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Chapters (53)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
  16. 12
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. 15
  20. 16
  21. 17
  22. 18
  23. 19
  24. 20
  25. 21
  26. 22
  27. 23
  28. 24
  29. 25
  30. 26
  31. 27
  32. 28
  33. 29
  34. 30
  35. 31
  36. 32
  37. 33
  38. 34
  39. 35
  40. 36
  41. 37
  42. 38
  43. 39
  44. 40
  45. 41
  46. 42
  47. 43
  48. 44
  49. 45
  50. EPILOGUE
  51. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  52. About the Author
  53. What’s next onyour reading list?

She almost sent off a message to Edison, and then to Misato, but she stopped. They were in pain, too. A part of them was still human, and that part had to be grieving. Rosalyn stood and returned to the shower, standing under the hot water for a long time, wondering if she would ever speak to her parents again, or to Angela, or to anyone totally human.

But maybe that was all wrong. Maybe it was more important than ever to stick by Edison and Misato, to find in them the humanity that was left and nurture it like a fragile seedling growing in a storm. It would be hard, knowing that it might be over for them soon, but a voice inside her said simply: Fight back.

I can be your friend, she thought. Just don’t make me be your executioner.

33

Jenny had loved cults.

Aum Shinrikyo, Order of the Solar Temple, Heaven’s Gate, Dohring-Waugh, the Lighted Path, Scientology. The psychology of it fascinated her. Utter devotion in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence. Religion they both understood, if shakily, but cults were something different. Jenny sent Misato article after article, and snippets of video she found in the Musk Hall archives. Some of it was back in the days of film, and the grainy quality of the images added to the mystical allure.

“All these people thinking they’re going to, like, hop on a comet and sail to enlightenment. It’s bonkers, right? But you have to respect it.” Somehow, they always landed back on this topic. Jenny had been particularly animated that night, gesticulating wildly as she alternately guzzled wine and cola and wolfed down sushi. “But didn’t we kind of do the same thing? Earth is an afterthought now. We hopped on starships and flew to a totally new reality. Shit, I wasn’t even born on a planet. If I could go back in time and meet one of these people, they would think I was, like, Xenu or some shit.”

When the Dohring-Waugh fanatics hijacked a passenger ship and crashed it into the surface of Mars, Jenny was there to give Misato the play-by-play, even though every news stream covered it in painstaking detail. It hurt that Jenny couldn’t see how uncomfortable the coverage made her; the cultists had been convinced the Io colonies were going to become prisons, the colonists used as lab rats. The crash was their act of protest, or maybe they really thought they could somehow land on the surface of Mars with few supplies, no expertise and only sheer blind hope to save them.