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Enthusiastic, even.
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Ray, he shook his head, and broke the quiet he'd held most of the evening.
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“You've got it all wrong.”
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He looked from Sarah, to Adrienne, to Zheng, to Kishori and Tiffany, to me.
3
“Obviously, we can't last longer than the rest of the universe.
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We aren't giving anyone purpose.
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All we're doing is existing.
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All we're doing is eating and drinking and shitting, breathing and fucking and nothing important, ever.
0
We aren't special.”
2
“Again, bleak,”
2
“Again, bleak,” commented Zheng.
2
Adrienne gestured for him to be quiet.
2
She leaned forward, setting her elbows on the foot stool in front of her.
1
“You never know when it will end,”
0
“You can't hold on forever, even if you don't ever, ever want to forget.
3
How long until the memories slip away?
2
How long until all you remember is this, the ship, the thick red carpeting, the chandeliers, the empty conversations you hold with the other shells who used to be people?
0
I wondered how long Ray had been on this ship.
0
I wondered why, if he had such an unpropitious outlook, he hadn't tried to change his situation.
2
I wanted to ask, but he was still talking, and I was too self-conscious to interrupt.
2
“You can try to hold on,”
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“You can try to hold on,” said Ray.
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“You can try and try and try.
3
Repeat stories to yourself in the artificial night, sketch faces in your mind.
0
But words, if you repeat them enough times, lose their meaning.
3
My wife's name, once.
3
Repeat it enough times, it's just a sound.
3
These signals were the heralds of my saviors.
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No longer grounded.”
1
Ray, he said, “If we last forever, if our eyes are the last eyes watching as the stars blink out, it won't mean a thing to us.
0
“If we last forever, if our eyes are the last eyes watching as the stars blink out, it won't mean a thing to us. We won't care that we're last and we won't care that there are no more stars. We aren't angels. We're just dumb and lucky.”
0
We aren't angels.
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We're just dumb and lucky.”
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“Pure dumb luck,”
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“Pure dumb luck,” he said.
2
“Struck a nerve, huh?”
2
said Zheng.
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“Sorry,”
0
“Sorry,” said Ray.
0
“How long ago was that?”
1
asked Adrienne.
0
“Leaving your wife, I mean.
2
“Leaving your wife, I mean. Traveling on this ship.”
1
The first words they said to me meant nothing.
0
Ray, he looked down at his hands, folded together in his lap, fingers interlaced.
3
“I don't know,”
2
“I don't know,” he said.
3
We were all quiet for a moment.
1
Ray shrugged, then got up and left.
0
We let him go.
3
Silent.
0
Self-conscious.
0
More excuses were made, and after a few moments, only Adrienne and I were left sitting in the ballroom.
2
She looked across the circle of couches at me.
2
“What's your theory?”
1
she asked me.
0
I shrugged.
2
“How long have you been here?”
0
I wasn't listening; I didn't care; I was going to live; I was going to keep breathing.
3
“Not that long,”
0
“Not that long,” I said.
0
“A couple weeks, I guess. Maybe a month or two.”
1
Maybe a month or two.”
3
“Why don't you know for sure?”
2
she asked.
1
I shrugged.
0
I hadn't been counting days.
0
“What did you do before this?
0
“What did you do before this? How were you found?”
3
How were you found?”
2
“I was an engineer.”
0
I explained how my ship had malfunctioned, no warning at all.
0
The explosions, the impossible rescue.
2
She nodded.
1
“The ship I was on, I guess that's what happened, too.
3
“The ship I was on, I guess that's what happened, too. Some vital part broke, and... well, boom. It was all so fast.”
2
Some vital part broke, and...
2
well, boom.
3
It was all so fast.”
2
“I'm going to figure it out,”
3
“I'm going to figure it out,” she said.
3
“How and why this ship exists.
0
“How and why this ship exists. I'll figure it out, then I'm going to find a way home.”
3
I paced my room that night, unable to sleep.
2
Next to those, nothing else mattered.
3
Worse, Adrienne had made this clear to me with a single question.
2
Fact: Adrienne intimidated me.
2
Fact: It's too easy to fall into patterns.
1
I resolved to break the pattern.
3
Another evening, another chandeliered room, another swirl of conversations and dances and hor d'oevres.
0
The recycled air tasted sweet in my mouth, and all thoughts that crossed my mind were cheap metaphors about life-giving substances and how breathing was like sex, only better.
1
“Has anyone ever left?”
0
Adrienne looked at each of us in turn.
2
Ray exchanged a glance with Zheng.
3
Sarah frowned.
0
“Now that you mention it, I haven't seen Alexis in days.
2
“Now that you mention it, I haven't seen Alexis in days. I assumed he was indisposed.”
2
I assumed he was indisposed.”
3
Kishori nodded in agreement.
1
After the first whoosh of the air being sucked away, there was lightning, but no thunder.
2