Chapter 22: Who Am I?
Bridgett couldn't breathe. She could barely even move. Feeling like she was going to pass out, she slowly leaned over to whatever she could lean on, putting her hand on her chest which now felt like it was on fire, or like someone had shot her through it.
She was currently so dissociated from reality that she didn't even fully realize as other people entered the room, shouting words that she did not listen to at each other in a panic. She felt too much like she was dying, like her hearts had been ripped out. She was pulled back to reality only somewhat as she felt a comforting arm wrap around her back.
"Bridge?" Jessica's voice felt distant, and she looked up to see Jessica's eyes directly in front of her. It was hard to focus on her face in her shocked state, but she could still see that Jessica was extremely concerned and fairly shocked herself. She had seen the same thing she did. "Bridge, are you ok?"
She didn't respond, her eyes slowly welling up.
Dylan stood by Oliver, both of them just as shocked as Jessica. "We're out of time." Dylan told them.
"I-I think she's in shock or something…" Jessica gave her friend a light shake. "Bridge, are you ok?"
Blinking, Bridgett took another look around the room to confirm that the copies of herself that she saw were all still there. The room started shaking somewhat, as they heard loud noises outside, although she wasn't so sure if it was real.
Dylan pulled the stunned Oliver out of the room, while Jessica squeezed Bridgett's shoulder. "Bridge, we need to move. Please."
It took a moment for her to respond, but as she stared into her eyes, she managed to return to reality enough to nod, and Jessica started pulling her along. It wasn't long after they rushed out, however, when Jessica suddenly yanked her behind cover, shortly before they heard a nearby explosion.
The agents were all ducked down behind tables; Samantha was hyperventilating in a panic, while Daniel was desperately covering his ears and gritting his teeth.
Cole, now in Hunter 12's upgraded armor, was standing in the next room over, looking around for them. "Come on out!"
Oliver recognized his voice. "Is that Cole?"
"All that matters is that we've got another Hunter 12 on our hands." Dylan replied. "A much stronger one, too."
"W-What do we do? Where do we go?" Samantha hissed in a panic.
Oliver sighed a bit as he grabbed his weapon. "…I might be able to hold him off, and the rest of you can run-"
"No." Bridgett suddenly turned to him, grabbing his shoulder. "Please not you."
They all looked at her, deciding not to question it. They then heard another explosion, rocking the room, followed by Cole's somewhat maniacal laugh.
"...We stick together for now." Jessica said. "But we do need a distraction."
Oliver glanced outward, thinking about what they were going to do.
The Octarian Station
The Octarians within the control room were still recovering from their own gunfight against Marie when suddenly, a bright light appeared in the room.
Shadow, grunting in pain, emerged from the light as she immediately found a table to lean against. Her arm that she had used to activate the hidden teleportation function was now smoking, with that side of her armor now partially burnt throughout. She panted angrily as she stared ahead.
The nearby Octarians, noticing her state and that she no longer had her mask on, stepped toward her. "Ma'am?" One of them asked.
"The Splatoon is on the top deck. Take them out. All of them." She replied.
"W-We'll lose the-"
"Take! Them! Out! Now!" She shouted. "Detonate the floor if you have to. My belongings up there are no longer necessary."
As they nodded and got to work, Shadow turned to another Octoling. "How close are we to the next jump?"
"It's almost charged, but, with how powerful the new crystal is, it scorched the central power room. Another jump will just double the damage and then we may not be able to perform another one."
She paused as she considered that, but ultimately shrugged it off. "As soon as we're ready, activate it. You know where we're going." She started limping her way toward her closet. "My father has waited long enough…"
On the top deck, in Shadow's bedroom, the Splatoon agents were still standing around in shock, unable to believe what they had just seen.
"What… the actual hell was that?" Marie asked, finally breaking their stunned silence, even though her voice was a bit weak from being strangled.
"That wasn't Bridgett from the future, was it?" Pearl asked. As Marie and Marina looked at her, she immediately got defensive. "What, I mean, with all the time stuff we were talking about- What else could that have been? You both saw the same thing I saw, didn't you?"
"I don't… know what that was." Marina said, for once looking quite stumped.
"...Identical twin?" Marie suggested.
"...No…" She shook her head. "She looked older than Bridgett…" She looked down, realizing something. She paused. "…I do know one thing, though…"
"What?"
She walked over to pick up the photo of Shadow's parents. "…It's Gideon Tecca." She looked back at them. "The man behind all of this."
"...Her father." She concluded.
They fell into more silence, still feeling pretty confused.
"...Now what do we do?" Pearl asked.
"We still have to do something to take these people down. We're running out of time." Marie said.
"We need to get back to the Ray, we're just sitting ducks here." Marina replied. Suddenly, as if on cue, she looked up as the hall's alarm activated. They all turned to look out into the hall.
"Aw, shit!" Pearl hissed as they all stepped out, looking around. It didn't seem anyone was coming for them quite yet, but they knew full well that they were still in immediate danger.
"Great, you have an escape plan, right?" Marie asked.
Marina got onto her tablet and started rapidly pressing some buttons. "You know me well, hold on tight." They were then interrupted further as they felt the ground around them shake.
Pearl rushed back into Shadow's room to look out the window. She then turned to notice that some of Shadow's belongings were starting to move. "...Uh… 'Rina?"
Suddenly, with another shake, all three of them were thrown weightlessly into the air, alongside Shadow's belongings, as the artificial gravity deactivated.
The entire smaller section of the station that they were in started floating upward as it was detached and pushed away from the rest of the ship, preparing for self destruction.
Pearl started to slowly flip through the air as she thrashed against nothing. "OH MY GOD! MARINA!"
Marina was still working on her tablet. "Stay calm!" She looked up as sparks began erupting from the walls, realizing how little time they had left. Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out three, nearly invisibly tiny objects, which she let float from her hand. She pressed another button on her tablet, and these items suddenly grew to regular size, revealing them to be space suits, remarkably similar to what the Octarians previously made them wear. "Put these on!"
"What!?" She immediately understood what these meant. "I'm not-!"
"If you want to live, put them on!" She hissed and she tried reaching for her own.
They started to hear some only somewhat distant explosions as they all struggled to reach and the put on their suits. It was extremely close and tense as they struggled to slip inside, but luckily, as Marina and Marie did, the attached helmets automatically closed around their heads, safely pressurizing for them.
The explosions and the shaking got more violent, distracting Pearl from properly getting hers on. She started panicking. "Oh, no no no no no no-" She hyperventilated as she struggled to reach her arm in.
"Pearl!" Noticing her dilemma, Marina held her tablet close and kicked off the floor to float toward her, trying to help her in. As Pearl struggled to start getting her arm in, they heard a much closer explosion as a nearby wall was blown out, and the immediate vacuum effect pulled them all straight down the hall.
Pearl just barely got her arm in, and she was briefly exposed to the soul-sucking void of space before her helmet sealed up. Just like that, the three of them were all sent drifting away into nowhere, and Pearl began screaming bloody-murder as she began spinning around.
Marie started to hyperventilate herself as she felt more weightless than ever. Her body automatically turned to face the station as she spun around, allowing her to witness as the detached part of the station exploded further, lighting them all up as finally, it was completely destroyed.
Back down in the main sections of the station, Shadow was at her private closet, getting changed into a replacement set of her armor as she then reached for her backup mask. Her hand paused, however, as she stopped to stare at it. She had spent a lot of time wearing masks like this, hiding her true identity and even emotions from many people around her… but after her confrontation just now with the Splatoon, she realized… she no longer needed it. She was no longer even sure she wanted it.
Sighing and putting the mask aside, she instead reached to put a standard earpiece into her ear, before she closed the closet up and walked back into the control room.
"Is the jump charged yet?" She asked.
"Yes, ma'am." A crew member told her. "Just give the word."
"Good. Get ready." She walked out into the hall. This was actually, admittedly, the first time she had walked these halls while wearing nothing but her true, angry face, allowing lesser crew members in the hall to look over and see her glare for the first time. She otherwise walked as she always did down to the central power room, where the new crystal had been installed, to check up on it. As reported, the room had been somewhat scorched by the sheer power of their last jump, but it remained operational for now, allowing her to check that off and walk down some more halls.
This time, she walked down to confirm that some of the station's scientists had indeed gotten to work on replicating Marina's research, and were already synthesizing even more stabilized crystals. She nodded at them in approval, but before she turned to walk out, she stopped as she noticed that the Axcians were still in the room. They looked almost depressed, as they stood around by the wall, simply staring at the work that was still being done.
"…What are they still doing here?" She asked.
The scientists turned to look at them, then at her, not really having much of an answer aside from, well… they just didn't seem to be hostile.
Shadow paused as she thought about them. She remembered, after all, that these two were the last known members of their own race. "…Put them down. I'm going to want them dissected. As soon as possible." She turned to leave again.
The scientists, taken a bit aback, turned once again to face the Axcians.
As Shadow walked down the hall, she pressed her earpiece. "We're good to go. Make the jump."
Marina and her team were still floating through space, as moments later, the station before them built up energy, forming a massive distortion effect around it. Finally, it disappeared behind a bright light, forcing the agents to shield their eyes. Just like that, the agents were left in nothing but darkness, causing Pearl to panic further.
"OH MY GOD!" She panicked. This was so much more terrifying than anything she had imagined. "THERE'S NOTHING! THERE'S NOTHING, WE'RE NOWHERE! OH MY GOD! THERE'S NOTHING! NOTHING!"
"Pearl, get a grip!" Marina shouted, contacting her through the suit radios. "We're gonna be ok!"
"HOW ARE WE POSSIBLY GONNA BE OK!?"
At that moment, Marie looked down, able to see as another light started to approach them. Much to her relief, it was the Ray, flying on autopilot with commands from Marina's now-frozen tablet as it approached them, eventually coming to a stop nearby. A special decompression entrance on the top of the Ray was already open and waiting for them, subtly vacuuming them forward like a tractor beam.
Marina allowed the other two in first before she came in last, and one-by-one, they went through the pressurization process before they were dropped into the Ray's hallway.
Marie sighed heavily in relief as she was dropped down first, taking off her helmet.
Pearl came in next, landing on her back. She seemed a bit stunned as she sat up. "…That…" She slowly took off her helmet. "…was AWESOME!" She suddenly erupted.
As Marina entered last and took off her own helmet, she immediately turned to face them. "You guys ok?"
"Hell yeah!" She cheered, even if she was still shaking from the aftermath of the terror. "Can we do that again?"
"Where the hell did they go?" Marie asked.
Marina looked down. "…I might have one theory…"
"What theory? Where do you think they went? Back to Axcia?" Pearl asked.
"...Earth…"
They paused as they heard that. "…Oh… well… we still have three months to catch up with them and stop them… right?"
"Not anymore." She shook her head.
"The hell do you mean?" Marie asked.
"If my calculations are correct, and so far, they have been, the stabilized crystals can greatly expand the reach a ship can jump…" She looked down. "They can head straight there."
Their eyes widened. They were too late.
"...Did… we lose, then…?" Pearl asked.
No one responded. Marie looked down in terror.
"...W-… What happens now?" She continued.
Marina did some thinking before she suddenly set her helmet down and marched down toward the cockpit. "Follow me. Now."
Marie and Pearl both followed as they all climbed up, and Marina rushed over to the briefcase she had before.
She opened it, revealing the bright green light of the crystal inside. She stared at it before she turned to them. "There's still this one crystal that I smuggled. Now's our own time to use it. We need to get back to Earth. Now."
Earth
Octo Mine
Cole was still stalking the laboratory, still searching around for the agents that remained hidden behind desks and drawers, using their Squid/Octo-forms to do so. "Hey, Oliver." He called out. "You in here, bud? Wanted to have a chat."
Oliver remained completely silent, but listened to his words.
"You know, I saw the funniest thing, dude." Cole continued. "That guy you crushed under the rubble? He looked exactly like you under that mask… Did you know that? It was uncanny. What other dirty secrets do you think this lab is hiding? Huh?
Oliver looked down as he heard that.
Cole sighed. "...Silent treatment? Fine. But you know, regardless of whether or not we're friends, I actually wanted to thank you. This journey that you took me on, it's… it's been something else. Wouldn't be here with you, bud."
Oliver squeezed his weapon, waiting for the best possible moment when Jessica finally spoke up in their comms. "I'm ready."
On cue, Oliver stood up and threw a vial in Cole's direction, confusing him. Cole reacted quickly, preparing to fire at him, but not quickly enough as Jessica came out and jumped him from behind, jumping on top of him.
He immediately started squirming, reaching back and trying to strike her, which she dodged. "Bitch!"
He was further distracted as more agents started to come out and fire at him, with their ink all bouncing off of his armor. He further squirmed as he felt Jessica reach to pull off his mask, but she remained unsuccessful as he knocked her off, grunting in anger as he charged up his gauntlets.
Oliver lowered his gun. "Duck!"
"RAHHHH!" Cole fired another, stronger blast at some of them, which they just barely dodged as the lab around them was further destroyed. Samantha screamed as she again turned to her squid-form and curled up.
As more explosions that Cole caused echoed through the mine's hallways, Gideon was walking down the halls in their direction, surrounded by different masked soldiers that accompanied him. He watched on in disbelief as it became clear that Cole was still trying to kill the Splatoon agents, before he sighed, nodding at some of his soldiers to join the battle. Pointing their guns forward, they marched forward as Gideon stood back, waiting.
Cole was still trying to blast the hell out of the agents that plagued him, and although his blasts were perfectly lethal, he was also a bit too slow to truly hit any of them. He groaned in anger. "Stop MOVING!"
As soon as Jessica found another opening, she came in for another attack, kicking him across the face before she once again tried to go to pull his mask off, but she was once again thrown off, hurling into some nearby desks. Further chaos arrived as they all heard gunfire, coming from the masked soldiers that just arrived. Dylan groaned in frustration as he briefly came out of hiding to fire at some of them.
Gideon inched closer and closer to the scene, while still keeping a safe distance, as Cole kept trying and failing to blast apart the agents, destroying more and more of the lab. As he remained distracted, Bridgett and Jessica both moved to take care of some of the soldiers, briefly dueling them to disarm them and knock them aside, but they too only had so much time to do so before Cole noticed them, firing more blasts in their direction. They dodged down the hall.
As Jessica slid down the hall closer to the Project Legion room, she turned to notice that the door was still open amid all the chaos. She looked back at Cole, who was closing in.
"You're the most annoying of them all, aren't you?" Cole asked, charging up another blast.
She kept dodging backwards as Cole continued to fire blasts at her, expertly avoiding each one as she was forced inside of Project Legion. As Gideon inched closer and closer, he too noticed the open Project Legion door, and where Jessica was leading him.
"Benson! Wait! Stop!" He rushed forward.
He was too late, however. As Jessica kept dodging each of his attacks, Cole further lost his temper, angrily ripping the precious room apart. He screamed loudly as tables and experimental surgical equipment were destroyed by his hand.
"BENSON! STOP!" Gideon shouted one last time.
At this point, Jessica was taking advantage of the situation, as she kept leaping around the room, guiding him to destroy everything that needed to be destroyed. Just a moment later, however, moreso by accident, one of Cole's powerful blasts was unleashed into the room with the tanks. Instantly, all of the tanks were shattered, covering the room with the green liquid, as all of Lydia's Tecca's clones were spilled out onto the floor.
In the aftermath, Cole paused as he watched on in bewilderment, finally realizing Jessica had just used him. Jessica, having been knocked to the floor by the blast, coughed a bit as she breathed in the smoke, slowly pushing herself up to look around the room. Project Legion, in its current state, was no more.
Gideon stared on in horror from outside the room, breathing heavily. So much of his work down here… wasted. So much of what he wanted for his new world… had been halted.
As he stared, however, a sudden moment of clarity fell over him… this wasn't the end. Although this was not the exact way he wanted to go… maybe, he realized, it was destined to go this way. Perhaps… there was simply nothing left to do down here. With his last contingency plan in mind, he suddenly turned and rushed back down the hall, unaware that Bridgett could see him run from her latest cover.
Jessica, meanwhile, leaned over to take a glimpse into the clones' room. Although some of the clones had been killed in the blast, most of them were stirring awake, cold and confused. None of them had any idea where they were… or what they were.
Wanting to help them, she slowly inched forward, before Cole came in for another attack, once again trying to blast her apart.
Gideon, after using his earpiece to tell all of his soldiers to fall back for his upcoming plan, ran down the hall, running through a couple rooms to grab essentials as the loud fight continued around Project Legion. He had grabbed most of the things he needed and entered the locked room with the cylindrical-shaped teleporter device, which he activated the power-on sequence for. He grabbed the last of his things and was about to get into it when-
"Stop where you are!" Bridgett was standing in the doorway, holding him at gunpoint.
He slowly turned to her. "…Lydia." He awkwardly chuckled. "…What a pleasant surprise."
"Shut up…" She cocked the weapon, fighting back tears. "Don't you dare think I won't shoot."
They fell into a painful silence as they stared at each other, with nothing but the distant battle outside to fill it. He knew full well, at this point, that she had seen Project Legion's contents. There was no longer any need to stretch the truth for her. Yet, he decided to let Bridgett get the first words in- He owed her that much.
Bridgett, herself, was struggling to find the words. "…You lied to me… about everything…"
"I did no such thin-"
She could no longer hold back her tears, breaking down right in front of him. "How much of what was in the Subgrid was pre-programmed!? Was any of it real? Were there any… small details that I could even call… a part of myself…?"
"...None of those memories were pre-programmed." He shook his head. "…The memories were real… just not… necessarily your own. They… belonged to the original Lydia Tecca. My daughter. Sondra's daughter. Her birth was the most real thing that's ever happened to me… it was as real as it can be. Her memories were still in you, somewhere deep inside, it's how the Subgrid was able to pull them out."
She listening intently to every word, crying further. "…Who… is she…?"
"...A while back, I sent her on a mission. Out to Axcia. To unite the galaxy. You've… technically already met her. She goes by the code-name Shadow…"
She stared at him as more realizations hit her. "…All the people around with the masks…"
"They're all Lydia Tecca. Some in male form, some with slight mutations, but… they're all… one. One family… all just as special as you."
She was shaking more and more. "…How dare you try and call me special…?"
He tilted his head slightly, his own eyes welling up. "…Dear Lydia… you are special. More than you know."
"I-I'm…" She could barely say the words. "…I'm not even real…"
"You are to me." He gave her a soft smile. "I just said that some of them had mutations, and you came out… a perfect clone. Perfect. More perfect than the others. You came out as an enhanced fighter, smart, courageous… pure in heart. It was pure perfection, it was like art. If my daughter Lydia hadn't grown spiteful and used you as a means to escape… you would've been our best. Instead, as I've seen… you went on to become the Splatoon's best. It's why I wanted to have you back."
Bridgett said nothing, just staring at him.
He stepped closer to her, now ignoring her weapon. "Please, Lydia… you are still my daughter. And I am still your father. Sondra is still your mother… and it kills me every day that I… couldn't save her in time. But I was fast enough to save my dear Lydia." He stepped closer still. "My grief for Sondra, and my love for you, all of you, is the reason you exist!" He reached his hand forward. "Please… join me. We will leave this mine behind… and we will face a new world… a new, united galaxy… together. As one."
But Bridgett was done listening. Suddenly, she fired a high-pressure shot directly into Gideon's shoulder, and he screamed loudly, throwing himself back against a table as he held his bleeding wound.
Bridgett stepped toward him, pointing her gun directly at his face. She was trembling, and her face was wet with tears, but it did nothing to hide the fury behind her eyes. "…You… used me…"
He looked right back at her, extremely disheartened. Now he almost seemed to be on the verge of crying himself. "…Lydia… I saw my future… it's… it's beautiful… and it's being forged-…" He grunted in pain. "…-out of love… A better future… for all Octarians… please… believe me…"
She didn't respond. Part of her, desperately, still wanted to believe him… part of her even wanted to go with him. But as she stood there, in that moment, thinking back to the life she did live… she remembered that her hearts had never truly lied down this path. They lied down another. "…I wanted to love you, too… but I already have a family… and we're gonna make our own future. Right after we stop yours…"
He gritted his teeth in pain. "…Lydia, please…"
She paused and turned back as she heard the battle outside start to draw closer to their location. Cole was coming for her. By the time she looked back, Gideon had already taken the opportunity to slip into the teleporter. "Hey!" She again aimed her weapon.
"I'm sorry, Lydia…" Gideon pressed what was clearly a detonator as the teleporter closed. She saw the light pour out from the cracks as it activated, whisking Gideon away.
With nothing left to do, Bridgett stared at the teleporter until it had fallen calm again, and she turned her attention back down the hall.
Indeed, at the moment Gideon had pressed the detonator, Cole's gauntlets had stopped working properly in the middle of their battle. Jessica, Dylan, Oliver, and Daniel all paused in confusion as they watched his gauntlets emit sparks instead of blasts.
"Grr…" Cole angrily slammed one of them. "Work!" Then, they started to heat up as he hunched over. "W-What the hell?" He tried to pull them off, to no avail. "Ah! Gahhhhh!"
Samantha, too, came out of hiding to watch, as Bridgett rushed to catch up with them. "Gideon escaped!" She announced to them.
Feeling the gauntlets and even his armor heat up more and more, to the point of burning him, Cole groaned in pain as he desperately fell to his knees, trying to strip himself. Unsuccessful, he turned to the agents. "H-… Help me!"
The agents all stared as smoke began to rise from him. Bridgett grabbed Oliver's arm. "We gotta go! This way! Now!" She said as she pulled them along. The agents all ran down the hall as Cole further doubled over.
"No! HELP ME! HELP ME!" Cole screamed after them, starting to cry in panic. "DON'T LEAVE ME- I'M SORRY! PLEASE, H-HELP ME! PLEASE! PLEASE!"
Bridgett led everyone back to Gideon's teleporter. She moved to turn it back on, but remained far too shaky to actually do it efficiently.
"Let me." Oliver instead went up to do it, setting it up with the same coordinates that Gideon just used. Given that it was just used, it worked slower than before, causing him to start panicking a bit. "C'mon, c'mon…" He hit the machine, starting to pry it open with his fingers. The others went to help him, as time for them outside began to run out. It started to open slightly.
Out in the hall, Cole was left screaming until finally, his suit detonated in a large, powerful explosion. Instantly, the entire lab began caving in, including the Project Legion labs with all of the new clones still inside. A further chain reaction rocked the entire mine, caving in all of the tunnels and even the cavern where the crystals had initially struck the Earth so long ago… Even as several of Gideon's soldiers and scientists had managed to escape, all of their former home was finally buried and left behind, now left to history.
The Ray
It didn't take Marina long to get to work on using the new crystal in her briefcase to boost the Ray's jumping systems. Marie and Pearl, in the meantime, took this time to treat their wounds that they had sustained from the recent battle.
As they worked, Callie was still in her room, restrained just where Marie had left her, as she generally made no attempts to escape outside of occasionally pulling on her cuffs.
Finally, after a little while, Marie opened the door to walk in and check on her. At first, neither of them said anything as they simply stared at each other. Marie slowly leaned her charger against the wall and silently took a seat.
"...Did you stop her?" Callie asked her after a few moments.
There was no point in even sugarcoating things at this point. Looking down in defeat, she shook her head no.
Callie curled up a bit, hugging her legs. "…So… they head to Earth now… To Inkopolis."
She looked at her, finally speaking up. "You know that much?"
She fell silent once again.
"...How much… do you know?"
She glanced to the side. "…I, uh… know that no matter how hard we try… we're going to lose…"
She shook her head. "You don't know that, Callie."
"Yes, I do." She suddenly spoke bluntly, looking directly at her. "…This is more than just… a chip in my head… I think…" She started tearing up. "I think people we care about are going to die… the crystal… showed me… I mean, it didn't show me… everything… but it showed me enough…"
Marie froze up a bit.
They fell into silence for a few moments as Callie again stared at nothing. She sniffed and wiped one of her tears. "…Maybe… we should just stay here… in the stars, I mean… We can… just stare into the stars for the rest of our lives… and none of us will get hurt…" She looked at her. "…That sounds… kinda nice… doesn't it?"
Marie stared back at her, then looked down. Part of it… did sound nice… but it was too late to even consider. A mere few moments later, as they sat there in silence, they felt the Ray shake, and an intense wooshing sensation came over them, as the Ray went through a more powerful jump than anything they had experienced yet. Callie looked around.
"Jump successful." Marina notified Marie over comms a moment later. "Need a backup pilot, Marie."
She sighed and pressed her earpiece. "On my way." She stood up and headed out, once again sealing Callie inside. Callie curled up into her previous position.
Marie headed up into the cockpit where Pearl and Marina already were, frantically working at their controls. Marie wasn't sure she believed what Callie was telling her. At the very least, she simply wasn't allowing it to sink in. As she came up to her own controls, looking out the window, she saw a relieving sight that she had dreamed about seeing for quite a while now: Right in front of them, just a short cosmic distance away, was the big, blue Earth, and its accompanying, welcoming Moon. Marina's estimations were correct. Finally, after all this time, a homely relief washed over her, almost as if she was seeing her childhood home again in adulthood.
They were home. Now, the question remained: Did they arrive in time for a fighting chance at saving it?