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Speaker 1: For all their squawking about peace. Dragoon ships were the

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only vehicles in the known galaxy that utilized cloaking technology.

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At any moment, a terex vessel could be latched onto

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and weighing down yours. Hence the nickname for that sleek

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angular ship model, the parasite eighty arms across. It was

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like a burring worm, a defined head with two geometric

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fins cropping up out of the slightly wider body to

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bolster trajectory with no cloaking. Every dragoon of any addition

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was green, the colored success as far as the colonies

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were concerned. The placement in the vehicle was how we

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had gotten away with it for so long, me excusing

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myself to the bathroom on the highest floor, then ducking

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out of the steel framed window to slide down the

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side of the pyramid until my feet or ass more

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likely than not, landed on the transparent side of the

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ship to grasp around for a handhold the always unlocked hatch.

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It was the same deal to wash. So whatever was

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so urgent had nothing to do with the spaceship. That

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only left the constable inside. I looked out into the

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darkness for a moment, shielding one side of my face

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from that intense, hot purple light, the star burning just

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a couple million miles away, casting violet rays over every

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approaching vessel for as far as the eye could see.

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Some clunkers par for the course for Undergal frequenters. Three

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shiny green ovular pod ships, slender with no wings, high tech,

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not usual, but not too out of the ordinary. Stunt

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ships were common in the docking bay, flashy traders who

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wanted to appeal to Undergal buyers impressed by shiny things.

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I closed the now visible hatch over me, milky silver

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and square, unlike the brown and black, rusted round hatch

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of the kaylaksp my visor, and took in a big

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breath of fresh oxygen. Despite the transparent outside, the inside

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was very visible. It smelled the same as usual, a

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thick floral scent that followed ant everywhere and stuck in

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my suit for washes after visits. It was the mess

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that was the first sign of trouble. Maps unfurled over

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every surface, sometimes circled, words outlined at random. Printed material

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was strange enough it didn't take a star not ranking

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to tell this was the telltale sign of someone going

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off the grid and way off according to the muddy

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footprints on the ceiling. Spare spacesuits draped over the metal rack,

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usually reserved for a single clean towel, giving off that

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unmistakable and irresistible scent of raw woman uncloaked by perfume,

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and even more primal for it. Small tin canisters with

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orange labels dotted the scenery of the cabin like glimpses

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of some rare bright bird, the ones I had to

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strive it past that made extra care not to read.

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Some I knew had the updated name on the medication label,

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but others didn't, and I wouldn't invade her privacy either way.

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I did, however, chance to grasp the navy colored baseball

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cap hanging from a metal hook next to the dashboard,

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a green snowflake on the center front of it, the

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underside of the bill shiny and bright emerald buried in

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the midst of it. All reclined with a book in

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her hands, was in TYPEE Adams. Her uniform was half

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hanging off of her body, the unzipped, unbuttoned flaps of

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gold laying across ant's modules, so she looked like a

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melting bar of precious metal. Those big black eyes fixed

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on me, and she snapped the book shut. You came

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as her sense of tidiness about the ship. It lacked

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so at her dedication to keeping an optimal envoy's appearance.

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That black hair usually buzzed to within three inches of

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her scalp per United Colony standard, as thick, long and

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lush as it ever was so long now that it curled,

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something it had never been allowed to do, and that

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I liked very much. Neat straight snipped ends overgrown around

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her tiny pale ears, or they seemed so tiny and

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cute compared to mine. There were deep black rings around

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her eyes, which told me she hadn't slept in washes,

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and a weird sense of dread fell over me. Then

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Aunt was right in front of me. The crew was

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right outside, but somebody somewhere had died. Of course. I

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sat in one of the three swivel chairs surrounding the

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control panel below the sleep module. I thought it was

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some kind of emergency, and Type's crewmates had dispersed for

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their own solo envoy appointments. A yesh Ago hints are

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more frequent meetups before the undergal they'd been stationed on

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a moon with a small settlement of humans and octals.

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Hirkleed safe and out of the way of real trouble.

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Just as I was sure their parents had requested to

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the higher ups. It is. Aunt zipped the front of

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her uniform, mending the gold suits so all her patches

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were visible in neat rows down the front of it.

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There was so successful piece summit badge she'd earned that

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standing around along with the thousands of other constables while

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the Octilavian leaders negotiated ownership of Saturn, home to the

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most vital substance on their planet, ammonia crystals. In the end,

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a deal was struck. They'd allowed Tereks to imprison octals

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found guilty of crimes against humans if the five families

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agreed to keep a steady flow of outward resources. The

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summit had been controversial among several orbiting activists, especially infamous

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turncoat constable Olivia Crest. The largest patch was a black square,

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serving as the background for a golden wolf to bound across.

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Claws reared rampant as the red eyes of the beasts

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glared out at the viewer. Under the wolf maw stretched

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out to suckle at its teats, two gold pups under

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small wisps of red flame, as if the milk were

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fire itself, Twins Ares and Athena. Above the wolf the

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words Vincere Sordam Nostrom, the colony motto. This image I'd

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only encountered a few times, but knew well enough was

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the Adam's family crest. As an extension of that, the

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image also served as the terex coat of arms. I

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stood to cross over to her, gently affixed the baseball

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cap to her head. Traced one patch on her uniform,

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this one for exemplary discipline. Above it, there were those

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four flower symbols, each beside the other, embroidered in blue

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amidst the gold suit, one for each of the remaining

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major families. A flower, they said, for Earth, the planet

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of abundance. We had run to Ruin decades before my

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great grandma's first kiss, a fifth of the planet designated

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to Ntiape and her siblings at the secretary's discretion, one

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hell of an inheritance. My hand wandered from the patches

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on her chest to her breasts, the others sliding down

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her waist. Her golden spacesuit was thin, the fabric, a

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silken veil over her fleshed skin. This kind, as if

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she'd expected this, Aunt removed my hand. Guilt shot through me.

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Sorry too much. She pulled off my glove and kissed

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my fingers, each one, lips, brushing the sensitive tips, then tongue,

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tracing the length that she took the longest middle one

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into her mouth. Is that good? Want roared up in

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me so powerfully. I shivered, starshine, I breathed. You got

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no idea. Sure we hadn't gotten around any clothes off action,

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but it wasn't for lack of desire. Our relative abstinence

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was due partially to the legal divides between our kinds,

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and partially to lack of privacy. Sex was something the

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Grievers almost considered a legend. Privacy is hard to come

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by as affordable oxygen. There was hardly room or enough

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alone time for the necessary alone time things. Humans, zenos, klids, argulics, octals,

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and every being alike had an innate need for reading

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in complete quiet, watching embarrassing content on the viz ejector

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never mind sex. I knew well enough, though, that myths

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were often based on sweet, sweaty reality had worked around

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the mismatch docking schedules and crewmate interruptions with past lovers.

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But it was a constable, not just that the face

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of the Adams Family future. The rules were almost the

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same as the ones for zenos. There was no making

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out with an atoms on the dance floor. There was

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no way to casually bring on a board and make

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your craft quake with an atoms. There was no courtship,

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just an affair, our low profile, only lending more credence

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to the label after the day, if all went well

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at last, all the secrecy would go out the airlock

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in time. He gave my finger one last exquisite lick,

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causing the well of warmth in my groind a shudder.

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Satisfied with the agonized groan that dripped past my sabers,

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she let my slickened hand swing limply to my side.

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That's the face I was looking for, Total bliss. Uh huh,

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I uttered, trying to force my brain to stop melting.

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Had to keep it together. What does this have to

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do with your message? You're gonna want to be really

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relaxed before I show you this. She curried her throat,

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reached into her pocket, aunt produced a silver disc like

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a coin, but weirdly seamless, like a gray eye into

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another world, a cranny I knew from stories, but not

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from experience. Extra dimensional storage too rich for my blood.

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She let the coin sized eye eat at her arm

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and drew back. With her fists closed around the handle

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of a silver suitcase, Aunt heaved it onto her desk careful,

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undid the two latches, metal buckles clicking as it burst

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open and anti light poured out. The suitcase was padded

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over in thick black foam. Nestled in the center, a

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thick glass bottle throbbed with energy inside a storming fist

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sized abyss, tiny tendrils of lightning lashing out of the

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swirling miniature black hole, the movements inside as hypnotic as

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they were chaotic. I moved closer, heart growing cold and

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still in my chest. No, I had to hold it

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to be sure. I reached out that warm black light,

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growing heavy and electric as my fingers near the bottle

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with a new, fresh, wonderful heat, a faint humming growing

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into a song, voices far away, beckoning and irresistible. Aunt

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snapped the suitcase shut and it shuddered on the desk.

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She latched it closed, careful, It's vital to a warm touch,

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what I said, shaking my head and feeling like any axe,

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and the next turn might snap me back to reality,

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like it's some kind of pet instead of an intergalactic

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time bomb. It's not a bomb. Ant climbed up her module,

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turned the pages of her book to me, just a

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tool to a very strange end. A two page spread

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of a diagram of a bottled black hole, labeled with

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each destructive property known in the universe, all according to

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available gear and knowhow. Compression could create a vortex to

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eons into the future. Piercing would set off a megasonic

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sound wave so intense everyone within a three galaxy radis

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will be vaporized instantly. Hell simply jostling the thing could

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result in deadly strobing, cooking, and dismembering anyone caught touching

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or just near it. Then, of course, there was uncorking

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the bottle, which will result in the deaths of the

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nonillion spacefares just within the milky as the whole consumed

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our galaxy, plunging everyone into a scarlet shaded nightmare known

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as red shifting. Before something called spaghetification occurred exactly what

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it sounds like, dicing us along mathematic grids until we

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were just bundles of nerve bound noodles suspended in infinitely

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slowed space time, the supermassive black hole having taken on

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the mass of every object, person, and planetary body before

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settling into a permanent position occupying our place in the universe.

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I snatched it from her and snapped it shut. The

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Beginner's Guide to Treason by Olivia Crest illegal on all

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thirteen planets of the UC and in most of inner space.

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Maroons weren't larcenous smugglers nor simple rum runners. There was

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organization and lethality to how they struck someone more than

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a thief, someone who would do anything to survive, yet

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didn't settle for that. A life in open defiance to

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the colonies, otherwise known as a magnetar for trouble sure

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looks like a weapons manual to me. It's just essays

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on how to fight back when we've already lost. We

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This topic was something we usually avoided, but if I

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was going to stand one cork away from vaporization, I

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was going to need some explanations. You don't have to

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worry about shit, Aunt. If anyone else rode up to

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the Colonies with one of these, they be catapulted into

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the sun. You can just hand it over, no questions asked.

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No Aunt shot back and firmly, I couldn't. I know,

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I've been ignorant the past, Jay, but I've been well reading,

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getting to know more about the things I was shielded

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from before we met starvation, poverty, slavery. No. I shook

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my head. So this explained the guide. It happened before me,

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but it didn't sink in until I looked at the book.

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The Colonies banned radical material for a reason. It had

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a habit of well radicalizing. Just a Yush and Tyape

220
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had gone from a well meaning Terran to a wanna

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be maroon. Sure, none of us liked the Colonies, hence

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our operation outside of it. Aboard the Kylaks, Belaying low

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was our brand. Maroons typically flaunted their affiliation by dying

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their suits deep red fiery torches for colony crackdowns. As

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for their cause, the last decades, heavily taxed inner Spacers

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had made pushes for independence from the Colonies, seeking to

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effectively eliminate the United Colonies as it existed. Leaving only

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Earth as the true designated home of humans, everything else

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to be reclaimed by the original communities, run off of

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the conquered planets, or peacefully shared in agreement with them. Grievous.

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The independent swath of inner space created if the secession

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ever went through, would also free the grievers from their

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contracts running themselves into debt in order to afford to

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touch solid ground, the universe's first establishment of space born bastards. Secession, though,

235
00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:02,639
of course, would never through. The colonies allowed a Gary

236
00:15:02,639 --> 00:15:05,879
Mandard vote on the issue every few years, sure, but

237
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this wouldn't matter, given one had to be a colony

238
00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:13,240
citizen to vote, not property, not unhuman human, and with

239
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an official colony ID. Whatever the fix, the Grievous movement

240
00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:20,559
had often been brought up in regards to the Calleidis

241
00:15:20,639 --> 00:15:24,519
in question. Aris had dicked over an entire galaxy but

242
00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:27,159
hadn't managed to get away with it. The least he

243
00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:29,840
and the colonies could do with seed Land for recovery

244
00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:33,240
of their culture to those they'd hurt. If nothing was done,

245
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something big would boil over, and soon, considering the existence

246
00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:42,720
of the black Hole, things already had drawing dragon attention

247
00:15:42,879 --> 00:15:47,080
was bad enough the gold Suits, but maroons. Anyone with

248
00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:49,200
the semblance of a cause that didn't line up with

249
00:15:49,279 --> 00:15:53,080
Terek's values attracted the silver suited higher ups that didn't

250
00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:58,960
explain themselves, didn't shoot, didn't knock, only took grievers, disappearing

251
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:02,159
them in the middle of the night. No trials, no rights,

252
00:16:02,679 --> 00:16:06,960
just warrants, not even signed by colony court, but Constable court,

253
00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:12,159
which answered to no one, not even aries. Where the

254
00:16:12,159 --> 00:16:15,440
silver Suits took them, no one knew for sure, but

255
00:16:15,519 --> 00:16:18,639
there were whispers around forced farm labor and the correction belt.

256
00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,480
Not just that, but a silver site, one of a

257
00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:26,320
handful of cloaked government locations that torture allegations leaked out

258
00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:29,679
of on a quarterly basis, the most well known of

259
00:16:29,679 --> 00:16:32,720
which was accusations of prisoners being forced to fight each

260
00:16:32,759 --> 00:16:36,399
other for their freedom. This, legends said, have been the

261
00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:39,480
fate of the vanished pop star Libby Kissel And at

262
00:16:39,519 --> 00:16:41,799
the height of her fame. Who was to say, and

263
00:16:41,879 --> 00:16:47,000
Adams couldn't be next? And what happened to you? Don't

264
00:16:47,039 --> 00:16:50,639
talk like this. I've made up my mind, Jane, she said,

265
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,720
the same way you did when you defected A scoff

266
00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:56,000
escaped before I could think to hold it in. Don't

267
00:16:56,039 --> 00:16:58,960
even go there, aunt. All I've ever done is steer

268
00:16:59,039 --> 00:17:02,519
my crew away from red flags like this. Yeah, well,

269
00:17:02,799 --> 00:17:07,920
she hesitated, just barely. Maybe that's why you never address them.

270
00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:10,759
The theory that surged in me was of the loud kind,

271
00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:13,279
the kind that drove one to the nearest steel wall

272
00:17:13,319 --> 00:17:16,039
to thrash until their fists were bloody, but a silent,

273
00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:19,559
incisive one that seemed to nettle ant more than any other.

274
00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:23,079
Might I know this seems like opting in the trouble

275
00:17:23,119 --> 00:17:25,839
to someone born into it like you. But I've been

276
00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:29,039
listening to call casts. Oh, call cast, are you kidding me?

277
00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:33,480
That show is just delirious babble. I insisted. The broadcast

278
00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:36,839
show was centered around conspiracies and relied on listeners to

279
00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:40,640
phone in for juicy anti colony gossip, monitor cracks in

280
00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,839
the regime. People that call on the radio shows just

281
00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:47,440
want attention. As for that Crest woman, it's the truth,

282
00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:54,960
she said, true perspectives. Real callers reaching out for food, water, friendship, help.

283
00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:58,200
They help each other because the ones in power see

284
00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:01,519
seeking assistance is clamoring for a handout. Now that my

285
00:18:01,599 --> 00:18:03,839
eyes are open. The crimes of my father are all

286
00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:06,599
I can see. I mean, do you know what the

287
00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:10,119
colonies would do with something like this? Gee? I can guess.

288
00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:14,599
My eyes fell upon something I hadn't noticed before, so

289
00:18:14,839 --> 00:18:17,079
used to seeing it hung up on that hook rather

290
00:18:17,119 --> 00:18:21,559
than an ant's hands, pointed at me. A long slab

291
00:18:21,599 --> 00:18:25,400
of black metal with a wavy grip handle attached to

292
00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:30,839
a leather shoulder strap. Ants hotshot, a colony exclusive laser weapon.

293
00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:34,359
This technology had been stolen from the Collidisans, just as

294
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:36,440
the blood of the Atoms Twins had been siphoned from

295
00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:41,200
their veins, all in the name of progress. The reason

296
00:18:41,319 --> 00:18:44,640
artificially manufacturing black holes was illegal was because of the

297
00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:49,519
expansion skirmishes. Arisay decided long ago that one galaxy wasn't

298
00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:54,000
enough for humanity. The thirteen planetary colonies was only ever

299
00:18:54,119 --> 00:18:57,519
the beginning. The goal was in the United Colonies motto

300
00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:03,559
vincier sordam nost. The textbooks translated the phrase as to

301
00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:08,039
conquer our destiny, but the most popular interpretation was to

302
00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:12,880
win our lot, fight for and win control of the

303
00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:18,640
universe and eventually beyond what areas in a rotating assortment

304
00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:22,319
of presidents were aiming for was an intergalactic human settlement,

305
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:26,960
just one to boost morale keep, the critics stated, improve

306
00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:30,319
once and for all. We didn't need the Earth or

307
00:19:30,359 --> 00:19:33,920
even the Milky Way to make a home. This project

308
00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:37,079
failed slowly over the course of dozens of ass beatings

309
00:19:37,079 --> 00:19:40,880
at the edge of the Andromaa galaxy next door, defensive

310
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:44,160
lashings from the Colidizans tearing through vast swaths of humans

311
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:48,079
before colony forces retreated. The only way the top colony

312
00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:50,960
personnel could think to infiltrate the galaxy was to blow

313
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:54,839
their way through in twenty one forty five, guiding a

314
00:19:54,839 --> 00:19:58,160
bottled homegrown black hole through space to explode on the

315
00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:02,440
Coalidizan's front porch. What the humans hadn't considered, at least

316
00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,240
as far as Aris was willing to admit, was the

317
00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:09,559
permanent destruction of the entire Andromeda Galaxy. The black hole

318
00:20:09,599 --> 00:20:13,000
swallowing as many Colidizans as the trigger a near extinction event,

319
00:20:13,519 --> 00:20:17,079
sparing only those still residing, working, or hiding in the

320
00:20:17,119 --> 00:20:21,240
Milky Way. Tereks bucked responsibility by pointing at their own

321
00:20:21,279 --> 00:20:24,720
casualties and their own ignorance as to the extended effects

322
00:20:24,759 --> 00:20:28,319
of detonation but the tragedy had marred ares reputation so

323
00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:31,200
thoroughly that the bomb itself had been nicknamed the Blunder

324
00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,720
Mistake or not, the remaining hundreds of Calidisans considered it

325
00:20:35,839 --> 00:20:39,880
a war worthy act. To this wash, thirty yeshs later,

326
00:20:40,559 --> 00:20:43,799
human helmed ships were still captured in the recesses of space.

327
00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,359
The crew dispatched in the steel bones of the ghost

328
00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:52,480
craft left floating through space a bloody husk. Reports included

329
00:20:52,519 --> 00:20:55,640
details of dust caked corpses clinging to the steel ERTs,

330
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:59,480
gray moats, and stray strands of decomposing hair sticking to

331
00:20:59,519 --> 00:21:03,920
the raw, exposed muscle of the deceased cruise because for

332
00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:10,440
some reason their skin was always missing. The remaining Colidizans

333
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:13,440
had done their best to recuperate their culture, allying with

334
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:16,960
the Octalavians on Octolete, though their loss wasn't taken as

335
00:21:17,039 --> 00:21:20,559
seriously there, since the Octals had seen nine major extinction

336
00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:23,160
events and crawled back from them all full fours due

337
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:28,720
to certain regenerative evolutionary adaptations, not to mention, despite being

338
00:21:28,799 --> 00:21:32,720
allies with the Colidizans, the Octaalavians still needed resource flow

339
00:21:32,759 --> 00:21:35,960
from Saturn, so never hesitated to buddy up with Terex.

340
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:41,519
Despite decades of Colidizon protests and demonstrations the Canison galaxy,

341
00:21:41,599 --> 00:21:44,440
I said areas it never let go of his dream

342
00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:47,920
of an intergalactic human empire. The octals would fold like

343
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,519
fresh laundry at the sight of a new homegrown whore.

344
00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:54,759
Where did it come from? And type set the buzzing

345
00:21:54,799 --> 00:21:59,160
suitcase aside. There is an attack my old crewmate Davin on.

346
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,519
You know the deal. A dragoon goes into a shadowy

347
00:22:02,599 --> 00:22:07,119
corner to investigate strange radio signals, only their ship emerges.

348
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:10,680
I scrambled for my own radio, made sure the dial

349
00:22:10,839 --> 00:22:14,680
was turned to off. You think Collidizan's made it. I

350
00:22:14,759 --> 00:22:18,079
know they did. Aunt climbed onto her module, craned her

351
00:22:18,079 --> 00:22:20,640
neck to gaze out the window above it, out over

352
00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:23,960
the station, gleaming in the violet light of the nearest star.

353
00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:28,759
There were only two of them that I met. It's

354
00:22:28,759 --> 00:22:31,240
hard to understand. I told you. I've been listening to

355
00:22:31,279 --> 00:22:35,480
call cast lately, like clockwork. Every day at nineteen avns

356
00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:37,759
to the ninth all on, someone calls in just to

357
00:22:37,759 --> 00:22:40,599
state a bunch of numbers. I didn't get curious until

358
00:22:40,599 --> 00:22:43,279
they said the last Cordinans. Davenon was known the transmit

359
00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:47,519
from so I followed them to his ship. It was ransacked.

360
00:22:47,799 --> 00:22:51,480
Everyone dead. Angelica, though I never did care about her.

361
00:22:52,039 --> 00:22:56,519
Then there was davenon Aunt. I reached out toward her,

362
00:22:56,880 --> 00:22:59,240
but she didn't jump into my arms. There was a

363
00:22:59,279 --> 00:23:01,799
steely sort of look to her eyes in a robotic

364
00:23:01,839 --> 00:23:05,519
tone to her voice. This wasn't my girlfriend recounting a memory.

365
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:10,240
This was a constable giving an official report. Please don't

366
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,720
shut me out. I want to be there for you,

367
00:23:13,079 --> 00:23:16,359
like I was there for dav Aunt broke composure only

368
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,480
to snap this, smoothing her suit before she went on.

369
00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:25,039
Angelica was just a cousin of the representative for Lochusk.

370
00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:30,480
But Davinon was a griever, a kid. Really, now I understood.

371
00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:34,759
The Phoenix Initiative was enacted in twenty one sixty by

372
00:23:34,799 --> 00:23:38,359
none other than Ari's Atoms. It wasn't really called that,

373
00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:41,400
but that was the common nickname for the colony integration

374
00:23:41,559 --> 00:23:45,359
effort that in the Fuck Up Initiative. It was the

375
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,039
second thing he was known for after the Skirmishes and

376
00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:52,359
Operation Eve, and possibly the only progressive act ever carried

377
00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:56,799
out by the Adams administration mandating public transport crafts make

378
00:23:56,839 --> 00:24:00,519
frequent stops to farther moons populated by browner peeple than

379
00:24:00,559 --> 00:24:05,799
those working the colonial management positions, granting isolated grievers access

380
00:24:05,839 --> 00:24:09,440
to the better paying places in the galaxy. Davenon had

381
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:13,079
been a griever, more like me in complexion and circumstance

382
00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:17,000
than Aunt. He knew the risks my moon, I said,

383
00:24:17,599 --> 00:24:20,319
maybe only a third of grievers finished basic lessons. But

384
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:23,400
you can't write off our common sense of that we

385
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:27,559
are an excess supply. It's not just that Aunt swiped

386
00:24:27,559 --> 00:24:31,359
at her eyes. I don't have taran guilt gene well,

387
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:35,000
not in a pitying kind of way, not anymore. He

388
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:41,440
was only a kid, just eighteen. Ah Aunt never really

389
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,200
talked about her family, but I knew about it in depth,

390
00:24:44,279 --> 00:24:46,920
the same way everyone knew of my crimes, regardless of

391
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:51,160
my silence on the matter. The press cosmo razzi were

392
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:55,799
more dogged than dragoons. Every milestone of entirepees home life

393
00:24:55,880 --> 00:25:00,599
growing up blared across Vizajector's galaxy wide. Of course, there

394
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:05,200
was her beaming, charming, golden voiced father, Aris, but she

395
00:25:05,279 --> 00:25:08,799
had siblings as well, an older sister, The Pride of

396
00:25:08,839 --> 00:25:13,279
Earth is Aris firstborn Artemis Adams. Then there was Aunt's

397
00:25:13,319 --> 00:25:18,440
younger brother, Apollo. She had a protective streak carved into

398
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:21,920
her from years of Apollo's crystal crib side, one that

399
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:27,279
extended especially to young men. I get that, I said, slowly,

400
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:30,279
But I was only a pup myself when they drafted

401
00:25:30,279 --> 00:25:33,440
me to Starnott Academy. It's not more tragic just because

402
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:36,200
it happens to a human, Aunt, I didn't say. It

403
00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:40,599
was one, she snapped. And two, you wouldn't know how

404
00:25:40,599 --> 00:25:44,119
close I was to Davenon or Apollo because I don't

405
00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:47,400
have a family. I headed her off, considering it a favor.

406
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:51,200
She was emotional, grieving, saying things faster than she could

407
00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:54,200
think them. If I heard those words from her, the

408
00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:57,839
US we'd been building wouldn't be the US that emerged.

409
00:25:58,599 --> 00:26:00,640
I know you miss him, Aunt, but I know what

410
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:04,640
it's like to form bonds, to have brothers. Of course,

411
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:10,559
said Aunt Nelson, right, I'm sorry. Just tell me what

412
00:26:10,599 --> 00:26:14,319
you saw now. I sounded like the constable the investigator,

413
00:26:15,279 --> 00:26:19,519
and Tyabe swallowed hard and went on, it's more like

414
00:26:19,559 --> 00:26:23,440
what I didn't see, she said. My crew members without

415
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:27,480
their skin, every nanobite of data scrubbed from the computer,

416
00:26:28,319 --> 00:26:31,680
every video and audio fee was down or destroyed. There

417
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:35,319
were muddy orange talon prints tracked throughout the craft. I

418
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:37,480
knew the murderer must be on one of the RUSS

419
00:26:37,519 --> 00:26:41,200
moons orbiting Cleo. It's an exoplanet. I've heard of it.

420
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:44,440
She was babbling now though, and ignored me. With three

421
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:48,559
moons you see, Patra Primus and Polythemus. That's the one

422
00:26:48,559 --> 00:26:51,440
I found them on in that garage, like some kind

423
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,880
of lab. It was rigged up so that if kellidis

424
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:58,440
In wasn't spoken into a microphone, a countdown would begin

425
00:26:59,079 --> 00:27:02,119
just three accents. But I would have recognized what was

426
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,319
in the bottle anywhere. It's the only thing I could save.

427
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:12,599
So the Colidizans they were criminals. Gene, I'm a criminal, aunt.

428
00:27:13,319 --> 00:27:17,880
The word is very relative outside of inner space. So

429
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,880
much for keeping our heads down to think, the same

430
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:23,279
soft fingers that squeezed the trigger of a hot shot

431
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:27,480
had sent shivers all through me, my girlfriend, the possible

432
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,480
breathing match hovering over the largest space borne battle yet

433
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,960
to come. Sure everyone knew the Colidisans were behind the

434
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:39,079
disappearances but Colidisan leaders vehemently denied it. Despite their great

435
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:43,319
population losses, their extra galactic weaponry and abilities were beyond

436
00:27:43,319 --> 00:27:47,160
anything humans could replicate. A Gunpoint treaty had been drawn

437
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:51,000
up shortly after the skirmishes, promising independence to the remaining

438
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:56,559
Coalidizans and freedom specifically from violent human action. Killing Colidizans

439
00:27:56,599 --> 00:28:02,559
was an intergalactic crime, punishable by execution. You're the most

440
00:28:02,559 --> 00:28:06,160
white human in the entire Milky Way. Yeah, sure, to

441
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:11,000
kaleidisance An added, most of them are in the canison. Anyhow,

442
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,079
I didn't have a choice. Would you have rather their

443
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:18,200
plan went through? I'm not ready to be a noodle gene. Okay,

444
00:28:18,559 --> 00:28:22,960
I said, you're right. But but if the colonies found

445
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,039
out about the near miss, retaliation would be swift and

446
00:28:26,079 --> 00:28:30,880
deadly on both ends, potentially exterminating either humans or Coalidizans

447
00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:34,119
or both. The Octlavians would be caught in the middle,

448
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:39,039
forced to pick sides, punished either way. Segregation would ramp up,

449
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:42,480
a total crackdown on the Xenome codes. Hundreds of armed

450
00:28:42,519 --> 00:28:46,240
dragoons would seasoned star knots set loose in coalideson settlements.

451
00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:51,000
Not one sacking, but dozens the most brutal yet, this

452
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:56,240
is bad gene. The metal plating of the flooring walls

453
00:28:56,319 --> 00:28:59,440
rolled across my vision in a blur of silver, the

454
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:02,240
wall ding my back with a solid, dull thud. That

455
00:29:02,319 --> 00:29:05,079
might as well have been that boulder, black and orange,

456
00:29:05,279 --> 00:29:08,680
like the remnants of some model meteor blending into the landscape.

457
00:29:09,079 --> 00:29:14,920
That boulder, that invasion, That endless pleading gene. What's wrong?

458
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:23,240
I'd only experienced one sacking myself. Unlike constables galactic diplomats,

459
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:26,599
all Zeno genes were born off Earth, a planet at

460
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,920
the edge of the colonies, the Eleventh Settlement, a ghost

461
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,880
town that had never really taken off. Wolfthrop, home only

462
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:37,680
to the gestation facilities, nursing litter upon litter of xenajenes.

463
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:41,599
We were kept away from the general population for twenty yushes,

464
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,680
barely raised on Wolfthrop early but thrown loose oats and

465
00:29:45,759 --> 00:29:49,640
lava leach entrals every other wash kept in enclosures since

466
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:54,519
we were infants and already super strong. Indo vitro technology

467
00:29:54,599 --> 00:29:57,039
so developed at the point of the first Zeno production

468
00:29:57,079 --> 00:29:59,960
in twenty one twenty five that the scientists on wolf

469
00:30:00,039 --> 00:30:03,480
Throb could intricately weave a genetic tapestry of modern human

470
00:30:03,519 --> 00:30:07,319
and ancient hominid, digitally patching in the gaps with DNA

471
00:30:07,359 --> 00:30:11,480
from creatures on Earth with the most advanced senses, each

472
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:14,480
of us the orphan from some mismatched soup of athlete,

473
00:30:14,559 --> 00:30:19,559
animal and neanderthal. The way this presentan was different for everyone,

474
00:30:19,759 --> 00:30:22,200
as the genes were some of my peers with the

475
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:26,200
incredible lung capacity of a professional swimmer, the sprinting skills

476
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:29,039
of the fastest known human paired with leopard claws to

477
00:30:29,079 --> 00:30:32,640
throw the distance behind you, or the rectangular pupils of

478
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,880
a grazing animal able to see three hundred degrees more

479
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:40,000
than any human. For me, it was thick curled black

480
00:30:40,119 --> 00:30:44,960
ramshorns sabreed fangs from some hulking carnivorous feline that lived

481
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:49,519
millennia ago. There's the strength too this the whiskers and

482
00:30:49,599 --> 00:30:52,519
the tail either inherit it from the ancient human genes

483
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:57,359
or the feline. The ears were from neither long ever perked,

484
00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:00,839
and roughly the size of small satellites. There were a

485
00:31:00,839 --> 00:31:04,319
few major flaws in my design, though I was near sighted,

486
00:31:04,759 --> 00:31:08,400
smaller than my peers, and prone to depression, earning me

487
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:11,759
the nickname the Weeping Runt, back when nicknames were the

488
00:31:11,799 --> 00:31:14,759
only way we could distinguish each other. I hadn't grasped

489
00:31:14,759 --> 00:31:17,160
what my real name was till I was fifteen, and

490
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:21,359
we were finally enrolled into the Starknot Academy on Wolfthrop's

491
00:31:21,359 --> 00:31:25,559
Moon Serpentarius. Well, all of us, save for Subject Z,

492
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,119
who was shipped off for observation, as all Z's eventually

493
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:33,039
were first study to help scientists improve in our design,

494
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:38,400
or so we were told. Our instructors were handpicked by

495
00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:41,599
doctor Julia Hare to stoke what was genetically modified to

496
00:31:41,599 --> 00:31:46,000
come naturally to us aggression. Only one bothered to address

497
00:31:46,039 --> 00:31:50,319
me as anything other than you XGJ twenty one, p.

498
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:54,720
Fifty one. What I lacked in vision size and mental stability,

499
00:31:55,079 --> 00:31:57,960
I made up four with my reflexes, which it turned

500
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,839
out was more important than clear sight or brawn. Anyway,

501
00:32:01,599 --> 00:32:04,359
my instructors honing and praising my wrist taking in the

502
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:08,559
pilot simulator. Depression had its use behind the steering wheel.

503
00:32:08,799 --> 00:32:11,079
If I didn't care about my own safety, I could

504
00:32:11,079 --> 00:32:14,359
serve the colonies without even my own mortality holding me back,

505
00:32:15,119 --> 00:32:18,319
A faithful scout of the United Colonies. What else I

506
00:32:18,359 --> 00:32:21,160
was created? For I didn't know until our training came

507
00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:23,599
to a head under a special order passed down to

508
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:28,640
doctor Hare from Aris Adams himself, appearing in holographic form

509
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,839
to describe the trial under fire, our first true field

510
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:35,359
trip off of Wolthrop, my first time behind a real

511
00:32:35,359 --> 00:32:39,640
steering wheel, not one mounted under a simulation screen. We

512
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:42,799
were to wipe out the rebellious population of Ksev, a

513
00:32:42,839 --> 00:32:46,480
bountiful planet inhabited by burrowing aliens with worm like skin,

514
00:32:47,039 --> 00:32:51,039
smooth and banded in oozing slime. They were humanoid in

515
00:32:51,079 --> 00:32:54,559
all other ways, though, something my compeers took advantage of.

516
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:59,599
When we landed, instructions were clear they'd have their chance

517
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:03,000
to surren entered a colony supervision. Now every last uzer

518
00:33:03,079 --> 00:33:05,680
was at the mercy of my class in order to

519
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,240
advance the starnot and be assigned to a constable to

520
00:33:08,319 --> 00:33:11,279
lead us aboard one of those cloakable dragoon ships. We

521
00:33:11,359 --> 00:33:15,039
had to prove ourselves on casev stomp out the enemy. Yes,

522
00:33:15,599 --> 00:33:18,920
but more importantly, as Ares had noted, make them wish

523
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:23,000
they'd never resisted in the first place. Ksev started out

524
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,319
with a population of twenty five thousand each corpse counted

525
00:33:26,319 --> 00:33:31,480
to assure their elimination, Stacked on top of each other, torched, mutilated,

526
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:37,359
gore through hornholes, riddling the bleeding slack masses, some half eaten,

527
00:33:37,839 --> 00:33:41,200
others smeared an excrement. The worst part, by far were

528
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:44,559
the stragglers uzers that had been forced out of the

529
00:33:44,559 --> 00:33:47,759
deepest burrows, dragged out of their hiding spots and beaten

530
00:33:47,799 --> 00:33:52,000
the near death, but only near to keep them warm,

531
00:33:52,319 --> 00:33:54,440
I was told by more than one of my classmates

532
00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:58,680
where that factored in, one can use their imagination. I

533
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:01,799
don't have to, though. That's when I decided I wouldn't

534
00:34:01,799 --> 00:34:05,960
be sticking around for graduation. Wilfthrop was a wasteland of

535
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,320
gelope ships. One half of the planet lit where we

536
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,960
were born, but the other forever submerged in shadow. That's

537
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:16,360
where the demolitions took place. Metal sorting carried out by

538
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:19,960
low level colony employees, unarmed, ones who wouldn't be eager

539
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:22,199
to report that a craft slay it for cube shaped

540
00:34:22,199 --> 00:34:26,639
compaction had slipped through the cracks. Aries, however, noticed immediately

541
00:34:26,679 --> 00:34:31,039
when I didn't report for assignment, personally bestowing medallions upon

542
00:34:31,039 --> 00:34:34,400
each victor's shoulder at a ceremony known as the Heffaistus Ball.

543
00:34:35,199 --> 00:34:38,599
It was said he still wore my metal even five

544
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:40,880
yeshes later. It was a risk a dock for more

545
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:45,840
than an auran in time. Inevitably, some passing envoy would

546
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,480
be tipped off about a craft lacking a landing license,

547
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:51,559
which I'd happily apply for if the whole system wasn't

548
00:34:51,599 --> 00:34:54,239
set up to be as cyclical and frustrating as possible

549
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:57,760
to punish orbiters. A craft couldn't be registered for a

550
00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:01,519
landing license without proof of its pilots initial credentials. One

551
00:35:01,519 --> 00:35:05,239
couldn't pursue pilot's credentials without participating in the expansion order.

552
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:08,840
One couldn't participate in the expansion order without seeing things

553
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:12,599
that made one made me want to abandon my post

554
00:35:12,639 --> 00:35:16,840
in the first place. There was no peace for fugitives. Sure,

555
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:20,320
on the surface, my crime was astro vehicular theft, but

556
00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:24,119
they didn't pursue just any thief so thoroughly wasting valuable

557
00:35:24,159 --> 00:35:28,480
colony time and resources. That was my real charge, stealing

558
00:35:28,519 --> 00:35:31,159
away with need to no knowledge in my head in

559
00:35:31,159 --> 00:35:34,440
a patent attached to every helix of my genes. The

560
00:35:34,519 --> 00:35:37,480
total debt coming around to the financial tune of ninety

561
00:35:37,519 --> 00:35:42,519
six trillion colony dollars, an impossible number, but it translated

562
00:35:42,599 --> 00:35:46,119
to just five hundred thousand drokens. I'd never seen more

563
00:35:46,159 --> 00:35:48,679
than three thousand in one place at a time, never

564
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:52,400
had more than five hundred on hand, yet made Aunt

565
00:35:52,519 --> 00:35:55,679
was right. The bottle in the suitcase, the black hole

566
00:35:55,719 --> 00:36:00,400
in the bottle wasn't a bomb, but a breakthrough a weapon.

567
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:07,760
But are winnings unliquidated, riches untapped potential? I've got an idea,

568
00:36:08,119 --> 00:36:11,039
but you need to stay open minded, Aunt eyed me

569
00:36:11,079 --> 00:36:13,519
a moment, climbing down from her module to take each

570
00:36:13,519 --> 00:36:17,039
in my hands. What is it? You don't have plans

571
00:36:17,079 --> 00:36:19,920
for it, do you, I asked, other than keeping it

572
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:23,679
away from aries? I mean and TYPEE blushed, turning her

573
00:36:23,679 --> 00:36:27,000
gaze away as she unclasped my hands. I do, she said,

574
00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:29,840
But you're not gonna like it. I would have given

575
00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:33,360
anything to be curious, try me, I said, knowing full

576
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:37,360
well what Aunt had in mind. Well, Aunt shrugged, hugging

577
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:40,599
herself and drumming her fingers along her upper arm. You're

578
00:36:40,679 --> 00:36:42,920
thinking of the black hole as a weapon, when you

579
00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:45,239
should think of it as the most influential tool in

580
00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:49,119
the galaxy. That's better than destruction, Gene, more than it.

581
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:53,360
Just like don't the Red Suits are more than spoiled landfolk,

582
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:57,679
she said, the defense at the ready, anticipating my every move.

583
00:36:58,280 --> 00:36:59,960
I know that's what you think of them. But there's

584
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:03,199
there's nothing wrong with fighting when it's for the innocent. No,

585
00:37:03,599 --> 00:37:06,400
I agreed, But there is something wrong with putting your

586
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:09,679
life on the line for something A cause, Aunt cut in,

587
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:14,199
a cause you know nothing about. I said. It's as

588
00:37:14,199 --> 00:37:17,599
simple as that, Aunt, It isn't for me. It is

589
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:20,960
At once, I was aware of the captain finality creeping

590
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:23,800
into my tone. I hated it, but needed it now

591
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:28,480
more than ever needed Aunt to understand. Before we met,

592
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:32,000
I'd lead the crew into desperate failed heist after desperate

593
00:37:32,039 --> 00:37:37,239
failed heist for ions, for an engine, for water, for food.

594
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:41,599
The dragoons always caught on. We always just got away.

595
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:45,320
We run for a reason, and Tiopee. Once you get

596
00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:49,280
the attention of tae Rex, there's no peace. Then there

597
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:52,719
shouldn't be any peace. Aunt choked on the words, swiping

598
00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:56,239
at her damp flushed cheeks. I see what you mean, Geane,

599
00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:59,880
But the things I've already done to get this we

600
00:38:00,079 --> 00:38:02,360
can't just destroy it. I don't want to destroy it,

601
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:05,519
I said, I wanna sell it, not to a human,

602
00:38:05,719 --> 00:38:08,360
not to a collide is in somewhat neutral, with far

603
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,800
away reasons for wanting it, some distant galaxy, some distant

604
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:18,159
war gene. Her tone then was hard to parse, judgmental, scandalized.

605
00:38:19,079 --> 00:38:21,119
I know it gets used either way, but we might

606
00:38:21,159 --> 00:38:25,119
not have another chance. Slow down. Aunt was taller than me,

607
00:38:25,639 --> 00:38:28,519
my curved horns coming up to her shoulder. She pulled

608
00:38:28,519 --> 00:38:31,599
those blue gloves off to pet my horns, now just

609
00:38:31,679 --> 00:38:34,320
lightly tracing the sharpened ends in that way that made

610
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:37,440
the fur on my tail stand on end. Another chance

611
00:38:37,519 --> 00:38:40,480
for what I explained as much by leaning up on

612
00:38:40,519 --> 00:38:44,679
my toes. She met me halfway, pressing her cool, full

613
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:49,320
lips to mine softly at first, her tongue grazing my sabers,

614
00:38:50,159 --> 00:38:52,760
each one hand length and on either side of my mouth,

615
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:56,000
so sharp. No matter what I did, that aunt nickter

616
00:38:56,159 --> 00:38:58,880
tongue on one. I didn't know until she deepened the

617
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:02,840
kiss and I tasted her blood. I closed my eyes

618
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:07,920
to build a full flavor profile, iron, robust and pungent.

619
00:39:08,519 --> 00:39:12,239
She was healthy, of course, she was always well fed.

620
00:39:12,639 --> 00:39:15,119
Her father would see to that while the rest of

621
00:39:15,199 --> 00:39:18,920
us in orbit starved. I I couldn't help but consider

622
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:22,119
how soft and smooth her hands were on me inside

623
00:39:22,159 --> 00:39:26,639
my suit versus my own calloused from gripping the steering wheel.

624
00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:29,800
Aunt tried to run her hands through my hair, but

625
00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:33,119
the wild mop of twists was in no way colony standard.

626
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:36,679
We had to part to get her fingers untangled. That's

627
00:39:36,679 --> 00:39:38,880
when I asked her, as she drew her hand back

628
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:42,639
and I tucked away a long, straight twist, I want

629
00:39:42,679 --> 00:39:44,639
you to move in with me, Aunt, I bore the

630
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:49,519
kylaks I mean, she rolled her eyes. Of course, short term,

631
00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:53,360
she said, tucking the silver suitcase containing the blunder inside

632
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:56,639
the gray cranny in her hand. Aunt donda backpack as

633
00:39:56,679 --> 00:40:00,760
well stray spacesuit sleeves hanging out of it pressed against

634
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:03,079
the sides. As the middle bursts with full sacks of

635
00:40:03,119 --> 00:40:07,760
crystallized ions premium fuel. My ship cloaks. But there's a

636
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,800
location bug somewhere in the walls. Anyone could hone in

637
00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:13,000
with the right tech. And you said yourself, I'm an

638
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:16,119
intergalactic fugitive. It's only a matter of time until they

639
00:40:16,159 --> 00:40:20,679
close in. Not short term, I said, sweat sliding down

640
00:40:20,679 --> 00:40:24,840
my palms. Long term, it's an iceore shirt, but a

641
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:27,519
freighter shit before cat fixed it up. There's a lot

642
00:40:27,599 --> 00:40:30,000
more space than you think it fits. The four of

643
00:40:30,079 --> 00:40:33,639
us just fine, all with separate sleep modules. Those are private,

644
00:40:33,679 --> 00:40:36,480
at least if that's what you were worried about, or

645
00:40:36,519 --> 00:40:38,320
if you think it's too weird to commit like this

646
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:41,519
to someone you've never been with in that way. I mean,

647
00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:45,840
Anstone was teasing, giddy and laced with a lure when

648
00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:49,840
she said it is sort of old fashioned. I'm a

649
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:55,480
twenty second century woman, Jeane. Then let's modernize. We kissed again,

650
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:58,320
but with a fellow fervor. I hadn't allowed myself to

651
00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:02,000
feel with that yet, least hadn't allowed her to see

652
00:41:02,639 --> 00:41:04,719
me bearing down on her as she backed to the

653
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:08,800
sterling steel plated walls, Our hands all over each other,

654
00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:11,360
tearing at the zippers on the front of our suits.

655
00:41:12,159 --> 00:41:15,840
I needed that feeling, skin on skin, and Aunt delivered,

656
00:41:16,519 --> 00:41:19,000
taking me by the shoulders to urge me into her chest,

657
00:41:19,639 --> 00:41:23,760
an area hadn't been permitted to explore until now. A

658
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:26,960
type had never mentioned what a hindrance my mammoth sabers

659
00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:30,039
were directly but just kissing on the mouth posed enough

660
00:41:30,079 --> 00:41:35,360
of a challenge. Was new enough territory. All those sensitive organs,

661
00:41:35,599 --> 00:41:38,119
the ones that were shiver skinned and swollen and so

662
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:40,519
pleasurable to the touch, it seemed a shame they ever

663
00:41:40,559 --> 00:41:43,920
go back behind clothes seemed too risky to chance near

664
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:49,519
my teeth. Are you sure it's okay? Jeane Aunt panted,

665
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:55,119
I trust you. My mouth found her sweet, hard nipple

666
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:59,840
amid her soft, warm breasts, first one watching my sabers

667
00:42:00,119 --> 00:42:05,840
tips the glistening white edges, then the other, and Taipeig groaned,

668
00:42:06,039 --> 00:42:08,960
took a hold of my spacesuit and practically lifted me

669
00:42:09,039 --> 00:42:11,079
up inches off the floor for a kiss that made

670
00:42:11,119 --> 00:42:14,559
the Big Bang look like a minor traffic collision. The

671
00:42:14,599 --> 00:42:18,760
knot between my legs throbbed, aching to be unraveled. Our

672
00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:21,840
suits were at last peeled off, but only to the waist.

673
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:25,760
It was no exaggeration to say that below that was forbidden.

674
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:31,239
Territory entire laws dedicated to upholding appropriate behavior between person

675
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:36,880
and property. In an envoy. Constables only carried out a job.

676
00:42:37,599 --> 00:42:42,000
Xenos were our job. Piloting and mauling sewn into our

677
00:42:42,119 --> 00:42:45,840
DNA pleaded in thousands of layers over the human core.

678
00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:49,840
Xenos could get with other zenos no problem, though it

679
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:53,079
was considered taboo for xenagenes from the same production yush

680
00:42:53,079 --> 00:42:56,519
to fool around the genetic pool from which we respawned,

681
00:42:56,599 --> 00:42:59,960
rotating on an annual basis. So we were whelped alongside

682
00:43:00,159 --> 00:43:03,840
just over two dozen of our relatives. As for the

683
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:07,920
genetic generations proceeding and following my class, even I had

684
00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:11,360
been with another of my kind, an octol, once or twice,

685
00:43:11,679 --> 00:43:15,159
all of us unhuman in that umbrella sense. Now, though

686
00:43:15,679 --> 00:43:18,360
I had never been more aware that Entiapee was human,

687
00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:24,559
not just human Terran, and not just Terran the Secretary's daughter.

688
00:43:25,639 --> 00:43:27,599
Just then, a pang of the thing that had shaded

689
00:43:27,639 --> 00:43:30,840
over me on the dance floor shot through me, as

690
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:33,519
if those Terrans and their glaring eyes were with us

691
00:43:33,519 --> 00:43:38,639
inside the ship shame. Through the eyes of our invisible spectators,

692
00:43:38,679 --> 00:43:44,320
I watched myself greedy, straining for more of Antiopea's tongue palsy.

693
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:48,199
My hands curled like claws, one closed over her waist

694
00:43:48,199 --> 00:43:51,039
to pull her closer to me, the other around her breasts.

695
00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:56,199
Everything about me, too fast, too deep, too much? Sorry,

696
00:43:56,719 --> 00:44:00,800
I pulled back. I didn't mean to ugh, I got

697
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:04,880
carried away. You don't have to apologize, Gene. I like

698
00:44:04,960 --> 00:44:07,920
it when you kissed me like that. As we parted,

699
00:44:08,079 --> 00:44:10,559
the stiffened outline straining at the groin of her suit

700
00:44:10,639 --> 00:44:14,719
became a parent, usually panting and coming down from making out.

701
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:18,199
I'd follow Ant's lead and ignore the sight tonight, though

702
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:23,679
she cast a long glance down. Unless it makes you uncomfortable,

703
00:44:24,679 --> 00:44:28,119
The emphasis on the word wasn't lost on me. You

704
00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:32,519
could never make me uncomfortable, I said, I want you Aunt,

705
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:38,199
all of you. As for the gender stuff, everything I

706
00:44:38,199 --> 00:44:40,440
feel like I should have I don't, and that I

707
00:44:40,519 --> 00:44:43,880
shouldn't have I do. It's always been so confusing to me,

708
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:46,320
trying to make what I am fit into what they

709
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:50,880
say I should be. Jeane Aunt squeezed my shoulder. This

710
00:44:51,039 --> 00:44:53,719
wasn't a topic we visited often, but if we were

711
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:56,480
moving in together, I figured we'd find ourselves delving more

712
00:44:56,480 --> 00:45:00,719
into the unspoken stuff sooner rather than later. What I'm

713
00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:03,039
trying to say is your pleasure is important to me.

714
00:45:03,639 --> 00:45:07,079
I went on, my voice, growing thick with emotion. If

715
00:45:07,079 --> 00:45:09,679
you want, you can trust me with your body, and

716
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:14,920
I trust you. It's just that orange dust drifted across

717
00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:19,360
my vision, dirt glazing my eyes. Three Xena jeans holding

718
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:23,199
a screaming, scrambling oozer, his cries howling, until the dirt

719
00:45:23,239 --> 00:45:25,599
was so dampened with his blood that his struggles no

720
00:45:25,679 --> 00:45:30,679
longer kicked up dust. Breathe. Aunt's voice pierced through the

721
00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:34,679
vision of the past. Gene, you're not breathing. She clapped

722
00:45:34,679 --> 00:45:36,960
me on the back until, like an old engine, my

723
00:45:37,039 --> 00:45:40,639
lungs leapt to function. I croaked. It's not you that

724
00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:44,440
spoiled it, it was me. A tremble gripped my fingers.

725
00:45:44,679 --> 00:45:47,719
I curled my hands to a fists. I'm being too pushy,

726
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,280
acting like an animal. The word tore out of me

727
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:58,079
in a nasty, barking bleat Ah. Jeane Aunt stroked my

728
00:45:58,199 --> 00:46:01,559
cheek clear at the tears. I know you don't like

729
00:46:01,599 --> 00:46:03,760
to talk about this stuff, but I'm not your victim.

730
00:46:04,159 --> 00:46:08,199
I'm your lover. You're not pressuring me. I'm choosing you.

731
00:46:09,079 --> 00:46:12,679
She blushed, a pulsing scarlet, opening her palm to take

732
00:46:12,719 --> 00:46:17,159
my swishing tail into her grasp. Everything about you and

733
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:19,719
TYPEE brought the black tip of my tail to her

734
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:24,079
lips and kissed it. Kissed my horns, gently pressed her

735
00:46:24,119 --> 00:46:27,599
lips to my sabers. You're not hurting me. I'd let

736
00:46:27,599 --> 00:46:31,599
you know if you were. Thank you, I said, thanks

737
00:46:31,639 --> 00:46:36,519
for understanding. Aunt was right. I didn't want to talk

738
00:46:36,559 --> 00:46:39,880
about this, not this, not Wolfthrop, not what I was

739
00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:44,079
really made for. There's no time for this. Anyway, we

740
00:46:44,119 --> 00:46:48,519
could make time. Aunt made a compelling case, fingers playing

741
00:46:48,559 --> 00:46:52,039
along the seam over my groin. I thought you majored

742
00:46:52,039 --> 00:46:55,400
in urban planning, drewl inch down my chin, and I

743
00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:59,239
swiped at it with the back of my hand. Not physics, awe.

744
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:03,880
Aunt kissed my left saber. You remembered my major. She

745
00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:05,840
ran her tongue along the length of it while she

746
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:09,000
rubbed me, applied just enough pressure for me to forget

747
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:11,639
about the blunder for a moment, forget about what the

748
00:47:11,639 --> 00:47:14,840
big rush was at all. I want to get closer

749
00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:19,400
to you, Captain tonight, I said the word electric with promise.

750
00:47:20,239 --> 00:47:25,440
The crew's waiting with that for now. We parted, and

751
00:47:25,519 --> 00:47:29,079
Tiabe mended her suit with a definite zip, thrusting her

752
00:47:29,199 --> 00:47:32,639
arms through the sleeves. Before I could grip my own zipper,

753
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:35,679
she pinched it between her fingers, eased it gingerly up

754
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:39,079
to my chin. Speaking of the crew, I'm sure the

755
00:47:39,159 --> 00:47:41,920
Kaylyx fits the four of you just fine. But that's

756
00:47:42,039 --> 00:47:45,519
just it. The four of you. You all might be friends,

757
00:47:46,119 --> 00:47:49,239
but they loathe me. They'd never let me on board.

758
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:52,480
They're the ones who encouraged me to ask Aunt. We

759
00:47:52,519 --> 00:47:56,280
can't keep hanging around the undergal aeries will catch on eventually,

760
00:47:56,800 --> 00:47:59,239
but we can't be a part either. I said it

761
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:02,079
as fact. We'd be worried about each other all the time.

762
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:06,559
Who says I worry about you? Come on in TYPEE.

763
00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:09,360
We both know you're in love with me. There was

764
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:11,559
too much risk and proof on either side for us

765
00:48:11,599 --> 00:48:15,360
to argue the matter further. It's time we move on together,

766
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:19,000
buy our freedom from your father, negotiate a landing license,

767
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:22,039
settle down on some moon. It doesn't matter which one,

768
00:48:22,119 --> 00:48:26,199
as long as we're safe and we're together. Geane, Maybe

769
00:48:26,199 --> 00:48:28,920
he could come to the wedding even I went on

770
00:48:29,159 --> 00:48:32,280
feeling wild and reckless even as I spoke. That's what

771
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:34,760
humans do when they love each other, right when it's

772
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:38,360
supposed to be forever. Get hitched. Then he'll have to

773
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:43,559
accept me. It'll be official on his terms. Yeah, Aunt,

774
00:48:43,599 --> 00:48:47,159
wandered away from me in that constable inspector way. Hands

775
00:48:47,159 --> 00:48:49,119
clasped at the small of the back as she marched

776
00:48:49,159 --> 00:48:53,039
across to her desk, rolled up a constellation map. That

777
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:56,480
is what they do when they can get marriage permits.

778
00:48:57,239 --> 00:49:01,440
Do you know who issues those? For space Grievers? Terraturns.

779
00:49:01,519 --> 00:49:06,760
Gene Terraturns answer to judges. Judges answer to terra clerics,

780
00:49:07,119 --> 00:49:10,920
and terra clerics answer to my father. She traced a

781
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:14,559
palm over a recreation of the stars above Venus. You're

782
00:49:14,679 --> 00:49:18,440
very romantic, but not very practical. That's why we need

783
00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:21,360
someone like you aboard, I said, you know how the

784
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:26,320
colonies work. We don't. We're aimless. We're capable. Yes, I'm

785
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:29,599
an excellent pilot. Pool picks up languages as easily as

786
00:49:29,599 --> 00:49:32,400
moon rocks. USh is the finest medic to ever operate

787
00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:35,119
on a negative budget, and Cad could fix anything with

788
00:49:35,199 --> 00:49:38,320
duct tape and a sensible hammer. But we've only hidden

789
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:44,280
in the colonies. You've surveyed them hardly, Aunt protested. I've

790
00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:47,960
only drawn up a few rudimentary maps of Herklet Marcine

791
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:51,400
and Upper East Prox Starry, and I've drawn up zero

792
00:49:51,639 --> 00:49:54,480
I shot back. I go by what people like you

793
00:49:54,639 --> 00:49:58,039
enter into the galactic positioning system. My crew needs more

794
00:49:58,079 --> 00:50:00,559
than someone who can fly the ship. He's someone who

795
00:50:00,559 --> 00:50:03,679
knows where the fuck were going. You know Terex as

796
00:50:03,719 --> 00:50:06,760
well as I know you. This. Neither of us argued

797
00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:10,400
with You're what we're missing, Aunt, a tracker who knows

798
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:14,000
how our enemies operate. I keep us going, but you

799
00:50:14,039 --> 00:50:19,440
could keep us safe and TYPEE blushed. I'm no master tracker, Gene, no,

800
00:50:20,280 --> 00:50:23,880
I said, after all those yushes dodging your dad, it

801
00:50:23,920 --> 00:50:28,960
was you who found me. Aunt smirked. I didn't find you, Gene,

802
00:50:29,039 --> 00:50:32,039
she said, I just saw you standing there with your

803
00:50:32,079 --> 00:50:35,840
hand out. That's what I said. I stretched out my hand.

804
00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:43,199
Now you found me. Aunt clasped my palm, and without

805
00:50:43,239 --> 00:50:46,840
having to talk about it, we recreated the scene, lying

806
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:49,880
on our backs, the stare up at the ceiling. Of course,

807
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:52,480
that night we had the entire galaxy laid out in

808
00:50:52,519 --> 00:50:57,840
front of us, blinking and breathless and black. Aries had

809
00:50:57,840 --> 00:51:01,239
been circulating my XGID for three yushes at that point,

810
00:51:01,679 --> 00:51:05,079
along with a photo of twenty yush old me, taken

811
00:51:05,119 --> 00:51:08,480
octavers before the Uzer invasion, before my hair had grown

812
00:51:08,559 --> 00:51:11,320
past three inches, and before my horns had developed their

813
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:15,440
deep curves. By twenty one seventy three, though my hair

814
00:51:15,559 --> 00:51:18,679
was a mop of black twists, and my horns were thick,

815
00:51:19,159 --> 00:51:23,400
full curved, and sensitive. I had outgrown his image of me.

816
00:51:24,559 --> 00:51:28,599
There was still, however, the matter of my peers. Maybe

817
00:51:28,639 --> 00:51:32,000
my more matured horns would ward off the dragoons, but

818
00:51:32,039 --> 00:51:36,079
they also warded off everyone else. That night on Procstari, Though,

819
00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:39,039
on an island in the middle of a purple ocean

820
00:51:39,079 --> 00:51:44,119
of low, swirling fog called Pacific City, was the Volternalia Festival,

821
00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:49,159
the yushy Parade of the Great Griever. Every three hundred washers,

822
00:51:49,280 --> 00:51:52,159
or so. Everyone who recognized the loss of the billions

823
00:51:52,159 --> 00:51:55,159
of grievers in the first yush following the eviction exodus

824
00:51:55,400 --> 00:51:58,480
would don a black cloak and a solid mirror mask

825
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:01,519
with openings only, or the eyes and mouth within the

826
00:52:01,519 --> 00:52:05,880
glass mold. Those attending festivals in open space like us

827
00:52:06,199 --> 00:52:09,079
would add a pair of black tin horns to the ensemble.

828
00:52:09,800 --> 00:52:12,519
Such was the case with the throngs of celebrators flooding

829
00:52:12,559 --> 00:52:15,880
the streets that night, something to do with horns representing

830
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:19,639
evil Earth and animals and embracing our birthright of bad luck.

831
00:52:20,400 --> 00:52:23,760
The masquerade, a tradition tracing back to the original survivors

832
00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:28,119
of Exodus. The dwindled crew had only managed to convey

833
00:52:28,159 --> 00:52:30,639
so much about their earth born culture to the first

834
00:52:30,679 --> 00:52:34,880
generation of Grievers before the vacuum claimed them too. What

835
00:52:35,079 --> 00:52:39,480
was left was fashioned into vulternalia. At first, I attended

836
00:52:39,519 --> 00:52:42,119
out of convenience the one time a yes, I could

837
00:52:42,119 --> 00:52:44,239
show my face on land for more than an hour.

838
00:52:44,559 --> 00:52:47,840
Of course I took advantage, but hedonism was only half

839
00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:50,639
of the celebration. The other half was the dye in

840
00:52:51,760 --> 00:52:54,760
catob stained from all hollyw washed celebrations per as kap

841
00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:58,480
Larashtian beliefs. So He and Pull had hung back in

842
00:52:58,519 --> 00:53:01,559
the Kaylaks, awaiting my call or pick up, while USh

843
00:53:01,559 --> 00:53:04,880
pedaled the latest green onion variety pack of Kaylok's cults

844
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:07,280
to a snobbish bunch. I didn't care to get to know.

845
00:53:08,199 --> 00:53:10,679
Humans could only stomach so much onion juice in their beer,

846
00:53:11,039 --> 00:53:14,480
so we were more novelty than staple. Only collide isn't

847
00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:17,599
seemed to stock up on our stuff yet, Because tensions

848
00:53:17,639 --> 00:53:20,800
were flaring more than ever, we rarely ran into them.

849
00:53:21,079 --> 00:53:24,119
This left us with only the tourists, of which thankfully

850
00:53:24,400 --> 00:53:29,719
there was just the clamoring gaggle. The parade was sprawling,

851
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:34,840
stereos blaring discordant music at random, placed wherever, because plugs

852
00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:38,559
were wherever windows open, People leaned outside to pass down

853
00:53:38,639 --> 00:53:42,280
masts and slashing cups of cool water. Mass people twisted

854
00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:45,199
up into leather pretzels as orgy spilled out of alleyways

855
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:48,519
and into the open street, where paraders simply stepped over them.

856
00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:51,599
The bars were the only places anyone took off their mask,

857
00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:54,800
otherwise the liquor would run down the glassy surface of it,

858
00:53:55,960 --> 00:53:59,800
dribbling over your shirt, though some gleefully did this to

859
00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:02,800
the great griever as the drink made contact with the dirt.

860
00:54:03,639 --> 00:54:05,840
At twelve, all ROMs on the dot the beginning of

861
00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:08,480
the next wash, though still completely in the dead of

862
00:54:08,480 --> 00:54:11,960
the evening, Everyone collapsed, as if cut down by some

863
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:15,800
invisible gunfire, not at once but a wave, as people

864
00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:19,679
staggered backwards to find a comfortable landing spot. We would

865
00:54:19,760 --> 00:54:24,119
after all be lying there for the next Aroan. I'd

866
00:54:24,119 --> 00:54:26,519
been caught on the outskirts of a local park, the

867
00:54:26,599 --> 00:54:29,519
equipment barren in the metal base of the swings and slide,

868
00:54:29,519 --> 00:54:32,880
obscurred by the sea of breathing bodies. The grass was

869
00:54:32,920 --> 00:54:36,000
deep blue on Procstari, despite the best efforts of the

870
00:54:36,039 --> 00:54:41,079
Terex Agricultural Commission, blue tall and pillowy. When I stretched

871
00:54:41,119 --> 00:54:43,440
out on it, my limbs out in my back to

872
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:47,119
the ground. Per tradition, I reached out to the person

873
00:54:47,119 --> 00:54:49,639
who settled down next to me, a woman in a

874
00:54:49,639 --> 00:54:53,639
pale pink spacesuit, not a typical color. Lavender was for

875
00:54:53,679 --> 00:54:57,960
space bound grievers, black for the land written of us. Pink, however,

876
00:54:58,239 --> 00:55:01,519
was usually a mourner's color. The huge drawn from a

877
00:55:01,559 --> 00:55:05,760
delicate dying process. One time were at most then back

878
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:09,119
in the closet, I was a sitting target. I said,

879
00:55:09,679 --> 00:55:12,079
you could have called for backup. You could have taken

880
00:55:12,119 --> 00:55:15,800
your shot. Who says I didn't take my shot? Grinned

881
00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:20,559
and typee years ago, she'd taken my hand, lied with

882
00:55:20,599 --> 00:55:23,119
me for an hour, watched the same sky as me,

883
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:26,679
wispy clouds wandering over the stars to give the entire

884
00:55:26,800 --> 00:55:29,840
night the illusion of being watched by millions of blinking eyes.

885
00:55:30,679 --> 00:55:34,480
We'd asked each other one question. Mine was simple. She

886
00:55:34,559 --> 00:55:37,039
wasn't her constable get up yet, but I knew well

887
00:55:37,159 --> 00:55:40,239
enough that Aunt was no seasoned space fair. Her gray

888
00:55:40,239 --> 00:55:43,760
boots were unscuffed, the stitching neat and tight, still along

889
00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:47,840
the base, barely walked in. Her skin had a glowy

890
00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:50,559
kind of quality, giving off the kind of shine one

891
00:55:50,599 --> 00:55:53,119
only emitted if they'd been in direct sunlight within the

892
00:55:53,199 --> 00:55:57,760
past months. Even More, she proudly sported a baseball cap.

893
00:55:58,280 --> 00:56:01,519
Dust discos considered the sport of champions for grievers, a

894
00:56:01,599 --> 00:56:05,159
home grown, fast paced, risk based sport that involved ricocheting

895
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:08,440
metal disks off of asteroids. In the Ore Belt, baseball

896
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:12,559
was considered the dinosaur of recreation, a holdover from Earth's

897
00:56:12,559 --> 00:56:15,840
more boring summers. It was unspeakable to root for a

898
00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:18,800
team in public. This didn't quell the emergence of a

899
00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:22,719
nostalgic group known as the ichabod Icicles, the only space

900
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:26,719
based baseball team in existence, with a rotating roster of players,

901
00:56:26,719 --> 00:56:28,920
all vying for Earth's Hall of Fame to no avail.

902
00:56:29,639 --> 00:56:33,440
Every season hosted on the pale green moon, Ichabod rotating

903
00:56:33,440 --> 00:56:37,079
a barely larger planet called Erie in the Neo Levy quadrant,

904
00:56:37,760 --> 00:56:42,000
a green snowflake the Icicles logo was situated in the

905
00:56:42,000 --> 00:56:45,840
center of Ntipe's cap two years ago. I pointed to it.

906
00:56:46,360 --> 00:56:50,119
There was a game tonight, right, she'd replied, Yeah, but

907
00:56:50,199 --> 00:56:52,880
the score is the same as always, zero to one.

908
00:56:53,239 --> 00:56:56,199
I understood the typical ratio. At least it's always a

909
00:56:56,199 --> 00:57:01,119
close call. Maybe at first it was just Terran guilt

910
00:57:01,239 --> 00:57:04,079
driving her to the charity asking to see our ship,

911
00:57:04,199 --> 00:57:05,960
just to offer to cover the cost of the most

912
00:57:06,000 --> 00:57:10,559
dire repair needed. But Aunt stuck around, and apparently, though

913
00:57:10,559 --> 00:57:12,320
in a lot of ways she'd been doing it from

914
00:57:12,360 --> 00:57:16,119
the start, changed. Even if the maroon talk was a

915
00:57:16,159 --> 00:57:18,880
bit off putting, it was nice to finally see that

916
00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,599
passion in the right place, her ire aimed at the

917
00:57:21,639 --> 00:57:26,760
right people, her own in TYPEE. I grasped the bill

918
00:57:26,800 --> 00:57:28,920
of her cap, picked the hat up and set it

919
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:32,000
down on her head backwards. Everything in space is so

920
00:57:32,159 --> 00:57:35,440
in the air and untraditional. I don't know anything about

921
00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:37,920
my own culture. I want to honor your roots and

922
00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:41,559
do things the typical way for once. That's really sweet, Jay,

923
00:57:41,840 --> 00:57:45,480
said Aunt, rising to her feet. But I mean, sure,

924
00:57:45,559 --> 00:57:47,960
I was born on Earth, but I don't even bleed

925
00:57:48,079 --> 00:57:53,199
like an earthlink. Terran culture isn't necessarily mine. I'm sorry.

926
00:57:53,199 --> 00:57:56,519
It didn't mean a generalize. It's just that I I

927
00:57:56,559 --> 00:57:59,880
don't know. I suppose I've been thinking a lot about milestones.

928
00:58:00,159 --> 00:58:03,639
I guess I bit my tongue physically to keep myself

929
00:58:03,679 --> 00:58:07,440
from babbling. I just mean that it seems like only

930
00:58:07,559 --> 00:58:10,280
yesterday I was crawling through a broken window and feeling

931
00:58:10,320 --> 00:58:13,559
around in the glove compartment for a key. And now

932
00:58:13,599 --> 00:58:16,199
it's five years later, and three people depend on me

933
00:58:16,280 --> 00:58:19,760
to keep that hunk of junk chugging, and another five

934
00:58:20,559 --> 00:58:24,320
I'll be thirty. Aunt at this, she sighed with a

935
00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:29,840
labored groan. Oof, Yeah, that rings a bell. She looked

936
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:32,159
down on her hands, which I only notice now were

937
00:58:32,159 --> 00:58:36,880
blotchy bright red, her palms raw. There are definitely some

938
00:58:36,920 --> 00:58:40,880
things that didn't think I'd be taking into another decade. Well,

939
00:58:41,320 --> 00:58:45,519
there are things I've been thinking wanting to. I racked

940
00:58:45,559 --> 00:58:47,880
my memory for the lines, the ones I typed and

941
00:58:47,920 --> 00:58:52,679
deleted and altered over the course of scepters. Ant. You

942
00:58:52,800 --> 00:58:55,760
make me feel like I'm discovering something new and thrilling

943
00:58:55,920 --> 00:58:59,880
and on the cusp of impossibility. Everything about you have

944
00:59:00,199 --> 00:59:04,679
this intense gravitational pull. What it is exactly. I don't know,

945
00:59:05,159 --> 00:59:08,480
but it must mean something. I want it to mean something.

946
00:59:09,360 --> 00:59:13,320
Ah Jeane n Tiapee drew a hand across her watery eyes.

947
00:59:13,840 --> 00:59:15,719
Are you making this up as you go? Or did

948
00:59:15,760 --> 00:59:19,440
you practice that line? About half and half? I admitted,

949
00:59:19,880 --> 00:59:23,639
standing and extending my outstretched hands. I mean when I say,

950
00:59:23,760 --> 00:59:25,719
but I might be quoting my notes just a bit

951
00:59:26,679 --> 00:59:31,199
my vowels. N Tiopee matched me, stepping closer to take

952
00:59:31,280 --> 00:59:34,760
my hands. As far as proposals went, there weren't many

953
00:59:34,840 --> 00:59:37,840
Taran traditions I was aware of other than asking on

954
00:59:37,840 --> 00:59:40,760
one knee now, though it felt right to see Aunt

955
00:59:40,800 --> 00:59:45,440
from the usual angle, both of us on our own feet. Aunt,

956
00:59:45,880 --> 00:59:48,079
if you marry me, I'll never have to see the

957
00:59:48,119 --> 00:59:51,920
sun again. You'll be my home star. You already are?

958
00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:56,159
I paused just for a moment, had to be sure

959
00:59:56,199 --> 00:59:59,800
of this grievous superstition, claimed sang this and falsehood would

960
00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:05,199
do me captain's ship. I orbit you an tipe laced

961
01:00:05,239 --> 01:00:08,199
our fingers, her black eyes, searching the metal plated floor

962
01:00:08,239 --> 01:00:11,519
for a moment before meeting mine. What about the permit?

963
01:00:12,119 --> 01:00:15,199
My father would never issue it. We'll bribe a tear

964
01:00:15,360 --> 01:00:17,400
turn to let us slip through the system when we apply,

965
01:00:17,800 --> 01:00:22,119
I said, terror turns. Don't do that. No, I said,

966
01:00:22,639 --> 01:00:26,639
you don't. Corruption can work in our favor sometimes too.

967
01:00:26,840 --> 01:00:29,880
A few beats, my heart thrumbing in my ears. The

968
01:00:30,000 --> 01:00:33,119
sounds so constant, like an angry hive of fazzle wasps.

969
01:00:34,239 --> 01:00:40,119
So what do you think, an Tipe thought for a moment, Yes,

970
01:00:41,199 --> 01:00:45,480
she said, slow like, but under one condition, and it's

971
01:00:45,519 --> 01:00:50,199
non negotiable, of course, I said, dizzy, my head spinning.

972
01:00:50,760 --> 01:00:54,320
I leaned against the wall to avoid swaying anything. Aunt,

973
01:00:54,559 --> 01:00:58,119
she grinned across from me. I'm taking your last name.

974
01:01:00,760 --> 01:01:05,719
Antipe lost her footing as the entire undergal rocked. The

975
01:01:05,760 --> 01:01:09,519
hazard lights flooded the dragoon and blinking red light the

976
01:01:09,559 --> 01:01:12,719
security system blaring down from the speakers lining the ceiling.

977
01:01:13,599 --> 01:01:17,719
High velocity impact detected in case of danger, Please launch

978
01:01:17,800 --> 01:01:22,159
escape pod. High velocity impact detected in case of danger,

979
01:01:22,400 --> 01:01:26,320
Please launch escape pod. I ride it, my glasses, pushing

980
01:01:26,320 --> 01:01:28,840
them up from where they'd slid down my nose. What

981
01:01:28,920 --> 01:01:37,119
the The intercom erupted into a cacompany of jubbled language.

982
01:01:37,639 --> 01:01:43,320
High velocity danger, please launch danger impact detected in case

983
01:01:43,360 --> 01:01:47,960
of pod pod pod pod pod. Antiope pulled herself to

984
01:01:48,000 --> 01:01:50,559
her feet at the control panel, entered a series of

985
01:01:50,599 --> 01:01:53,559
passwords before the security system shut off and the hazard

986
01:01:53,639 --> 01:01:58,440
lights blink back to gold. Shit, are you hurt? I

987
01:01:58,480 --> 01:02:01,079
picked her up, thinking one of her ankles must be tender,

988
01:02:01,239 --> 01:02:03,400
but she shook her head in my arms. It's not me,

989
01:02:03,599 --> 01:02:09,360
it's them, Three high velocity objects, three ships impacted with

990
01:02:09,400 --> 01:02:15,840
the undergal Kalidizans, I breathed. They know Coliazans had a

991
01:02:15,920 --> 01:02:20,559
kind of hive mind, a neuro galactic link for Coalidizan's.

992
01:02:20,679 --> 01:02:23,800
The hive was a religion, an organ in food source,

993
01:02:23,880 --> 01:02:28,440
all in one, Aunt, when you killed those blunderbrewers, How

994
01:02:28,440 --> 01:02:32,360
many eyes did they have? What do you mean? Aunt

995
01:02:32,400 --> 01:02:35,239
slung a pack over her shoulder, holstered her hot shot,

996
01:02:35,519 --> 01:02:37,880
snub nosed black and gleaming where she had it leaned

997
01:02:37,880 --> 01:02:43,119
against the wall. Eight of course, shit? What color were they?

998
01:02:43,840 --> 01:02:48,519
I don't know? Bright? What color? Orange? Were they orange?

999
01:02:49,119 --> 01:02:55,039
She said? They were more like gold? Fuck. The shift

1000
01:02:55,119 --> 01:02:58,519
was subtle, two extra eyes blooming on their face, those

1001
01:02:58,559 --> 01:03:01,480
orange irises burning over over to a hot, fiery gold.

1002
01:03:02,039 --> 01:03:05,039
The mark of the link, first to that Collidison's pod,

1003
01:03:05,519 --> 01:03:08,840
then their pod, then their own, on and on until

1004
01:03:08,880 --> 01:03:11,960
every colidison in the universe watched as entire pee slaughtered

1005
01:03:11,960 --> 01:03:16,360
their endangered ilk. Another trigger happy constable, this time gone

1006
01:03:16,400 --> 01:04:00,320
too far. We've got to get out of here. In

1007
01:04:00,679 --> 01:04:03,719
sixteen cont