EPILOGUE TO ACT IV: THE MYSTERY OF CAITLIN’S COMET (PART FOUR)
The four clones sat quietly in their seats, the hum of the retro spacer filling the silence. Amberlee, Molly-Cat, Ambercat, and Molly-Lee had taken their positions at the helm, manning the necessary controls. It was an old ship, but functional—repaired and radiation-free after their efforts back at the spaceport. As the weight of their decision began to settle in, they couldn't shake the guilt of having left behind their robots. But the truth was simple: the weight had been too much. They'd had mere seconds to grab the NPU’s and take off again before the situation grew even more perilous. They were lucky to even have stumbled across Zeus’ Punos M body at all.
Amberlee glanced at the collection of NPU’s near her seat—Zeus, Freddy, Kurli, Dave, and the Kline brothers—all safely stowed away. The soft glow of their life status LEDs offered some comfort. A soft blue hue filled the cabin, reminding them that despite everything, they hadn’t truly left any of the six of them behind.
Huis Hohenzollern, slumped in a corner of the ship, tried to make himself as invisible as possible. The girls exchanged glances, the tension in their expressions clear. Huis was a problem, a constant reminder of everything that had gone wrong. But none of them had the heart to kill him. They weren’t murderers, not unless it was necessary. Still, they weren’t going to let him off that easily.
“You still haven’t told us why Shin blew up your ship,” Amberlee finally said, her voice sharp.
Huis shifted uncomfortably before answering, “She… she was trying to kill Shephatiah. Stole my bracelet. Destroyed everything.” He played the footage again on his AVP, trying to shift the blame to Shin Hajime. “I don’t know why. She never told me why.”
The clones stared at the projection, not fully trusting the narrative Huis was spinning. But there was no time to dissect it further. Outside, Ambercat’s gaze was locked on something beyond the glass.
“Look,” Ambercat said, pointing toward the horizon.
Hovering ominously above the comet, the black UFO craft was finally moving. It was leaving.
“Must’ve gotten what he wanted,” Molly-Lee said bitterly, watching as Van Schmidt’s ship quietly departed from the chaos below. “Bastard.”
Below them, the comet mine was in ruins. The Hohenzollern Excelsior continued to explode, tearing itself apart in a series of violent bursts. The destruction stretched from horizon to horizon, casting a glowing orange and silver scar across the comet’s surface. But from up here, from the safety of the spacer, they could only watch as the devastation unfolded.
“What are we still doing here?” Huis asked, a note of desperation creeping into his voice. “We need to leave before it’s too late.”
The girls ignored him, continuing their orbit around the comet. Molly-Lee had her eyes peeled for something specific, something she'd been hoping to spot.
“There,” she said, her finger pressing against the glass as she spotted it. The others followed her gaze, and there it was—God Love Omega’s Tarântula, trapped within the floating debris.
“We missed it,” Ambercat groaned, realizing how close they had been to it earlier. “We should have turned back.”
Amberlee gave a quiet nod, but her expression remained calm. “We’ve got it now. Let’s bring him home.”
The retro spacer navigated carefully through the dense, fiery debris as the ruins of the comet’s surface smoldered below them. The clones watched as the vast Dyson tree forests had begun to burn, their once-pristine branches now alight, signaling the imminent collapse of the atmosphere. Amberlee’s eyes were fixed ahead, noticing something glinting in the distance among the twisted wreckage of God Love Omega’s Tarântula. She squinted, making out a golden glister amid the wreckage.
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As they neared the Tarântula, Molly-Cat swiftly moved to man the airlock, preparing to open the doors as the fiery, suffocating atmosphere outside threatened to spill in. The airlock slid open with a sharp hiss, the heat and ash of the scorched landscape flooding the ship’s interior. The oppressive air filled their lungs, making each breath a struggle, but they pressed forward, undeterred.
There, on the wreckage of God Love Omega’s ruined machine, sat a girl clad in a mangled spacesuit, a golden medallion hanging around her neck. The shadows obscured her face, but it was clear that she was clutching something in her gloved hands—an NPU cylinder.
Amberlee and Molly-Cat wasted no time, rushing to the airlock’s edge, calling out to the figure, but the girl remained motionless. The heat and chaos around them grew worse by the second. Amberlee cursed under her breath. "Fuck it," she muttered, and without hesitation, she leapt from the ship’s hatch and onto the floating debris where the girl sat.
Landing on the crumpled metal of the Tarântula, Amberlee’s movements were fast and deliberate. She crouched down, shaking the girl’s boot, but there was no response. Leaning in closer, she placed her ear against the girl’s chest, listening for any sign of life. A faint, rhythmic heartbeat met her ears, but then something else—a loud, gurgling sound from her stomach. Amberlee blinked in surprise, her face drawing closer to the helmet.
Through the slight condensation forming on the inside of the helmet’s visor, she saw the familiar face of Shin Hajime. Though unconscious, she was breathing—barely. Amberlee’s pulse quickened. Dehydration, she thought, or worse. She didn’t know exactly what had happened to Shin, but it was clear that the girl was on the verge of death.
What followed was a blur of coordinated action as the four clones moved swiftly to rescue Shin Hajime. Molly-Lee and Ambercat maneuvered the ship into position while Molly-Cat pulled Shin Hajime’s limp form onto the ship. God Love Omega’s NPU was retrieved from her grip as the airlock sealed shut behind them.
In the makeshift medical bay aboard the ship, Shin Hajime was laid out on a cot, her spacesuit peeled back to reveal her pallid skin. The girls worked methodically, administering water and calorie pips, restoring her strength with whatever medical supplies they could find. Though the ship’s med kit was lacking in some essentials, like radiation tablets, it had enough to stabilize her.
Amberlee monitored her vitals, feeling the tension in the room ease slightly as Shin Hajime’s breathing began to steady. Her eyelids fluttered as she stirred, still teetering on the edge of consciousness but no longer in immediate danger. The retro spacer hummed gently beneath them as they set a course away from the burning comet, with Shin Hajime safe aboard and God Love Omega’s NPU secured among the glowing collection.
Shin Hajime stirred as Amberlee and Molly-Cat hovered nearby, their faces etched with concern. The ship's interior was dim, and the soft hum of its systems filled the air. Shin’s eyelids fluttered open, blinking into focus the faces of the quadruplets around her. She felt weak, her mouth dry, and her limbs still heavy with fatigue.
Amberlee, kneeling beside her, sighed deeply, guilt weighing her voice. "If I’d let you eat those ramen noodles earlier, this might not have happened. You wouldn’t have crashed like this."
Molly-Cat’s voice joined in, softer but equally anxious. “What the hell happened back there?”
Shin Hajime blinked, apparently gathering her thoughts before she could respond. Her body looked like it ached, and it was likely the lingering exhaustion made it hard for her to think straight. Finally, she managed to answer in a flat, slightly amused tone.
“Something stupid.”
The clones exchanged glances, clearly unsatisfied with the brief reply, but for now, it would have to do. Shin Hajime closed her eyes again, letting the weight of the situation wash over her as they quietly continued to fuss around her.
Shin Hajime blinked twice as the question hung in the air, her gaze drifting lazily from one clone to the next. "Why destroy the Hohenzollern Excelsior?" Ambercat asked, but there was no edge to her voice, only curiosity. The others waited, expecting an explanation.
Shin Hajime took a breath, shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. I stand by it.”
Amberlee’s brow furrowed, but before she could press further, Molly-Lee, ever the one to probe, leaned in slightly. "Did you kill Shephatiah?"
Shin Hajime’s gaze sharpened. “No,” she replied firmly. Her hand lazily gestured toward the NPU of God Love Omega, sitting in its cradle. “He did.”
There was a pause before Huis, sitting awkwardly in the corner, burst into a flood of tears. He clutched at his head, weeping, gasping between sobs. "She’s dead? She’s really dead?" His voice was trembling with elation.
"Shut the fuck up," Ambercat snapped. "Go cry in the bathroom."
All four clones glanced at each other, shaking their heads as Huis scrambled away, still sniveling. Ambercat turned back to Shin Hajime with a crooked grin. “Doesn’t seem like you’re too keen on giving us any answers.”
Shin Hajime, with a sly smile, nodded. "Nope. It was just... stupid."