I had not given much thought to how I was going to get back, the small craft I slipped to Eiso in was barely large enough for just myself, much less the two of us, even if one of us was in pieces. I just barely was able to fit the silvery lumps containing the pieces of Evelyn into the small compartment meant to store the emergency pack, containing a stripped down Atmos suit, oxygen, rations, and a communications device meant to act as a distress signal should it ever be needed. To do so, I had to empty out the compartment and leave the emergency supplies behind, just more debris to add to the graveyard of a port. The pieces of Evelyn safely tucked away, I climb up and into the cockpit and start the liftoff process. The almost inaudible hum that was before the only indication of what might be keeping the craft afloat above the ground rises in frequency and volume and we begin to slowly lift away from the flat concrete of the port and soon after we are rocketing away from the little grey and green marble that is Eiso.

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The magnitude of the Sequel Megalith spread before me in an instant is a stark and physical reminder of the enormity of the task at hand. To dismantle Sequel, a comparison could be made to trying to kill a man, one single cell at a time. Is Evelyn’s suggestion that Sequel is the root of our problems even an accurate proposition? A broad sweeping generalization for sure, to cast all of Sequel in such a dire light. To imagine that whole systems, billions and billions of people all under the umbrella of Sequel Corp. to be all nothing but a blight would be unreasonable and cruel in its own right. But, to assume that there are bad apples in the leadership is not unreasonable, and I bet that in starting with whoever has handled my assignment these past years would not be a bad place to start looking.

I let the onboard AI handle the complicated docking procedure. When the craft comes to a stop within the hanger I unbuckle and exit the cockpit. ‘Communicate to the council that we’ve done it. We’re going home,’ I comm.