balked at. Then he clammed up.”
ALEJO: “Yeah, he’s keeping shit from me too. He’s worried I’m gonna shoot him in the head. Which, sometimes does seem very tempting.” He takes another drink.
TUELLER: “Hey, are you guys exes?”
TUELLER: “You seem like exes.”
TUELLER: “Like, you seem more like exes than Loll and I, and we’re actually exes.”
ALEJO: Alejo shrugs. “I crewed his ship.” The evasion is not lost on anyone.
Chapter 57
STORY: “Tueller, please. We have to trust each other. I need to be able to trust you.”
STORY: “…Tueller?”
TUELLER: “Trust goes both ways, Sprite.”
Chapter 51
STORY: The voice on the comms sighs. “You know what, fine. They don’t pay me enough for this. Don’t cause trouble and don’t get in trouble. You’ve got a 24 hour visa.”
STORY: An onscreen access code pops up, ringed in green. You’re cleared to dock.
ALEJO: Alejo’s eyes widen. “Ahh, yeah. Great! Thank you. That’s . . . great.” He turns off the coms. Then spins in his chair, big smile.
ALEJO: “Huh.”
ALEJO: He’s still smiling a big, dopey smile.
ALEJO: “I think they might mean to kill us all.”
Chapter 49
TUELLER: “Sure this is a good idea, Doc?”
STORY: Alejo, two of the ships have started moving towards you. They’re maybe ten minutes from intercept at slow burn, faster if they hustle.
MILLICENT: “Of course, now I’ll just send these off and they’ll be goose chasing for”
TUELLER: Tueller checks on the status of the guns.
MILLICENT: “You know, it’s possible I left the subspace metadata in the message.”
TUELLER: “That’s good, right?”
MILLICENT: “Not in this case, no.”
STORY: “That’s bad.” Loll stands behind the three of you, in the doorway to the bridge.
ALEJO: “Someone’s taken an interest in us,” Alejo says, angling away from the two ships and increasing speed, flying casual, but in a hurry.
MILLICENT: “In this case I think it may have been a bit like jumping into the room screaming our name.”
Chapter 48
MILLICENT: “Noma, will you ever tell us why you brought us here?”
ALEJO: Alejo sits down at the controls, straps in, and takes the helm.
STORY: “I have told you as much as I can, Millie.”
TUELLER: Tueller straps down everything as best he can, and tries to prepare people who haven’t done this before for a radical reorientation of gravity.
MILLICENT: “I miss Noma, Noma.”
MILLICENT: Millie straps herself in
STORY: “I do too, Millie.”
Chapter 47
ALEJO: Alejo leans in towards the fire, warming his hands. “Anyone else feeling like us just patching up and leaving doesn’t sit right?”
MILLICENT: Millie exhales loudly and leans forward. “Oh thank goodness.”
TUELLER: Tueller shrugs wordlessly.
MILLICENT: “We’re the madcap damn the consequences crew and here we were, _minding the consequences_.”
MILLICENT: “I say we get back to damning them.”
TUELLER: “People die.”
TUELLER: “Sometimes people we care about, even.”
ALEJO: Alejo looks at Tueller for a long moment. Then nods once in solidarity.
ALEJO: “We should make the loss mean something, no?”