There was something about flying cars that made it easier for Ship to think.

Ship couldn’t decide whether it was because, first and foremost, he was a spacecraft. He was engineered to fly through space, tracking and monitoring multiple things at once. He was a ship.

Ship thought about how best to describe the ride they were traveling in. A car undersold just how big a machine he was controlling. Even an RV made it sound small. It was a house on wheels—or in this case, a house on wings, complete with offices for both Ship and Atlas, a lounge space, and a complete kitchen for entertaining.

He and Atlas were in a large flying vehicle traveling around inside the Rings of Titan. They were stopping in city after city looking for inspiration—inspiration for a weapon. But Ship knew they were also there to meditate and figure out whether Atlas wanted to build a weapon.

Traveling around Icarus’s world was a way for Atlas to escape. He wasn’t worshipped, or even followed, on this planet, unlike what would have happened if they’d visited the planet they’d created together.

“We’ve officially hit the halfway point,” Ship said, pointing to a map on the wall showing an image of the Rings of Titan. They were traveling through one of the lesser-populated sections of the ring.

“You know it would have taken us only forty-five hours to travel around Earth at this speed,” Atlas said. “But this ring is so big it’s going to take us over nine days to complete the trip.”

They’d been flying nonstop around the ring for five days now, only occasionally stopping at one of the cities that interested them. The Rings of Titan was an artificial rotating habitat around one of the gas giants in the system called Titan. It was one continuous tube that circled the entire planet.

Once Icarus had completed the ring, his people had gone about removing the walls blocking off each section of the ring. This came with a slight increase in risk, since any leak in the structure could no longer be contained to a single section, but it came with the joy of being able to travel around the entire planet without stopping, which the people of the planet reported gave them a greater sense of openness.

The people of Titan had constructed a number of mountain ranges on the rings, which when combined with the centrifugal force would act as a barrier slowing down, but not quite stopping, the atmosphere from escaping in the event of some sort of catastrophe.

“It’s better than traveling around Earth,” Ship said.

“I agree. Earth is just water. Even our planet, Neuropa, is mostly water. They’ve done a great job at making each section of the ring different. It’s like traveling through a piece of artwork.”

Ship nodded in agreement because he’d enjoyed watching the landscape change and evolve as they slowly made their way around the world. “It’s become a rite of passage here now. They’re turning it into something everyone needs to complete. It’s driving a lot more people out of the simulation and into android bodies for the trip.”

They were now traveling over a field of purple grass. It was winter on this part of the planet, and the grass here was genetically engineered to look this color when it was cold.

Ship saw farmland up ahead.

“Can we pull into that eatery there?” Atlas asked, pointing down toward one of the billboards. The sign read, LAST FOOD STOP FOR EIGHT HOURS.

“You want to have a chat with some of the locals?” Ship asked.

Atlas was treating this not only as a trip to find himself. He was also interested in talking to random people. Ship knew he was secretly interviewing people. He wanted to understand what people really thought about the potential for a fight against the Atua. He was trying to figure out whether he should build a weapon.

Ship angled the flying RV toward a small parking lot. There were several vehicles all docked up there in the bay too. The sign obviously attracted a number of travelers.

They were in a gravel parking lot surrounding an old-looking building. It looked like something straight out of a Western film. The giant sign in front of the building read, ROXANNE’S DINER.

“There’s more people walking around this planet now that the filter virus isn’t around brainwashing them,” Atlas said as he stepped out of the RV.

Ship stepped out too. “They still have more simulants than living humans. They have more usable land on Titan than Neuropa, but Neuropa has more living humans.”

The two of them began walking toward the front door of the eatery.

The door opened with a ding of a bell.

A lady behind the counter with a white apron on holding a pot of coffee smiled at them warmly as they entered. “Take a seat anywhere, darling. I’ll be with you in a sec,” she called out before she began serving another customer.

Ship wasn’t sure whether the lady put on that accent or not because she sounded like a cliché version of what all servers at small restaurants in the middle of nowhere sounded like.

Ship and Atlas walked over to one of the booths in the very corner. Everyone was gathered together at one end of the eatery, so it made sense to continue that trend and take the next free booth close to everyone else.

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Ship went to pick up the menu but decided he’d do what he always did and ask for a recommendation. That way he always got to try what was most popular.

Atlas looked up from behind the menu. “So this weapon. Do you think it’s a good idea?”

Ship had spent most of the last five days thinking about this very question, whether he should or shouldn’t encourage Atlas to build a weapon. The trouble was he was programmed to protect Atlas. He had a deep desire to do just that. And so the very idea that there was a potential threat out there clouded his judgment.

One thing he did know for certain though was he wanted something else that he believed was better than a weapon. “What about building some kind of defense? Is there a way to turn the stealthfield that Angelique created into some sort of impenetrable shield?”

“The problem with a forcefield or any sort of defense like that is there’s always a way around it. You don’t build a wall thinking it’ll deter people from trying to attack you. A gun is what stops people from attacking you.”

On some level, Ship knew Atlas was right. The reason World War II on Earth had ended was because of the risk of one of the countries being hit with a nuclear bomb. “Can we create a scenario where both we and the Atua can’t fight each other without the risk of mutually assured destruction?”

Atlas began to bite his lower lip as he thought about it. “Maybe,” he said before pausing and thinking it over for a while. “Hypothetically the only way to create mutually assured destruction would be if we found a way to explode the supermassive black hole in the middle of the galaxy. If we did that, we would bathe the whole Milky Way in radiation and kill everything. But I don’t think that’s technically or ethically possible.”

“What about a star? Could we send a nearby star supernova?”

“Um, maybe. Most of the energy from a supernova shoots out of the poles. It creates these massive jets of energy. If we could control where these jets were pointed and shoot them at the Atua planet, we could sterilize the system like that.”

“What’s this you’re talking about sterilizing?” The lady from behind the counter came over to take their order. “I’ll have you know I cleaned these tables myself. If you think they’re not clean enough, you can leave.”

Atlas went slightly red with embarrassment. “Sorry, we were talking about something else.”

She slapped him on the arm. “I’m just kidding you, darling. My name’s Roxy. I’ll be your server for today. So, what are y’all having?”

“Can I have the fish and chips?” Atlas asked.

The lady looked at Ship. “What do you recommend?”

“You look like a man who enjoys a good steak. I’m going to get you a steak, and both of y’all are going to get a beer.” She pointed to Atlas. “He looks like he needs one.”

“That’s just his face,” Ship said. “He bites his lip when he’s thinking.”

Atlas looked sheepish. He quickly unsquashed his face and smiled at the lady.

She wasn’t wrong though. Atlas had been a bit stressed lately trying to deal with the conflict around building a weapon.

Atlas gained his composure. “Can I ask you a question?”

The lady placed a hand on Atlas’s arm. “For you, honey, anything.”

Ship decided he liked this over-the-top impression of a waitress at a diner.

“Do you know about the Atua?” Atlas asked the lady.

“The aliens that destroyed the Starnet?”

Atlas nodded. “Are you worried about them coming back?”

“I’m not too worried about that side of things. I think they destroyed it because someone back on Earth did something to upset them. I figure they’ll ignore us if we leave them alone.”

“So you’re not worried about them attacking us again?”

“They won’t attack us. The universe is big enough that I’m sure they have other things to concern themselves with. We’re just a tiny planet. I think they’re more likely to attack Earth—they’re the ones that started this.”

“If they attack Earth, we’ll be forced to defend them,” Atlas said rather forcefully.

Roxy looked at him strangely. “Why? If the stupid humans back on Earth got themselves into some kind of mess, they can get themselves out.”

Ship wondered if she didn’t worry about any of this stuff because it didn’t affect her or if she just wasn’t aware of the risk the aliens posed. He decided to ask a question that might shed light on that. “Have you thought about what you would do if an alien showed up tomorrow?”

“Probably serve them coffee,” she said with a smile. “I’m a nobody from the middle of nowhere. Why would they care about me? I’m sure they have enough other people to care about rather than to wonder about what I’m doing. There’s a billion …” She trailed off as she spoke. “Do you know something that I don’t know?” Then she paused, studying the two of them for a good while. “I thought you two looked familiar. You’re Atlas, and you’re Ship. If we’re in trouble, you better tell me now so I can head home and go be with my kids.”

Atlas shook his head. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’m just asking hypotheticals.”

She noticeably relaxed at that statement. “If you’re asking me what would I do if they attacked us here, then yes, I’d want to run and hide. But still, I don’t understand why they’d want to hurt all this innocent life. We’re just ordinary folk.”

Roxy’s face was noticeably more tense after that brief exchange. She stepped back from the table, and in an instant her demeanor returned to its normal bubbly self. “I’ll get those orders put through and be back with some food quicker than you can reach the other side of the ring.”

Ship waited for her to leave. He wasn’t sure whether she’d helped or not.

“That was good, asking everyday people,” Atlas said. “They aren’t as obsessed about this as we are.”

“Did she give you any clarity?”

“She did. She made me realize I don’t want to build a weapon. Even if we get into a war with them, I don’t want something that can potentially hurt the ordinary aliens on their planets, the people like this waitress we met. It’s just not worth punishing them for a decision their leaders made. Imagine building something with destructive power that was used. I don’t think I could live with myself.”

Ship raised an eyebrow because that wasn’t the direction he’d thought Atlas would eventually end up going. He’d assumed Atlas would eventually build something. He’d assumed he’d put in some safety measures to prevent it from being used unless absolutely necessary. “I thought you said the best defense is a strong deterrent.”

“I’m going to put my time into building a better wall. A better forcefield. I’m going to make it so it’s not worth attacking us because whatever I build is so obviously impenetrable that they don’t even bother.”

“What if we could trap them on their planet?” Ship asked. “What if we had a device that, when activated, slowed down time so much around a planet that we experienced hundreds of thousands of years before they get out?”

“What do you mean?”

“Time moves slower near a black hole, correct?”

Atlas nodded.

“Can we launch a black hole at a system and use the time-dilating effects of gravity to slow down their time so much that they race into the future?”

Atlas began thinking deeply. “How is that even possible?”

Ship could tell Atlas was trying not to bite his lower lip.

Ship shrugged. “I don’t know. I was hoping you had an idea.”

Atlas opened his mouth to talk. He paused. He closed it again. He started to bite his lower lip, and Ship saw a glimmer in his eye.

Ship knew his brain was beginning to work, coming up with possibilities.