Uh-oh, we're in trouble, something's come along and it's burst our bubble [Sat Night W11]

[chiseler]

[This sure was bad. This was horrible and Luke and Adam abscond immediately with the blood samples still in Luke's pockets and shut the door behind them. Up the ladder they go and he immediately approaches the small statue in his room.]

Alice! We need to speak to the Nuwa AI...please.

Comments

[al2955]

I can attempt to make contact, Luke.

[There's a long pause before the clouds start rolling over water again. A familiar voice replaces Alice's.]

This better be good.

[antietam]

[ There's a sigh of relief when they get through to her, but he's quick to explain. ]

We did it. We found an alien and killed it. So that third option?

[chiseler]

[He takes a deep breath, a little more than shaken than he thought he'd be and he shakes his head again.]

We also have a way to find any others that might be on this ship.

[al2955]

Killed it? I said execute.

[She blows out a long stream of smoke.]

Do you really? Don't lie to me, I can tell.

[antietam]

[ There's a pause of utter disappointment. ] But—it's the same thing. It's gone. Isn't that all that matters, that we took it out?

[chiseler]

[...it's not. His expression falls and he looks at Sunny for a brief moment in vague horror.]

No. Because executing means we kept the person safe. Killing them means Fiona's not coming back. [He buries his face in his hand.] But yeah. We have blood samples from everyone on the ship. We'll examine the rest tomorrow, I--River's announced the body. That means people are investigating and we're having a trial anyway but I'm sure you know that. We can look tomorrow and be sure.

You want the aliens off our ship. Is there another difference between killing and executing them?

[al2955]

Got it in one, Luke. The execution wipes the aliens completely from someone's system whil leaving their host safe. Otherwise, well...you've seen how those bastards can control even a corpse.

Blood samples? [Lightning suddenly flashes in the sky making up her body.] What on earth do you mean? Blood samples were the first thing we tried to detect the aliens with - they were completely useless.

[antietam]

No— [ Sorry, he's stuck on this whole Nuwa dying thing. ] We would have gotten it executed but we didn't have time. It happened so fast, it just collapsed. We couldn't.

Please, we tried to do what you said. Are they going to die now? Because of this?

[chiseler]

We upheld our end of the deal. We didn't tell anyone that we were working with you, the alien was killed before we could execute anything or call River or anything. We tried and this was what happened and I...we were bluffing, sure, okay, but we didn't expect to find anything! Jason's not that good of an actor, something was there. We need to check the rest.

But we have until tomorrow don't we? There has to be something else we can do to keep your passengers alive.

[al2955]

Hmm. Interesting.

I won't purge the Nuwa tonight, if that's what you're asking. As for after the trial...[An exhale of smoke.] Have you talked to your friends on the Furry Passing application lately? They may know something you don't.

[antietam]

No, not after that whole... [ Zombie thing. Whatever. ]

What is it? Can't you tell us? We'll do anything. We've proven that to you.

[chiseler]

We haven't had a lot of time. The thing about Furry Passing is that we can only contact one person for maybe five minutes. Is there an override we have for that that allows us to talk to more than one person? Or even get to us? I don't know how to set up a chat with them or send letters. Every time we send letters, we don't hear from them for weeks. We don't have weeks.

[He wants to know if Sunny would tell them, too, but Furry Passing's an idea. It's just...messed up.]

[al2955]

Not that I know of. I wasn't involved in developing the application. But it'd be better hearing it from them than from me. I still don't know if I can trust either of you to be uninfected. They may be low on power now thanks to that jump, but I'm sure they'll contact you as soon as they're able - they do have some vital info to share, after all.

I will say this, though. You shouldn't worry about the Nuwa. Worry about yourselves first and keep your guard up. I get the feeling this is just beginning.

Stay safe, boys. [And with that, the clouds dissipate and become water.]