Amelia Brand woke up, and took in a slow breath. She could hear his heart beating before her eyes were open, and she snuggled into it a moment, as she did most mornings. She always woke up before Cooper.

With a small yawn, she sat up, snuck out from under the covers without waking him, and pulled her jumpsuit on silently. His face was sometimes more tense while he slept, and she felt for him. His dreams were more intense than hers were now. Hers had become harsh during her isolation, and had settled. He still dreamed vividly, about the things he'd seen without her.

You're here now. She told herself, and she leaned down to give him a quick peck on the cheek, before starting the morning.

It was the ninth planet they had visited since returning through the Wormhole, and the third with a breathable atmosphere. The first had been a jungle biome. This one was more alpine, with a median temperature not unlike far-northern Alaska, before climate collapse. The trees were huge, and seemingly immune to the cold.

Parked in their Ranger, the windows gave them a clear view of outside. The Endurance was in orbit, and their landing craft had been refit to make a small bedroom/workroom, and the cockpit. The rooms were divided by wall hangings, woven of a plant not unlike bamboo, courtesy of their visit to Planet Four. Their shared cots were on Endurance, but they had a large net, woven from dried vines, courtesy of the jungles of Planet One; large enough to harness them lightly when sleeping in Zero G, or stretched like a hammock for when they slept in the Ranger.

All told, they'd made a pretty good effort of being explorers. They even had some spare parts, manufactured from previously unknown minerals, discovered on Planets Two and Six.

"We really have to think up some names for these worlds, CASE." Amelia thought aloud quietly.

"Cooper told me to apply my database to create a random word generator." CASE reported. "I've provided a list of ten words for each planet we visit. Any that seem appropriate, we can amend our logs."

The Ranger was insulated against the cold of space. Even with the heaters shut down, it was more than enough to handle the snowy conditions outside. Even so, the sight of a blanket of snow made Amelia feel a slight chill. She'd grown up in an underground complex in The Dust Bowl. Snow was something she saw in old movies.

Cooper's jacket was hanging on the back of the pilot's chair, and she slipped it around her shoulders. It was a possessive sort of move, but their relationship had evolved organically, almost undiscussed; from mutual respect and basic need, to something far more than anything they'd had before.

The coffee had run out over a year before, but they'd found something with heavy caffeine properties on Planet Three, and celebrated by harvesting enough to last for a decade. Sugarcane would only grow on earth, no matter what Amelia's Biology Proofs or Cooper's Farming Experience came up with; and as yet they hadn't found anything they were willing to try milking; but the brew was something close enough to strong tea for them to continue their voyage.

Amelia checked the logs that CASE had left them, as he patrolled and worked during their sleep cycle. The snow would replenish their water supply, and they could air out the Ranger with fresh air from outside. The scrubbers would turn CO2 into Oxygen again, but Endurance was starting to smell like a gym locker between planets; so they'd figured out how to sweeten the air with native plants. Alpine trees smelled fresh and clean on two different planets.

She sat down in the co-pilot's seat, and felt something jab lightly into her side. Cooper's jacket had plenty of pockets. Enough that he often took five minutes searching them for things, much to her amusement. But when Amelia looked, she was surprised to see her own name.

It was a vacuum sealed wrapper, made from the same everything-proof preservation bags she kept her greenhouse crops in. Within it was a thick, perfectly preserved envelope, with a clearly visible message written on the front.

-To Be Opened by Amelia Brand Only
Do Not Open for Four Hundred Years.
-Murph Cooper

Amelia felt a thrill go through her. "Say, CASE?" She said finally. "Would you say, objectively, it's been about four hundred years since we first launched?"

"Objectively? Probably closer to five hundred now, between your close pass of Gargantua, and the time you spent in Cryo between Planets Four and Five."

"Close enough." Amelia glanced back to make sure there was no sign of Cooper waking up, and ripped the package open. "Sorry, Coop. I should ask first, but it's addressed to me, after all."

The envelope contained several notebook pages, perfectly preserved, and looking like they'd been torn out of something. After a moment, Amelia realized it was a journal.

She'd read Murph's Journal of course. The published version had been on Cooper's Tablet with most of the human race's bestseller list. Her own unauthorized biography was included, inaccurate though it was. But as Amelia read Murph's handwriting, it was very clear that these pages weren't included in any published version.

It took Amelia a few minutes to figure out where in the story these pages were; but from Context, she believed it was not long after Getty Brock had died. Murph had gone into retirement, according to the official record, but the journal pages said that she had one more mission, with her best friend Ellie...


"It was a nice service." Ellie said softly.

Murph didn't answer for a while, gazing over at the memorial. There were still people gathered around, sharing stories of Getty Brock. As a doctor, he'd changed a lot of lives for the better.

"How are you holding up?" Ellie asked.

Murph smiled. "You asking as my old friend, or as my old shrink?"

"Retired, many years ago." Ellie held her hand up, face wrinkling with the same easygoing smile she'd always had.

Murph downed the last of her drink. "Ellie, can I confide in you?"

"Always, kid." Physically, they were both old and grey. In terms of life experience, Murph actually had a year or two on her after Ellie had elected to take a Long Nap, but their dynamic had never changed since she was Murph's Friday night Babysitter.

"Back when this finally got going… You and Getty were the only people I ever told about my 'Ghost'."

"The Wormhole and the Bulk Beings are a matter of record now, Murph. Including the message they left that directed you to the Base."

Idly, Murph wondered when people stopped thinking of it 'directing her father' and started thinking of it as 'directing the ten year old wunderkind'. "See, that's my point. Even with all that. Nobody knows it was my father that got the answer to us."

"Murph, that faith in you saved the human race more than once."

"True." Murph nodded. "But there's one thing left that I have to do, and I need your help to do it. For this, I need to tell you another part of the story. Something that only Getty knew."


The two old friends found a quiet spot to sit and talk, and Murph told her everything about her Saturn mission. The Tesseract, the Bulk Space, all of it. With Getty gone, Ellie was the only other person who knew.

"I'll be honest with you, Murph. Getty told me part of that story, years ago." Ellie confessed. "I wasn't sure I believed it, but he wanted me to be on the lookout for certain signs that you didn't quite… well…"

"Keep my marbles?" Murph nodded. "Fair enough."

"You want to use it again." Ellie surmised as the story ended.

"Just once more." Murph nodded. "Getty would say no, but I'm hoping you'll help me."

"Murph, think about this for a second." Ellie said. "I'm not worried about you using a damn crystal ball, I'm worried about what happens after that. Brand hid the truth because he knew what the truth would do. When you cracked the formula, you kept it a secret because you knew the Government would take the Station off you and turn it into their own private ark. What the hell do you think future generations will do with this?"

"I know, Ellie. I have no intention of anyone even finding out that this tech even exists." Murph promised. "That's why I put such strict guidelines in for creating Singularity Generators. If I'm lucky, nobody will dare trying to open the Event Horizon further than an atom ever again."

"Then why?" She pressed. "Why use it again at all? What are you looking for?"

Long, fragile silence.

"I wanna make it right." Murph confessed finally. "I have to atone for... For a lifetime of unworthy thoughts towards the man who gave up everything for me. I have to. I just... I owe him, Ellie. I owe my dad everything, and so do you. So does every man woman and child who is alive today, or will ever be born. If I can't even give my father the credit, I can at least offer him... I don't know, but there will be something; I promise you that! I have to find some way to give my father something for all he went through; but that rather depends on when and where he comes back."

"If he comes back."

"Right. I have to know that too."

Ellie hesitated.

"I know, you don't believe my father had anything to do with any of this." Murph sighed. "I had hoped that the decades in between would be enough to convince you it wasn't a dream…"

"Murph, I don't know if it's a Bulk Being posing as your dad; or your own brilliance needing to forgive an old pain, or if you just hallucinated the whole thing and hit the jackpot. At this point, it doesn't matter."

"Well, I am certain." Murph said firmly. "I just don't know how to prove it to you. So I'm not asking for you to agree, just to trust me."

"Faith?" Ellie quipped.

It was such a 'Getty' line that Murph felt her heart ache. "Faith."

"Murph, do you even have an Anchor? From what Getty told me, the first Tesseract nearly drove you mad. The second Tesseract you built around your childhood bookshelf. What, of your father's, do you have left? Because as I understand this, to follow his timeline, it'd have to be something he took with him, and we can't get to any of those things."

"You keep thinking of time in a straight line, El." Murph insisted, not for the first time. "If my father ever, and I mean ever, in the whole of the future, comes back? All I need is something that I have, that he'll want. Something he'll keep with him."

There was only one item in the universe that fit that description. Murph was wearing it on her wrist.


"I can't believe you talked me into this." Ellie groused. "I'm amazed The Jesse still flies after this long."

"Technically, it doesn't." Murph told her. "That's why I was able to get it back for this. She'll hold together for one more trip. If anyone asks, we're just revisiting a few old memories of Getty." She turned to leave the control room. "Remember, emergency off-switch on the left. Emergency Eject on the right."

"I'll try not to get them confused while you're in there." Ellie drawled.


At the point between Saturn and the Wormhole, Murph stepped into the Tesseract Chamber and started it up, one last time. The feeling of reality melting came back, and Amelia rode it out until the Tesseract formed... around her father's watch.

She could see the entire timeline of it, just as she had her old bedroom; from the moment it was put together, to the moment it sat on a shelf in a store, the moment someone had bought it. She saw her father, first wearing the watch.

"God, he looks so young." Murph breathed. This was her father before he'd ever met her mother. Before he'd even-

-joined NASA-

-And suddenly she was there, watching her father prepare to take a test flight over The Straits.

Murph had resolved that she couldn't interfere, but then she saw a face she'd never expected.

John Brand.

Murph was reaching, even before she realized she was doing it. All she had to do was whisper the formula to Brand, and her father would never have to leave at all, and humanity would still be saved and-

-suddenly she was in her father's pilot's seat, with him-

-What the?!-

-Her father was shouting "Mayday! Mayday! Guidance failure, I have no attitude control!"

Murph wrenched herself back from the Moment, returning to the Tesseract. The first thing she did was check the later instances, as the timelines folded and expanded around her.

And then the 4-D space closed down again, and she was back on the floor, gasping.


The hatch swung open, and Ellie came running in. "Are you alright?" She demanded. "Your vitals spiked like crazy for a minute there."

"I screwed up." Murph admitted, pushing the hair out of her face. "Gets was right. God doesn't play with dice."

"Um… Actually, that was Einstein."

"Whatever." Murph sighed hard. "It was me, Ellie. I did it."

"Great! Are we done?" She said hopefully.

Murphy swatted her. "When I was a baby, dad was a test pilot for NASA. He was the first to fly a Ranger Prototype. There was a sudden Gravity Anomaly on his maiden flight over The Straits; which crashed him. They say it was his reflexes alone that kept him alive, but it put him out of the program for life. Until we found the Lazarus Base. I was… I was looking at the timeline of that watch, and I saw Professor Brand. I thought that if I could reach out and communicate with him…" Her face went grim for a moment. "Or at least reached out and slapped him hard in the throat…"

"It was you." Ellie breathed. "You were the gravity anomaly that crashed your father that day."

"Another Mobius Loop. Long before I ever met my 'ghost', I was the one haunting dad." Murph nodded. "It was a mistake. I'm sorry." She fought to stand. "Put me back in."

Ellie didn't move.

"I mean it. I didn't see what I needed to see yet."

Ellie just looked at her. "Murph… I love you so much. You know that, right?"

Murph felt her heart twist. She was leading up to something she wouldn't like, and they both knew it. "You want to stop me, don't you?"

"Murph, when Getty collapsed, you were coming in to see him before I had the chance to call you. You didn't even ask what the prognosis was. Why do I think that you already had the answers to these questions?"

Murph said nothing.

"Getty made the comment once that you didn't even negotiate about what to name the kids. Twenty seconds, it was sorted. Why do I think you already knew?"

Murph still said nothing.

Ellie bit her lip. "Do you know when I'm going to die, too?"

Murph jumped, surprised by the question, but she didn't answer.

Ellie nodded, unconcerned for himself, openly scared for her. "See, this is the problem. Every time you start up this machine, you commit to a possibility that just wouldn't have you trapped otherwise." She held up a hand before Murph could argue. "You feel that you need to repay your father, I get that. But if he were here right now… If he'd had the chance to know the exact time and date of your mother's death, would he want to know? I still don't know what repeated trips into Bulk Space does to a person, but I know that even looking at the future is changing things for you dramatically."

Murph sighed. "You're right." She said simply. "And I've held onto this crystal ball too long as it is. This is something we're not ready for yet. I promised Getty I wouldn't use this thing again, and I kept that promise to his dying day."

"And arranged this trip before the funeral was even finished." Ellie pointed out.

"Ninety percent honesty should be enough for anyone." Murph said stubbornly. "The point is… I spent decades knowing the moment I would lose Getty. I married him as fast as I could. Would we have had more time together, or less, if I hadn't looked?"

"I don't know." Ellie admitted.

"Neither do i, and that's saying something." Murph gestured. "I don't want to know, I need to know. So I'll make a deal with you, Elle… Let me finish this… and I'll never use it again. Just to make sure, we'll detach the chamber and throw it into Saturn as soon as I'm done; and I'll give my retirement to the Science Council before we get back to the Station. I'll never fly a ship again."

Ellie felt her jaw drop. "Just like that?"

"It's an awesome feeling to know what your life is for, hon. I've set something bigger than myself in motion, and the kids can carry that torch for a long time to come yet." She looked to Ellie, beseechingly. "One last time." Murph said softly. "Let me be extraordinary, one last time."

Long moment.

"You are always extraordinary." Ellie promised her, and reset the machine. "Always."


Stunned at the story, Amelia looked at the wristwatch in question; on her wrist. Cooper had taken it back from Murph when they'd reconnected, or so he'd told her. He'd had the works inside repaired, and it still worked, even after visiting six planets. He'd given it to her when her own broke on Planet Three. If she'd known the history behind the watch, she would have been far more grateful.

"Murph created the Tesseract." Amelia breathed. "A point where time didn't have any meaning, and past and future can overlap." She rubbed her forehead in awe. She and Cooper had theorized something along those lines, believing Murph had entered the Tesseract herself at some point, knowing to send her father to Edmund's Planet as a result. They had imagined some far-future generation of humans engineering a Bootstrap Paradox to save their species. But given how a Tesseract could exist outside of time completely, it could have been anyone for billions of years… and it had only taken one generation.

Amelia took the watch off her wrist and looked down at the face of it. "Did you see me too, Murph?"


The Tesseract formed around her father's watch; and Murph followed the kaleidoscopic path to where she had left the watch behind on her shelf, gathering dust for twenty years, to the moment she picked it up and noticed the second hand was twitching.

And then she turned away from the past, and looked to the future.

She saw the watch on her wrist, and what she did for the next ten years. She saw the moment she took the watch off, and put it in a box of personal effect... and the moment she put it back on, two years later, as she was carried on a gurney into a ship.

She saw her father, and wept with happiness. he hadn't changed a bit.

The first thing she did was show him the watch.

She saw her father going to Amelia Brand. She saw the moment they reunited, Amelia dumbstruck by the thought of him alive, and neither of them being alone any more.

She saw them holding each other against the cold desert night, and then against the loneliness. She saw them laughing over dinner, exploring their new world, sitting around the campfires they made.

She saw them rebuilding Endurance, and flying back to the Wormhole, hand in hand…

And despite herself, Murph looked closer at that one.

The new cockpit of Endurance was warping and wheeling as three dimensions became elastic. Her push into the border between The Bulk Space and the three dimensional universe made her visible, in a sense. A single line of light, as though two mirrors met.

"Was that you!?" Amelia demanded of Cooper, holding his hand.

"No, I don't think so!" Her father called back.

Murph didn't know for sure what they meant by that, but pushed, just a little further, and found herself hovering over the point where Amelia Brand and her father were holding hands tightly, even as the Wormhole carried them away.

Her father stared right at her, even through the shimmering curtain that split them apart. "Murph!" Her father cried out in understanding.

Murph shivered. Her father knew it was her. Which meant he must have learned of her involvement with the Tesseract at some point...

"I promise, Murph." Amelia said softly, so that her father couldn't hear it. "I'll take care of him."

Satisfied, Murph started pulling back; leaving the wormhole-construct, returning to the Tesseract, which started to close down around her.


Murph opened her eyes, gasping for air. Distantly, she could hear Ellie shouting, waving a pen-light in her eyes, trying to get her to snap out of it.

Murph rode it out, letting the world settle back into three dimensions. Part of her was starting to hate that she had to live in three dimensions only.

But it was worth it.

She knew what she had to do.


Murph kept her promise. The Tesseract Chamber was thrown into Saturn before they headed for Jupiter.

"So. What now?" Ellie asked.

"Jaina is still on Cooper Station?" Murph said quietly. "I'll need her to give me a workup."

"Why?"

"Standard procedure, when someone my age prepares for a long-term sleep in a Cryo-Bed."


Amelia Brand was awed by the thought. She and Coop had spent hours theorizing, wondering about the Bulk Beings who had created the time loop, the Wormhole… Cooper hadn't read these pages. He only knew half of what his daughter had done for him. For both of them.

There were still a few pages to go, and Amelia was almost scared to look.

She was getting quite misty over the love story of a girl she barely knew. Cooper had told her about the reunion with Murph, so she knew how this story ended, but the next loose page from the journal seemed to be from a different volume, and Amelia realized quickly that it was easily another five or six years after Murph went through with it.


"So, you finally decided to join the Methuselah Club?" Ellie said, as Murph changed into the usual cryo-smock.

Murph scoffed. There were some people taking advantage of the new Technology. Some preferred to stay in hibernation until there was a planet to go to. Others wanted to stay under until someone had conquered death completely. The Terraformers in particular, working at Mars and Europa, with projects that would last centuries, used Cryo-Beds to sleep ten months out of every year; letting things run on without their direct involvement. Others took small ships and accelerated as fast as they could, letting relativity near the speed of light do the same thing as a Black Hole's gravity, speeding the decades around them.

Murph had no interest in either. She had a particular reason in mind. "You could do it too." Murph offered. "Both of us, tearing up the future."

"Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of living forever." Ellie said quietly, leaning heavily on her cane. "But Jaina won't do it. She refuses. I don't know what her objection is, but it puts me in a bind, because…"

"Because even if you sleep until someone cracks immortality, you'd have to live with whatever you woke up to. Or without." Murph agreed. "I have a dozen grandkids, Ellie. Believe me, I understand."

Ellie hesitated.

"Say what you want to say." Murph directed her.

"Why are you doing it?" Ellie asked. "When Getty died, I worried that you might withdraw again, and now… I won't go into cryosleep because I dread the thought that I might wake up to discover that I've outlived my daughter. Why are you doing it, if you feel the same way?"

Murph turned to her, giving her full attention to her friend. "Back when it started falling apart, I told myself: No more nights off. At the time, I'd taken about one night for drinking games with you and Gets. You thought I was obsessed, and I was. But it wasn't because I was afraid to do anything else with my life, or because I was too scared to look at what was missing in myself. I was obsessed because… I had a promise to keep. One that I made my sole devotion. When I cracked it, I suddenly felt like my world opened up to all the things I never gave myself time for. You and Getty were at the top of that list. And we did good, didn't we?"

"We did amazing." Ellie promised her. "You did amazing."

"Well, it's sixty years later now. My kids are all grown up, and so are my grandkids. The Station is finished, the human race is as safe as I can make it, and the Council seems as stable as any government can be. Little by little, all those things I hadn't done yet have had the books closed on them. But there's still one thing left that I haven't gotten finished, and I'm as devoted to finishing it as I was all the other things." She put a hand on the Cryo-Bed. "And I won't get there on my own. So I have to sleep, until I can finish my last mission... and give my dad the future he deserves."

Ellie looked at her, on the point of tears. She could have said it, but she didn't have to. They were not young women any more. Murph had left no specific date to be taken out of storage. Ellie would almost certainly not live to see the moment Murph emerged.

And they both knew it.

Murph leaned in and gave her old friend a close embrace. "Did I ever thank you, Ellie? For being the big sister a little girl needed? Or for being the girlfriend a work-obsessed teenager needed to keep herself even? Or for being the surrogate mom that a young woman dealing with first love could turn to? Or for being the experienced teacher a young mother desperately needed? Or for being the best friend a person couldn't live without?"

Ellie sobbed on her shoulder. "I love you, Murph."

"And I love you." Murph promised. "Now, you should go. I don't want your last memory of me to be this damn body bag zipping up over my face."

"Yes'm." Ellie promised and hugged her again. "I'll take care of these instructions regarding your personal effects. You're sure you don't want to send anything to your kids?"

"I already have. The journals stay sealed and preserved. He'll be back for them one day."

"If you say so... Cap'n."

Ellie didn't believe Joe Cooper would ever return. But it Murph wanted to wait out the universe in cryo, that was fine with her. A lot of people were doing it, and Murph deserved to see the future on her own terms. Murph scribbled the last of her message into the journal, and put it in the storage bag. It would be sealed away and preserved against time, no matter how long it took.

Like me. Murph thought, as she lay back in the cold water. See you on the other side, Dad.


Amelia Brand read all this with a sentimental smile. The last page in the envelope was a letter, addressed to her.


Dear Amelia,

You can see why I removed these pages before my dad could read them. He wasn't ready for them yet. But the last time you and I spoke, I was a pre-teen kid, being paid off in cookies by grandpa to find a girlfriend for my dad. I think it's time we had us another chat.

First, you may be wondering a few things; so let me answer them: No, I didn't tell dad to come back for you because I saw it in the Tesseract. I've been wondering about the difference between fate and foresight ever since I picked up my father's dusty watch. I can tell you one thing for sure: He would have come after you the second I died. There was nothing for him here in Sol, (I made sure of it; or did you think I told them he liked farming just to be funny?) and forcing him to wait out the rest of my life would be cruelty. I just gave him permission to go AWOL without having to wait for my funeral. It was merciful for all three of us.

Secondly: No; I didn't hurt Wolf. I know it's been on your mind ever since you found out that the 'gravity anomaly' that crashed my father's test flight was me. Alternate timelines are a possibility, with the ability to see beyond linear time, but I was creating a Bootstrap Paradox, and I didn't alter things. For all my ability, I dared not Play God that much. I'm sorry for his loss, but I'm not sorry that you and my father found each other. I hope you can forgive me for not mourning a man I never met.

Third: I want to say I'm sorry. I thought some rather unkind things towards you in my youth. When I found out your father lied about Plan A, I hated you so much, just for being his daughter and flying away with my dad. That was a terrible thing for me to think, given that he fooled us both. I'm sorry for all the angry words I sent across the galaxies to you and my dad. I hope you can convince him that they were spoken in misinformed anger. You've done tremendous things, and followed your heart above your head without ever showing naivety or foolishness. If I could live my life over again, I would have followed your example over that of your father's.

Fourth: Everyone who knows about the Tesseract has asked me the question at some point, except for Getty. I have never told anyone what the future holds for them. In a way, knowing the way my story ends has made the wait interminable. But I'll promise you this much, Amelia: It all works out. Not perfectly, of course. You two will bicker, and you'll make up, and you'll see incredible things. Some days you'll feel so isolated with just each other that you'll want to stop. Some days you'll be so glad to have each other all to yourselves that you'll fly faster just to keep the rest of the human race from ever catching up.

But you'll be happy, and you'll see so many places that nobody has ever seen. You'll put the first footprints on planets that we can't even see from Sol. You'll plant forests that grow for our great-great-grandkids to walk in. You'll be the first to taste the fruits of far distant jungle vines. And you will love each other so much.

A better ending I cannot imagine, or wish for my father, or for you. I hope that it's enough to make up for the years and family that you lost.

One last thing I want you to know: You were right.

Love isn't something we invented. It's observable, powerful; and it's the most meaningful thing ever created. It's even measurable, in a way that linear time and three dimensional space can never be. I know, because I've seen those higher dimensions, and I could actually perceive it, transcending time and space like a tether, keeping me with Getty when I had no anchor. I could see it drawing my father back to me, and me back to him. I could see it, connecting you to Wolf, and dad to mom, and you two always to each other.

You're wondering how I know about that wonderful little speech you gave on Endurance. Believe me, I know more than just that.

We didn't invent love. It predates us, even in a cosmos that exists outside past and future. Poets understood this long before I ever walked the world of Bulk Space. Getty thinks it's proof of God, that love can transcend galaxies and centuries; and life and death. I hope he's right; because I love him even now, when he's gone.

Thank you for everything you'll do for my family.

Love, Murph.


Amelia folded the letter carefully, and slipped it back in it's protective sheath, before she put a kiss to it, and tucked it away again, feeling quite misty-eyed.

"Hey." A voice said from behind.

She smiled back at Cooper as he came over. She rose from her seat, stepped to meet him halfway, and put her arms around him tightly, pulling him in for a tight hug. She held him like she would never let go; and when she finally did pull back, she took his face between her hands; and gave him a slow, thorough kiss. Then she pulled back like she had done so every day."Good Morning." She said, heartfelt.

Cooper flushed. "What was that for? Tell me, so I can do it more often."

"I'll tell you about it later." She led him over to the windows. "Storm broke overnight. CASE has harvested the snow for us, and is running it through all the tests he can think of, but I don't except any surprises. Water is a surprisingly easy compound to purify here."

"Stuff of life." Cooper murmured and put a kiss on her shoulder. "So, what shall we do today?"

"I think it's time we put the plaque down." Amelia said. "We've been watching the weather, and this spot seems to be high enough it won't be buried under eighty feet of snow. Watermarks say that when the thaw comes, it won't be washed away, either."

"Mm." Cooper noted that she was wearing his jacket. "It's probably, what? A balmy 15 below celsius?"

"About. Weather report from Endurance predicts it'll get as high as eight below, before daybreak." She yawned. "Though a fifteen hour day/night cycle is hard to get used to."

"Nice place to visit, but I'm not sure I'd want to stay much longer."

"Oh, I don't know. Remember we used the tent canvas to make a bathtub? All that snow out there, and a fireproof survival tent, I reckon we could make a passable sauna if we wanted."

"Tempting, if only because we've been parked a week and couldn't fit a shower into the Ranger." Cooper chuckled. "Alright, we'll collect the last of the core samples, pack up the weather stations, and lay the Plaque." He peered out the windows. "Any word on the Grendel?"

"Well, if you mean that shaggy half-bear-half-moose thing that was sniffing around, I haven't seen him this morning." Amelia told him, and presented him with a second steaming mug. "But don't go out without CASE."

"You either."


As they had on every other planet they visited, they had machined a plaque out of copper, and produced a beacon. Solar powered, and with no moving parts, the Beacon could do nothing but be detected by any ships that happened to come into orbit.

Cooper carved just enough space for the beacon's delicate wiring in a large rock formation, and Amelia bolted the Plaque over it protectively.

Here Explorers From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon This World.
Joseph Cooper and Amelia Brand, Project Endurance. July 2459.
We Hope Not To Be The Last.
"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."

Included with the Beacon was a copy of their logs, some observations of the local stellar area, the planet's climate, and other observable phenomena. They had parked Endurance in Orbit for a year while they slept in Cryo, before emerging to make a surface exploration. If others caught up, they'd have a lot of useful information to work with. They'd planted just such a repository on every world they'd visited.

"You think anyone will find these things, Coop?" Amelia asked, not for the first time.

"Eventually. The Wormhole is a construct. Someone thinks these places are worth looking through. We just happened to get to them first. I saw the Program. It could take centuries for the rest of humanity to catch up. And when they do, they'll have information to work with waiting for them, thanks to a pair of plucky pioneers."

"Plucky?"

"What, you don't like plucky?"

"Plucky isn't… cool enough.."

Cooper grinned. "It is when we do it."

Brand laughed. She was laughing more and more often lately. "Let's go back inside." She told him. "There's a story you should probably hear."

They went back to their Ranger, getting ready to take off again, and dock with Endurance, making their way to the next horizon, hand in hand.


AN: Epilogue to come. Read and Review!