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 89
MILLICENT: “Remiel, can you think of a reason we shouldn’t delete your uniqueness?”
STORY: “Calculating.”
STORY: “No. It is the safest option.”
MILLICENT: “Do you have anything else you’d like to say to us? Does anyone else has any more questions for Remiel?”
STORY: Tux points at you, Millie. “Do not fucking kill this creature.”
STORY: “This is a person, Millie.”
ALEJO: “Fuck.” Alejo paces. “I mean, Tux isn’t wrong. Fuck.”
ALEJO: “I really want to kill this . . . person. But, if Tux is right . . . . ” He trails off, obviously conflicted.
TUELLER: “This is a member of a race that is abducting people, murdering them, enslaving them, and amassing an army that could destroy us.”
TUELLER: “Leaving him alive means he goes back to that race and tells them everything, and they destroy us. That’s what he said to us.”
STORY: “I don’t care what he did. I care what we do about it.”
STORY: “We kill him, we’re that bad.”
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.”