Connor Lassiter gazed over the bow of his yacht and inhaled a good breath of the salty Mediterranean air. He was safe, he was whole, he had the girl of his dreams aboard still asleep in the Captain's stateroom which they enjoyed very much. All was right with the world, or at least it should have been.

Connor's scarred fingers gripped the bow's guard rail as the message he received from the Admiral last night replayed over and over again in his mind.

"Bad things are about to happen, very bad things. Proactive Citizenry is planing something big. They may look dead but don't be fooled, they still have money that isn't being used to fight all the lawsuits and they are planing something big—A Hail Mary, if you will."

Connor had figured as much. Roberta Griswold had been broken out of prison, which couldn't mean anything good.

Risa didn't know and he wasn't going to tell her until it was absolutely necessary. They were both enjoying a bit of a vacation and he didn't want her to worry too much.

Every morning Connor would awaken to Risa playing piano and the smell of his mother making breakfast in the galley and the grunts of his Father struggling with a crossword. Even though Connor was happy to have them on board, part of him always wanted to throw something at them. They did sign the Unwind order, after all. These feelings had diminished a bit but they were still there.

After looking at his parents and deciding for another day they would be allowed to be in his presence on the boat instead of being pushed into the sea below, he would get up, linger and listen to Risa play piano for a bit then the two of them would go to breakfast together and sit down to look over some files the newly reforming Anti-Divisional Resistance sent. He never wanted their time together to end.

"I'm sending you some directions now. I have a contact who's going to help us with some intel."

explained the Admiral over the phone.

"Who is it?" Connor asked.

There was complete silence for a full minute. Connor started to get impatient. "Sir?"

"You'll know him when you see him."

And so their little yacht(Risa wanted to call it the "Wholly Dream" while Connor voted for the more cynical name of the "Wholly Exile")sailed off to the location they'd been given to find the Admiral's mysterious contact.

Connor took out a pair of binoculars and scanned the sky. "We're probably looking for an airship, like The Lady Lucretia."

Risa shuddered. Connor had been unfortunate enough to be unwound, but it seemed that Risa had been the one most shaken by those horrible couple of weeks. Connor still had nightmares about being trapped back on the airship, but Risa had apparently taken it much harder (although he could still remember the odd tingling sensations as U.N.I.S did its wretched work and still felt Starkey's pulse fizzle out under HIS grip…)

"Up ahead!" Risa shouted. "I see something!"

Startled from his musings, Connor looked ahead and saw him. Appearing to stand in the middle of the ocean was a single figure; a little boy with a bald head, a red sweatshirt and weird looking yellow sunglasses.

ERR?R

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