—Sorry, Eva, but that’s what you get for standing next to the asshole firing missiles at us. What the—? Central, Themis just appeared in front of us. She’s attacking!
—No! She’s not! She’s firing at the tanks!
—Why is your dad helping us?
—He’s not helping us. Vincent’s trying to stop us from overloading and wiping out everyone. He’s trying to save the Koreans.
—…
—Trust me, Barbara! He’s not gonna hurt us.
—All right, I’ll play. Narrow beam. Point at the SAM launchers.
—Fire! Fire!
—Now to starboard.
—Got it! Fire!
—Behin—
—I know! There! How’s that feel?
—I think we got them all?
—Down there. There’s one tank left next to our right foot.
—Not anymore. Central, there are no more hostiles. Guys on foot are running away.
[Is Themis still there?]
Affirmative. It’s just the two of us—
—Barbara!
—AND A BUNCH OF MiGS! Fuck, they’re firing. That one’s gonna hurt! Brace! Brace! Brace!
—Yokits!
FILE NO. 2195 (CONTINUED)
MISSION LOG—VINCENT COUTURE AND SERGEANT ALEXANDER VASILIEV
Location: Aboard Themis. Sinuiju, North Korea
—Look! The Koreans are firing on Lapetus!
—Yes, Alex. I can see that.
—That’s a good thing, isn’t it?
—No, Alex, it’s not. My daughter is in there.
—At least you know she’s alive. Lapetus might get scared and leave.
—I don’t think they’ll leave. They’re in no real danger. They’ll just kill a bunch of Koreans for no reason.
—How many tanks do you think there are?
—Katherine talked about a regiment. Do you know how ma—Whoa! That wasn’t a tank. They’re firing missiles at them!
—Maybe they’ll leave now.
—…
—Vincent?
—No. They won’t. I’m not even sure they can while they’re being shot at. What will happen is they’ll overload and wipe out everything in sight. We’re going in.
—What?
—I’m beaming us in. We might be able to stop it.
—Vincent, five minutes ago, you said you would bail if the Koreans attacked us. Now you want to attack the Koreans.
[Vincent, this is Katherine. We’re seeing all sorts of activity on the Korean side. What’s going on?]
—The Koreans are firing.
[They’re firing at you?]
No, at Lapetus.
[Good! It might just leave.]
No! It—Ah screw this! Katherine, I’m taking us there.
[What? No!]
The Chinese can’t cross that bridge with Lapetus around. There won’t even be a bridge if he overloads. Alex, get ready for the sword. And…Now!
[Are we attacking Lapetus?]
Alex, the sword is at its longest. Get rid of the tanks at our feet, then aim at the ones farthest from Lapetus. I don’t want Eva and whoever else is in there to think we’re firing at them.
[You’re not firing at them?]
We have to stop them from overloading, Katherine. The bridge, remember?
[Vincent, the Koreans just sent out MiGs. They’ll be there soon. Very soon. Did I mention I don’t like this at all?]
Alex? How are we doing?
—One. Last. Tank. It’s like swatting flies. I’m aiming now, you can fire. Fire! Again! Again! Just keep firing, I’ll tell you when to—Oh, we just made a big hole. I’ll tell you when to stop…Fire!
—This ain’t Star Wars, Alex. My finger’s on the button. It fires when it fires.
—OK, stop. STOP!
—There. I think we got them all. What about those MiGs?
[Vincent, they’re right on top of you!]
I see them.
—Give me the shield, Vincent.
—I—
—Vincent, the shield!
—It won’t turn on. I think we might have drained her. They’re firing. Turn our back to them.
—They’re firing from both sides!
—I don’t know, Alex. Just pick a si—AAARGH! AAAAAARGH!
…
Alex, are you all right?
[What’s going on, Vincent?]
Alex? ALEX!
[Vincent?]
I think Alex is unconscious.
[Fuck. Can you fight Lapetus without him?]
Fight La—You mean kick them? I can kick them. Oh, wait. I can’t even do that. Themis is out of power.
[Can you get out of there?]
What part of “out of power” was unclear? Out, power, or of?
[You know I can kill you at the press of a button, don’t you?]
Yeah, and leave Themis to the North Koreans. Then again, maybe the Chinese can get her for you. Do you think they’d give her back?
[I hate you right now, Vincent. I just want you to know that.]
Don’t worry, Katherine. Themis should have absorbed some energy from those missile hits. She’ll be back to her old self any minute.
[Is Lapetus out of power? I’m asking because “any minute” seems like a really long time if it decides to kill you.]
I guess we’ll find out. By the way, I don’t think I thanked you for telling me my daughter was alive and well.
[Did I forget? We’ve been so busy down here. You know how it is.]
I’m switching frequency now.
[No, don—]
Hi, Eva! Are you guys OK in there?
Oh, that last missile hurt a bit, but we’re fine. Peachy.
Well, seeing I had no idea you were still alive a minute ago, I’d say no. Sorry. I would have, though. If you’d called.
I’m sorry, Eva. I’m sorry for what happened to Ekim. If there was anything I could have done to—
No, Eva, I couldn’t have. I’m sorry Ekim died, but if I had to do it all over, I’d make the same choice. I’d do it again.
I had to get you out of there!
They were gonna kill you, Eva!
Oh, God, Eva. I do know that. There’s…so much you don’t know. They were going to arrest you for what happened in Eskyaks. They were going to kill you.
FILE NO. EE463—PERSONAL FILE FROM ESAT EKT
Personal Log—Dr. Rose Franklin and Vincent Couture
Location: Assigned residence, Etyakt region
—Where’s Eva, Vincent?
—I was going to ask you the same thing. I thought she might have gone to your place.
—Did she come home last night?
—She did. She went to bed early. We didn’t fight or anything.
—Something’s wrong, Vincent. Her picture is on every wall at the market.
—What? What picture? What did you see?
—I went to get some yat for breakfast. I was about halfway there, when I noticed everyone was staring at me, more than they normally do. When I got to the market, one woman spit in my face, another tapped me on the shoulder. People wanted to hold my hand. The old man who sells the yat gave me a handful of them and wouldn’t let me pay. He’s never done that. That’s when I saw her. On the la
rge wall, where they show the esketots games. She’s in all the alleys that run behind the market. That picture, I don’t know where it’s from. She’s staring at the ground, the wind blowing her hair across her face. It’s…pretty.
—What is she doing?
—It’s just her face. That wall must be a hundred feet tall. All we see is her face, and the word Esant written underneath.
—Esant?
—Yes. I don’t know what it means.
—It’s a knife. A dagger. The…I forget her name. The…fortune teller in the blue tent. She has one. It’s an ancient thing. I think they used it in ceremonies a long time ago.
—Why would they call her that?
—I have no idea. People here call her a bunch of different things. Eva’s hard to pronounce, people don’t want to say Evat, that’s a man’s name. Her friends call her Yev. Maybe…
—Maybe what?
—Maybe nothing. The vowels are the same, that’s all. Did you ask? Did anyone say anything?
—No. I didn’t talk to anyone. I didn’t know what was going on, so I just ran back here.
—Could it be Ekim making some sort of grand gesture? You know, like a proposal on the giant screen at a baseball game?
—I don’t know, Vincent. He didn’t strike me as the grand gesture type.
—He might be. He’s not as shy when Eva’s not around. I think he just knows she’ll kill him if he puts her on the spot.
—That would qualify, don’t you think?
—Yeah, she’d be mad. I think he would have asked first, anyway. He asked for my permission before he bought her that necklace. Could Ekim even access these walls? Those are run by the government, right?
—They are.
—Maybe he knows someone? Someone who can hack the system, someone at the regional government?
—Vincent, I don’t think it’s Ekim at all. I think…
—What, Rose? You think what?
—I think someone is forcing our hand.
—The empress?
—Who else could do this? Think about it. It’s perfect. Either we go for it and give her names. She swoops in and arrests everyone. Or we don’t, she does it anyway, but now she has an excuse to get rid of us no matter what. Eva’s the poster child for what these people are marching for. Make her a terrorist, and suddenly everyone asking for more food starts to look suspicious.
—…
—Vincent?
—…
—Vincent, say something!
—We have to turn them in. We have to give the empress what she wants.
—…
—We have to find Eva, and we have to turn everyone in.
—They’ll kill them, Vincent.
—They’ll kill Eva.
—Are you sure about this?
—No matter what, Rose. That’s what you said.
—I know what I said. I just…
—We’ll have to move fast. Her friends will know she’s in danger. They’ll be hiding her. We have to get to her before the security forces do.
—We don’t know if the security forces are even after her, Vincent.
—Yeah, we do. They’re here.
FILE NO. EE464—PERSONAL FILE FROM ESAT EKT
Interview between Vincent Couture and Opt Enatast
Location: Assigned residence, Etyakt region
—Enatast! Why are you here? Why is security with you?
—Vincent, you and I have espent time together. I do not know how easy your people form reyationships. You are the one Terran I know good—
—Well. Oh, that’s right, you still can’t do the l’s.
—I hope it is not bad for me to say you are my friend.
—Thank you, Enatast. I also think of you as a friend.
—Then you must understand that what I am about to say, I say as a representative of Etyakt and not your friend.
—What is going on, Enatast?
—Where is Eva?
—I don’t know. Just tell me why you’re here.
—She is wanted for acts of terror.
—The bombings in Osk?
—There have been more bombings in four regions. She was seen near one in Eskyaks.
—This must be a mistake, Enatast. Eva wouldn’t—She’s never even left this town, let alone the region!
—I have seen the images, Vincent. She was there.
—It doesn’t make any sense. Eva can’t even make soup. Do you think she knows how to make a bomb? Where would she get it? Why?
—This morning, every region received a message from a group caying itself Eposk Yetskots, Hand of Yetskots. They say they put the bomb. They have made demands. More represent…ation for part-Ekt.
—What does that have to do with my daughter? Why is her face on every wall in the city?
—We did not send that image, the Hand of Yetskots did.
—Esant? The dagger?
—Maybe they want to make her a…symboy.
—A symbol of what? She’s…We’re all alone here. There’re her, me, and Rose.
—What happened to Terra was a bad thing, Vincent. Many many Terrans dead who did nothing to the Ekt. It scared those with non-Ekt ancestors. It united them. They have been divided for many, many times. Some are from pyanets that make war with another. Your Terra has everyone’s sympathy. You are victims of a great injustice by the Ekt and, in their mind, want the same thing they want. Eva is young and…epust, and she is Terran. She is a perfect face for an uprising.
—Eket eyet akt?
—We do not know who they are for sure. We have known for many months of a movement in many regions. Your daughter has been meeting with suspect members of the movement.
—She works at the soup kitchen, Enatast! She knows lots of people who are unhappy with the way things work. I know these people! They protest, they march. They don’t blow up buildings!
—They are organized, and they are everywhere. There are some in Osk who agree with them. Even in the Guard, they say. They have the means to commit those crimes.
—I’m sure there’s an explanation, Enatast. Let’s go find her. Let’s all go find her, so she can tell us.
—I am sorry, Vincent. I am very sorry. The security forces are searching everywhere. They find her.
—What will happen to her?
—I do not know, Vincent. I am honest when I say I do not.
—I have to f—
—Do not say it to me, Vincent. Do not say anything to me you do not want the security to know.
—I understand. Thanks.
—Good yuck, Vincent.
FILE NO. 2196 (CONTINUED)
MISSION LOG—WARRANT OFFICER EVA REYES AND LT. BARBARA BALL, U.S. MARINE CORPS, MECHA DIVISION
Location: Aboard Lapetus. Seoul, South Korea
—Eva, this is…a bit awkward. Would you rather I turn my comms off?
—No, it’s OK. I don’t have anything to hide.
What are you saying, Vincent? I might have gotten arrested for something I didn’t do, I might have been put on trial, found guilty, maybe, and executed. That’s a lot of maybes, don’t you think? You don’t know that any of it would have happened. Did it ever occur to you to just, I don’t know, ask me? You could have talked to me, you know?
[Lapetus, this is Central. Copy?]
Hold on, Vincent.
[Lapetus, this is Central. Copy?]
Barbara, are you gonna answer that?
—Copy, Central. Lieutenant Ball here.
[We can still see Themis on satellite.]
That’s right, Central. We’re…having a little chat.
[Lapetus, your orders are to get Themis out of there by any means necessary. Are we clear?]
Crystal, Central. You gave us
some discretion on this one. For now we’re having a chat. We’ll let you know how it goes. Copy?
…
Central, do you copy?
[Copy that, Lapetus. We’ll try it your way.]
All yours, Eva.
—I’m surprised they didn’t order us to attack.
—I think they’re worried we’d lose. I am, anyway.
—Oh, we wouldn’t lose now. I don’t think Themis can move.
—What?
—I think she’s used up all her energy. If I’m right, she’s dead as a doorknob.
—I hate to bring this up, your dad being in there and all, but shouldn’t we kick their ass while we can?
—We probably should. I wouldn’t mind punching him in the face right about now.
—Then why don’t we?
—Because I can’t move my arms. Lapetus is just as dead as they are.
—How long until we can move again?
—Five, ten minutes if we’re lucky.
Yes, “Dad.” I’m here. I’m in yokits North Korea with an explosive chip in my brain, being shot at by MiG 29s.
They can blow our brains out anywhere in the world. Don’t tell me they let you pilot Themis without some kind of fail-safe.
How nice. I’m so glad you brought me back here because, hey, I might have been in danger on Esat Ekt.
Why in the world would I want that, Vincent? Tell me? How could you think for a second that I’d want things to be the way they were? I remember my life here. I was a freak here, a joke. Everyone I loved died. My “good” memories on Earth are with you inside Themis. Do you get how fucked up that is? People were dying, everywhere. Millions of them. I was bonding with my dad. That’s what you wanted to bring me back to?
That is such bullshit, Vincent! You just thought you knew better than me. You’re right, though, you didn’t have a choice. That choice was mine. My life. My choice. You thought you knew better, and you made it for me. I’m not ten anymore, Vincent. I’m yokits nineteen years old! You’re still making decisions for me like I’m that little girl Kara found in Puerto Rico. Don’t pretend you didn’t want this. It was you! Eskyaks didn’t find me. The empress didn’t find me. You did. You hunted me down.