| Generated by Google Flow text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 3.1 |
Silveon is depressed and missing his best friend. He doesn’t know what
Audrey is doing, or even if she’s okay. They can’t communicate. Just opening
up the mini-Nexus is a risk. It is the last thing that they want Captain
Kristiansen knowing about. He doesn’t regret his decision, breaking her out
of hock, and sending her away. It was the right thing to do. It’s still
hard, feeling like he’s all alone now. His mother’s gone, his father’s gone,
and now Audrey. They knew each other for over a hundred years, and fought
side by side for more than half as long. That is what makes it sad, but also
what makes it okay. A lot of people don’t get a partner nearly as fulfilling
as Audrey. It was great; it’s over now. He has no choice but to move on, and
keep himself occupied with the work.
He is still serving as the Captain’s personal steward, though their
relationship has transformed into a more professional dynamic, rather than
the friendship they started with. Silveon is losing his grip on Waldemar’s
ankle, which allows Waldemar to run off and start making his own choices.
Looking back, this was inevitable. He’s growing up and growing out of the
way he was before. That’s what everyone does, to some degree. Silveon
himself is no exception. He doesn’t want to give up, but there was only ever
so much he could do. Since they made the conscious decision not to kill him,
at some point, they have to accept the cards that they’ve been dealt. The
thing about this timeline, as it was in the first one, is that no one man
can take control over everything. The reason he was able to garner so much
support from the populace was that they gave it to him. That hasn’t changed.
He may be lying to them in a way, but they’re choosing to believe it.
If the crew and passengers don’t want things to fall apart, they have to
take responsibility over that. This is something that Silveon and Audrey
didn’t even think about. They thought it was all on them, but that’s too
much pressure. Just contemplating all of this now, Silveon is wondering if
sending Aud to go find her own happiness is exactly what he should do too.
He has no plans to travel to Verdemus, but does he really need to be a
steward, or Waldemar’s steward? Has he not done enough, in all this time?
He’s so exhausted. A part of him thinks that anyone else would have walked
away by now. Again, it was never all on them. There was another possible way
to tackle this problem, by formulating a resistance early on, and being
truthfully vocal about Waldemar’s destiny. They elected not to do it that
way, and the opportunity has passed him by now, but it would have been a
hell of a lot less work, in the end.
“Hey.” It’s Sable. They can’t trust her anymore. Or rather, he should say
that he can’t, because now there’s no one left. Lataran is old, and like his
parents before, genuinely does need to be able to take a step back. Sable is
just weird, and she has her own agenda. “I just wanted to check on you. It’s
been a long time since we’ve spoken.”
“Nothing to speak about,” he replies. He didn’t tell her where Audrey was.
He opted to not even come up with a cover story. She just disappeared, and
it’s an unsolved mystery. Waldemar came up with his own cover about her
wanting to step out of the spotlight, so to anyone else on Extremus thinking
about it, she’s somewhere around here at all times, just not where any given
person happens to be looking at the moment.
She sighs. “I know that you and I were never really close, and we’ve lost a
lot of trust, but I’m still on your side. I hope you know that. And to prove
it, I’ll show you what I’ve been working on.” She acts like she’s going to
access an auxiliary interface, but suddenly pulls a gun out of her pocket
and shoots Silveon on the right side of his chest.
As he’s bleeding out, he sees Sable split in two. One version of her lifts
her hands up, and gradually pulls them towards her shoulders. The bullet
flies out of Silveon’s chest, and back into the gun as the wound seals
itself up. The two versions of her then remerge into one. She has just
somehow reversed time, and also entropy. He still remembers the pain,
though. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
“I couldn’t always,” Sable explains. “It’s not all I can do either. The rest
of your support system is gone. Not only do I know that you sent Audrey to
Verdemus, but I also know that she’s dead. I can take you to the funeral
without anyone knowing. We can walk right up there, and then basically trim
that whole span of time out of the ship’s collective knowledge, replacing it
with something more mundane. But you have to trust me, and you have to let
me in. This is the last time I ask you. I will never be on Waldemar’s side,
but if you don’t agree to me being your new partner right now, I won’t be on
yours anymore either. I am sorry it had to come to this.”
Silveon looks at her for a moment while he massages his chest. “Fine.”
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