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She glared at me, but obediently let me pull her along.
2
“Tell me,”
3
I was one more scrap to weld onto the rest, one more stranded survivor who was found.
2
“what you have found.”
3
She gave me a grumpy look that informed me, quite clearly, of her current opinion of me.
2
“Not if you're going to be rude about it.”
2
I sighed.
2
“Sorry.”
2
I wasn't, not really, but I'd lie to get the conversation going.
3
“I want to know.”
3
I explained, in two brief sentences, my earlier impasse.
3
“I don't know much,”
2
“I heard the captain say something yesterday, as I walking to the Pyrope Parlor. I was just coming up on a corner and he was around the other side, talking to a couple people, and they must not have known I was there. He said something about a wreck going well. And listen, when they came round the corner, Ray was with the captain.”
2
I was just coming up on a corner and he was around the other side, talking to a couple people, and they must not have known I was there.
0
He said something about a wreck going well.
0
And listen, when they came round the corner, Ray was with the captain.”
0
The next time the captain stopped by our group, Tiffany tagging along (pretending that she, too, was a social butterfly who could mingle equally well with everyone), we were ready.
0
I was now one of them.
0
“Is there a doctor on board?”
2
asked Adrienne.
3
“I've been having headaches.”
2
This story, it's our story.
0
Jefferson nodded.
1
“Down past the Emerald Lounge, second door on the left.
1
“Down past the Emerald Lounge, second door on the left. All hours.”
0
All hours.”
3
A robot, then.
0
Medical AI were even more expensive than the barkeep.
0
I wondered how many people it treated.
0
Had anyone on the ship ever fallen seriously ill?
0
The survivors of the unfortunate accidents, the catastrophic malfunctions, the fateful crashes: this is us.
2
“Does he age?”
0
asked Adrienne.
0
“The captain?”
2
“I never thought about it.”
0
Adrienne steepled her fingers and studied my face.
1
“That doesn't answer my question,”
2
Adrienne only picked at her food.
3
“Not hungry?”
3
“No,”
3
“No,” said Adrienne.
0
“At least have a drink,” said Sarah.
3
“I find it takes the edge off.”
0
said Kishori.
0
“Maybe that's the problem,”
2
“Maybe that's the problem,” said Sarah.
3
“One hundred and forty-seven is a magic number,”
2
“One hundred and forty-seven is a magic number,” said Sarah.
1
“You ever heard of Dunbar? Well, we've got the perfect-size group right here.”
1
Well, we've got the perfect-size group right here.”
1
Just enough for us all to be able to barely avoid killing each other.
0
“Why doesn't anyone mutiny?”
2
Adrienne asked.
3
“We can't,”
2
“What would we do?”
0
Adrienne shook her head and made a sound of disgust.
2
“You could force the captain to set down somewhere.
3
“You could force the captain to set down somewhere. Let us off the ship. If he refuses, threaten him. If he still refuses, well, of all of us, isn't there someone who can drive a ship?”
2
Let us off the ship.
0
If he still refuses, well, of all of us, isn't there someone who can drive a ship?”
3
Floating alone, each of us facing the silence of the vacuum, we were found.
0
“That's murder,”
2
“That's murder,” objected Sarah.
2
“That's survival, ”
3
“That's survival, ” Adrienne corrected her.
2
“Do you want to be stuck here for the rest of your life?”
2
I shifted my feet in the plush green carpeting of the Emerald Lounge, looking out the windows at the stars.
1
Times like that, running on less sleep than I should, alone because everyone else had had the sense to retire for the night, I had a tendency to get all meditative about the universe and my place in it.
1
The stillness of the room contributed, as did the view.
3
All of it was temporary, save for the black.
0
That was tonight's melodramatic theme: the ephemeral nature of life.
0
Once found, we can never be lost.
1
Everything to fade away, lost as dust and scattered atoms between the stars, and every one of us to be left as alone as the moment we were born.
2
Eyes bulging in panic, but no screams.
2
Some things in this world, we have to make them permanent ourselves.
3
This is our Hotel California.
3
He had made us a constant.
0
He made this ship—this life—a constant.
0
The one thing that was known.
1
The one thing that wouldn't change.
3
Maybe everything we did, all the stories we told, maybe it was all lies.
2
We can never leave.
2
But ultimately, this ship, its purpose, our purpose—did it matter?
3
We each had our own theory.
3
Maybe that was enough.
2
“So, I'm on a ship now?
2
“So, I'm on a ship now? You do this a lot?”
0
Maybe that made us more real.
1
Maybe it made us feel less alone.
0
“Mind if I join you?”
0
I turned to see Adrienne in the doorway.
0
She smiled, then crossed the room to join me by the window, not waiting for an answer.
1
“Some nights,”
1
You do this a lot?”
2
“I can't see the meaning in any of it. All these things I do, they're just to pass the time until I die.”
2
All these things I do, they're just to pass the time until I die.”
2
“You don't see a meaning because there is no meaning,” she said.
2
A woman, introduced as Tiffany and neither tall nor beautiful, shrugged.
3
After all of it, as much as we feared being alone, we feared being vulnerable even more.
2
Our instinct was to hide.
2