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Chapter Text

Joseph Cooper stared out the window of Cooper Station. An O'Neill Cylinder, named for his daughter. His daughter, who had fought death by inches for so long that she had to hit pause for the chance to see him again.

"Sir?"

Coop turned. His shadow was there. More of a tour guide than an Administrator; but the man had been staying in his shadow since he'd woken up. Coop wasn't sure what they were worried about.

"The transfer went well." The Administrator said. "Your daughter is in Medbay now, currently being revived. The family has asked that that happen slowly. It's less traumatic on the patient, and it gives them a chance to... assemble."

"Assemble who?"

"Well, the rest of her grandkids. She's been in suspension a while, and... Well, she's  The  Murph Cooper. Half her grandkids are in high schools named after her on the Colony Stations."

Coop felt a rush of pride go through him again. "I guess that's not something you'd want them to miss."

He held up a box. "This also came on the shuttle. It's for you."

Coop looked at the box and opened it. It was a stack of faded, leatherbound journals. He picked one up and turned to the first page. "Murph's journals?"

The kid nodded.

"I don't know if I feel right about reading this."

"Well, you should know, it has been published. Edited, a bit; but it's been on the bestseller list for a long time. The original would be worth a fortune... And it's not from her." The kid offered. "It's actually from her late best friend, Ellie Marx. She left it to you in her will, left with specific instructions that it be delivered to you on the recovery of the Endurance." The Administrator grinned. "They expected to hold it in a safe deposit box forever."

Cooper was left alone then, and he sat down, reading the first journal. Professor Brand had taken it upon himself to tutor Murph before her suspension from Public School ended. Murph spent five days a week in Lazarus Base...

It was the weekend, and she was meant to be home by now, but the dust storms made travel too dangerous, so Murph had to wait it out.

"Hi, Ellie." Murph said as she came into the Cafeteria. It was empty.

"Hey, kid." Ellie waved. "So, I'm designated adult until morning. What shall we do?"

The eleven year old looked over at the counters. "Where is everyone?"

"At the…" Ellie thought for a moment. "The Dance. They hold one every Friday night."

"Of course, when I'm not here." Murph smiled. "My old school had to cancel their last dance because someone spiked the punch."

Ellie winced. "Right. This Dance is… um, eighteen and older. Because we always spike the punch. With vodka. And it isn't so much fruit punch as it is… more Vodka. So we can't really invite kids your age."

"There are only two kids my age on the Base. There's Me and Getty; and then there's a dozen in the nursery." Murph pointed out, and gestured at the serving line. "So if all the grown ups are at the Dance, I guess I can help myself?"

"Sure." Ellie said. "Getty beat you to the jello."

Murph checked. "Argh! Every time!" She gestured. "He took all of it?"

"No, but it's Friday Night." Ellie said whimsically. "Jello shots are a basic food group at these parties."

"What's a jello shot?" Murph asked.

"I probably shouldn't tell you this, but you know how they used to add fruit to jello and such? Well, Jello Shots are where we add… Well…"

"More Vodka." Murph said it with her, and the ten year old ran a hand through her hair. "I'm starting to detect a pattern."

"You know how high the stakes are, kid. We kind of need to go crazy once a week. It's how we all work so hard the other six and a half days."

"Yeah, I get that. Even the smart kids like recess." Murph nodded and pulled her books out. "I have homework. You can go to the party."

Ellie shook her head. "I promised the Professor."

"Ellie, I'm supposed to be at home for the weekend. The Dust Storms made you my babysitter." Murph told her. "Back home, my dad let me drive the rotary tractor when there's nobody else; I can sit in a quiet cafeteria and do my homework."

Ellie checked the books. "Whew. Well, those will keep you occupied long enough, I guess."

Pause.

"Thank you." Murph said quietly. "You're the only person other than my dad who hasn't told me that the titles are 'too smart' for a girl my age."

"Murph." Ellie said seriously. "At the turn of the last century; almost two thirds of 4th grade girls say they like Science and Math but only 18% of engineering Majors were female. Even in the days when 'educated' wasn't a dirty word; ten years was all it took for young women to somehow be convinced they aren't interested. Here at Lazarus? It's nearly a fifty-fifty split. We're putting together the next generation of the human race. You think we pick dumb girls for that?"

Murph actually found herself tearing up. "It was five months ago my teacher suspended me for arguing about whether or not the Moon Landings were real. Grandpa told me to just do as my teachers said, because it wasn't worth fighting about."

"Then you may have found yourself a proper home here." Ellie said gently.

Murph looked at Ellie sideways. "Y'know, you're really nice."

"Why, thank you."

"And my dad's single. When he gets back from wherever you launched him to, my Grandpa would want me to introduce you."

Ellie laughed at that, long and loud.

Murph collected a cup of pudding. "Go to the Dance. I can look after myself for a while."

Ellie bit her lip. "It… would be for only an hour or two…"

The doors to the cafeteria opened suddenly, and in came two of the engineers that Murph recognized. One male, one female. Both mostly naked, shuffling into the room while they made out, and one of them wearing tinsel in their hair.

"Peter, Amy; get outta here!" Ellie snapped.

The two intruders suddenly noticed the nonplussed little kid, and Amy dove under a table, covering herself up. "I thought you were keeping an eye on her tonight."

"I am." Ellie snapped. "I don't know if you noticed, but this is the cafeteria."

"Of course we noticed!" Peter slurred. "We came for jello."

"Getty got the last of it." Murph volunteered. "There's pudding?"

"Pudding could work." Amy called from her hiding place.

"Murph, take your books and go watch a movie." Ellie sighed, giving up. "Don't go past the Rec Room; and ignore any sounds you hear coming from closets."

Murph went to the Theatre. The Base had its own movie theatre, with seats for about forty people. Getty was there. He was the only one in the Base near her age, getting lessons of his own in medical. The two of them had semi-adopted each other.

Murph came in and glanced at the screen. "The Martian again?"

Getty shrugged. "It's a classic."

"You just say that because you've got a crush on Commander Lewis."

Getty pulled a face at her as only a twelve year old boy could. "Anyway, it's the only thing on the list. Everyone else is off at The Dance."

"Yeah, so it seems." Murph drawled. "Gimme that jello. Why'd you take three bowls?"

Getty handed her a bowl. "I don't know how, anyway."

"To dance?" Murph was surprised. "My mom taught me. Said dad was a lousy dancer, and she-" -wanted to teach me before she died.

Getty shrugged, and Murph suddenly understood that Getty had no idea who his mother was. His father was off-Base, struggling with health problems. Getty had been brought in, away from a series of Foster-Places who needed that ration cards, rescued by a friend of the family. Murph had seen other kids in the Base, most of them needed daycare. Murph and Getty had tutors; five days a week.

Murph ate a bite of jello. "Gets?" She said quietly; the first time she had ever called him by the nickname she had given him in her head. "You got the extra jello for me, didn't you?"

Getty shrugged. "It's Dance Night. Back in Foster Care, they always dump the kids in front of the TV when they want to go 'adult' by themselves. I wasn't sure you were still on the Base, but I figured we'd end up here."

The movie was getting to one of the scenes with loud disco music, and despite herself, Murph started moving along with it. Getty started giggling at her, and Murph promptly pulled him to his feet. "Come on! Like this!"

Reading the journal, Cooper flushed. The wild Doomsday parties that kept the Lazarus Personnel from surrendering to total despair had not been public knowledge, and he was somewhere between grateful that they'd kept his daughter away from it, and mortified that they'd done so badly.

The first journal ended there, and the next one along chronologically wasn't in the stack that had been left for him. The second journal picked up the narrative picked up years later, when Getty had been away at college.

Murph had finished her regular schooling a full three years ahead of the norm, under the exacting standards of Professor Brand. She had a doctorate by seventeen.

Cooper noted some of Murph's comments about the old man that had raised his daughter with lies, and felt an odd desire to forgive him. It was clear how highly the old man regarded his daughter, and even Murph could detect the guilt.

"Guilt about what?" Ellie asked her carefully.

"I don't know." Murph admitted. "But I see it every time my brother comes in here to send a message. It gets worse every time the anniversary comes up."

"Well, there it is then." Ellie told her briskly. "The Professor feels bad about convincing your father to take on the mission. When we lost contact with Endurance, he felt bad."

"Mm." Murph went quiet. "I don't know why. It was my dad's call to leave. If I couldn't talk him into staying, why should I blame Brand for talking him into going?"

Ellie tried to approach the matter tactfully. "Your brother still here?"

"Went home an hour ago, once the message was done."

"What about you?"

Murph glared at her. "You know I don't send messages to Endurance. It's been too long, and there's nothing to say anymore. Besides, we aren't even picking up the repeater pulse anymore. I got better things to do than scream into the wind. Or the vacuum, to be precise."

"Murph, I know better than to touch that particular raw nerve. Your father's been gone for eight years; and if you want to keep kicking his ass over it, I can't stop you." Ellie held her hands up instantly. "What I meant was: Your brother. Have you been back home since the Funeral? Or the Wedding, even?"

Murph shook her head. "Look, Ellie; I get that you're the Counselor for the Base, but I have to go talk to children in a few minutes, so can we not rub salt in that particular wound just now?"

"Certainly." Ellie nodded. "You've cancelled your last three regular appointments. You want to actually meet me for the next one?"

Murph set her jaw, but couldn't really be mad. "I liked you more when you were sneaking me jello shots."

"Someone had to be the big sister around here. Certainly Brand wasn't going to be much help when you needed Tampons for the first time."

"And my grandfather was notably grateful that you handled that one; may he rest in peace." Murph agreed. "Fine. Make the appointment. Tonight?"

"You know where to find me."

"Does your brother know, about the Doomsday Clock?" Ellie asked later, in session. Everyone on the Base had mandatory sessions with the Base Counselor.

Murph shook her head. "I told him when Jesse died. Hard to tell if he believed me. I tried telling him about Plan A. He wouldn't accept it. Told me I was clinging to straws."

"What do you mean?"

"He thinks that I'm so pissed at dad for leaving, that I drank the kool-aid." Murph explained. "He figures the same thing everyone outside this Base figures: That it'll be close, but we'll get there. Y'know, the 'Caretaker Generation' bit. Grandpa told him that was true, so did everyone who got in front of a camera or a microphone."

"It's hard to justify a big secret when you don't include people." Ellie reminded her. "But why does he think your belief is because of your father?"

"Because, if the world was ending, and my father was the last chance to save it, that means I have to forgive him for leaving." Murph sighed. "I'm not so sure that's true. Tom is of the opinion that dad will be back, and he'll need the farm taken care of when he gets here."

"And you?"

"I don't know. We should have heard back from him by now." Murph sighed. "Things happen, out in space… I'm not so sure he's coming back. But I do know him, and the fact is: If he did come back today, he wouldn't give a damn about the farm. He hated farming."

"What did he love?"

"He got what he loved." Murph said, and there was a touch of bitterness that she couldn't pretend away. "Maybe it is a comforting lie, but Tom doesn't even have that. I try not to judge him for following the same path he has since he was fourteen. It's a little like watching a hamster on a treadmill. He'll never get anywhere."

"Murph, do you ever wonder if you're doing the same?" Ellie said delicately.

"With or without a new planet, the Stations can get us free of Earth before she dies." Murph told Ellie. "If Brand and I can crack that, then we can do anything."

"Does Getty agree?"

"What's he got to do with anything?" Murph was surprised by the question.

"Because he was your best friend in this place, and I don't believe you've spoken to him since he left for college."

Murph hesitated. She didn't want to lie, but she knew the truth wouldn't be popular. "We've both been busy."

Ellie nodded. "Murph, I'm going to tell you something that I've been trying to say since you were about fourteen." She put her pad away. "Someone, and I don't know who; but someone along the way told you that you didn't deserve to be loved and wanted until the world was saved. And I think you believed them; which is why you're as obsessed with that equation as Tom is with the farm. Because if you can crack that, then the world is saved, and your dad can come home without any recriminations between you. Same reason Tom won't leave the farm. If he can make it work forever, then it was okay for your father to leave."

Murph bit her lip. "That 'someone'?" She said quietly. "You think it's my father, or Brand. And maybe it started that way, because my dad used the world ending to justify why he left, and The Professor used the same reason to justify why he won't ever see his daughter again."

"But you don't think that." Ellie observed. "So who was the 'someone' who convinced you that it was a sin to have a life before the work was done?"

Murph let out a breath. "Me."

The Friday Night Parties had created a dozen or so offspring over the years. Some of the Base Personnel had family somewhere outside, but most didn't want to send their kids out into the Dust Bowl. With so much to do, the children had been deemed 'community property' unofficially.

Murph wondered if it was the adults getting used to the idea of 'Plan B', with a bunch of larval humans being raised by a posse.

"Don't refer to them as 'larva', please." Ellie said patiently when Murph shared these thoughts. "You're their math teacher. Be gentle. The next 'you' could be in there."

"If you don't mind my asking, why did you ship Jaina off to your sister?" Murph asked. It was something she'd always wondered. "She'd be safer in here."

"I had reasons." Ellie told her, and presented her with a shiny red apple. "For you."

Murph's eyes bugged out. "Where did you find this?" She asked in awe.

"The Greenhouses. We were experimenting with orchard fruits, seeing if we could get one without needing a full size tree."

"Did you succeed?"

"Nope, but we have a miniature tree with only one fruit on it." She gestured at the apple in Murph's hand. "Be careful who sees you with it."

"Why me?"

"First day of school, you bring the teacher an apple."

"Well… If it's traditional." Murph shined the apple on her shirt for a moment. "Tell you what, come by later. I'll split it with you."

The kids were all raised by scientists, so they were fairly well read. But they all had the same handicap of being isolated from the rest of the world. They learned, but most of them were in wildly different places with regards to education, and interested in their parents' hobbies more than their work.

"I know what you're all thinking." Murph said patiently to the assembled children. "You're thinking 'Math and science is what my parents do all day, and that's boring'."

The kids giggled, half of them agreeing.

"But the point of math isn't to be smart, it's to figure out the universe. Last week, we covered the Golden Ratio, which is the math behind everything from a seashell, to the position of a leaves on a tree, to the arms of a spiral galaxy. What you kids haven't figured out yet is that everything else has an equation of one kind or another behind it too, and how they meet is what makes the whole of the universe work."

The kids were listening, but she was talking about concepts that were over their heads.

Murph sighed, and took on a more personal tone. "Look, math will help you figure out the universe. Figuring out yourselves, that's another thing. But on a very basic, lego-building-block level, everything that exists in you, or the universe you live in, is based on either math, or biology."

"Then why don't you have a Doctor co-teaching this class?" A familiar voice teased.

Murph spun. "Getty!" She yelped in excitement, them clapped a hand over her mouth as she realized that she'd let out a sound very much like a squeal.

He came in and gave her a tight hug, and she suddenly coughed. The dust was still thick on his jacket. He'd come straight to the classroom to see her. He hadn't even gone to decontamination yet.

Almost as if that was a reminder, Murph looked and noticed half a dozen assembled children watching attentively. She cleared her throat. "Kids, recess is early. Go have fun."

The class cheered and filed out of the room, leaving Murph and Getty alone together.

"You're home!" Murph said warmly and gave him a quick hug. "How long are you back?"

"Oh, I'm back for keeps." Getty told her. "I finished college early."

"And you're back here? I thought you were going to get posted out east somewhere…"

"Plans change." Getty said with a grin. "Well, for most people."

Murph flushed a bit. Her life plans hadn't changed a bit since he'd left.

Reading the last page of the second journal, Cooper smiled warmly, wondering if Murph knew it at that point. His reaction to his own wife had been much the same way. He hadn't expected, or tried to fall in love with her. He just found himself smiling automatically whenever she came into his line of sight.

Cooper checked the clock and found he'd spent three hours going through her life's story. He had no duties, exactly. They'd come and get him when his daughter was ready to receive visitors. As much as he wanted to be at her bedside, waiting for her every second, he knew firsthand how jarring a rushed emergence could be.

He had been told that these journals were left by Murph's best friend, Ellie. But as Cooper read through them, he knew that Murph had chosen which journals went into the box. His daughter had set these ones aside in particular for him to read.

The next one on the stack talked about things that he recognized. Things that involved him.

"What do you do all day, anyway?" Ellie asked one afternoon. "I mean, I know what you're doing, but how exactly do you do it?"

Murph didn't take her eyes off the chalkboards. "The equation is incomplete. When we get the thing finished, it'll program the machines do what we need them to do. But without a reference point, there's a huge number of variables; which is a question of altering the parameters, and making guesses. So I make one change, I run the equation, I get the result."

"You can't use a computer to do that?"

"A computer runs equations beginning to end and gets whatever's on the other side of the equals sign. Inventing those equations? That's the real math. Computers can't theorize on something that hasn't been discovered yet."

"So how do you know when you get closer?"

"I don't." Murph admitted. "That's why it's taking so long. Brand has narrowed it down quite a long way. The rest is just elimination and time." She rubbed her tired eyes. "A frame of reference would be a lot faster, though."

"Never a Rosetta Stone when you need one." Ellie rubbed her shoulder. "Anyway, we're getting drunk. Come with us, let your hair down."

"I'm working." Murph told her.

"You're always working." Ellie pointed out. "Take a few hours to recharge."

"By getting drunk?" Murph countered.

"Brand won't let you near the 'Dances' at all, no matter that you're a grown-ass woman now, so if you're gonna get your party on, you need a little help from your friends. Come play drinking games with us."

"Another time." Murph promised.

An hour later, Murph emerged from her thoughts as Getty came in and put a tray of food in front of her. The rations in the greenhouses made the Base mostly self sufficient with regards to food. Getty was the only one that never brought her corn; because he knew she liked it that way. Corn was just too much like the farm.

"So, I take it you're not going to the Dance?" Getty asked.

"Not really my scene."

"Mine either." Getty agreed.

Murph looked over. "No?" She smiled a little. "I notice you don't seem to date much." She gestured. "I have a reason, with Brand appointing himself my legal guardian. What's your excuse?"

"Right, I'm only a surgeon. What would I know about high stress work and unexpected hours?" Getty retorted.

"Sorry." Murph yawned.

Getty noticed the yawn. "I'm coming back for that tray in half an hour, and if you haven't eaten your greens, I'm telling Brand."

Murph smiled a bit, despite herself. "Thanks, mom." It was a running joke. Calling 'dad', even to mock him, would be too painful.

"And your cardio monitor says you haven't slept in twenty two hours. Get some rest after you eat." Getty told her.

He was halfway to the door when Murph spoke. "Gets, you wanna go to a party?"

Getty froze. "Really? Um, woah. Well, I gotta admit, I'd always hop-"

Murph rolled her eyes. "Not The Dance, dummy. Ellie's been trying to get me into her drinking circle for the last few months, and… I don't know, I'm just sleep deprived enough to think it's a good idea to get drunk with your therapist."

Getty smiled. "I'd love to."

"Great. Let me ask where it is."

Murph reached for her device, when Getty waved her down. "Don't bother. I know where she is. I'm the rest of her circle."

Murph twitched. "You and Ellie get drunk together often?"

"Not so far. You keep cancelling."

It was the three of them sitting on beanbag chairs, playing drinking games; with one of their phones hooked up to a speaker playing one playlist or another.

"Whoever's a shot ahead gets to pick the playlist." Ellie said. "So, what's our first game?"

"Um… Truth or Dare?" Getty guessed.

"Quarters?" Murph offered.

"Never Have I Ever?" Ellie suggested. "Flip a coin! The point is to start drinking!"

"You know you're the 'responsible adult' in this room, right?" Murph reminded her as she threw back her first shot.

"Check your license, Murph; you're legal now. And pass the bottle."

Murph did so, and pulled the apple out of her labcoat. "Get a knife, this is to be shared with friends." She directed. "And Ellie, at least one of us has to stay ahead of Gets. He likes Disco too much."

They killed off the first bottle after half an hour, and were feeling pretty buzzed. Getty went to get them another, and Murph looked to Ellie, who was a few drinks ahead of both of them. "It was your idea, wasn't it? To invite Getty to this thing. Just you, me, and him."

"Yup." Ellie agreed. "I'm-m the respopsicle adult, and you need a shhhap… a champer…"

"Chaperone." Murph supplied, and tilted the empty bottle back enough to try and get the last few drops. "There was a brief moment, when I asked him along to this little shindig, and he thought I was inviting him along to The Dance."

Ellie found that to be very funny.

"And here's the thing…" Murph said. "Just for a minute there, I think he was going to say yes."

"Murph, I don't know how to tell you this, but he isn't here playing drinking games tonight because of me." Ellie told her.

"I don't wanna fall in love, Ellie." Murph said, with the eternal wisdom of being young, half-plastered and sleep deprived all at once. "I know we talked about my issues in Session, but it just seems so… tragic, when we don't expect to be alive. And the thing is, everyone agrees with me. That's why they keep having those wild parties every week for all the years I've been here. They aren't romantic, or even fun. They're an R-Rated tranquilizer. That's, literally, the only standard that the smartest people alive bother to aim for. I don't know how you did it, having a daughter."

"Jaina is the very best thing that ever happened to me, possibly the best thing to ever happen in the history of the world. And I knew that, from the first moment I saw her looking up at me." Ellie slurred a bit. "Life goes on."

"And when it doesn't?"

"How is that different from any other day?" Ellie countered, and leaned back in her beanbag chair.

"How is Jaina, by the way?" Murph asked belatedly, realizing that she hadn't asked in quite a while.

Ellie didn't answer, head back, mouth open.

Getty came in a moment later, as Ellie started snoring. "Is she out?"

"Like a light." Murph agreed, and patted the other side of her chair. "Come, sit." Getty did so, and Murph took the bottle off him, before putting her feet up in his lap. "So, should we put her to bed, or keep drinking?"

Getty started rubbing her ankles, and put his own feet in her lap in return. "We should keep drinkin'."

"I agree." Murph poured for them both. "Okay, it's just us now. New game. Tell me something about you that I don't know."

Getty considered. "I never planned to be a Doctor." He told her. "I originally applied to study divinity, minored in Astronomy. Switched to pre-med after my first year."

"Divinity?" Murph was so surprised she felt sober for a moment. "Didn't think anyone on the Base was still a believer."

"In God? Moreso now than when I was in school." Getty told her. "Astronomy is what made me a believer. The whole universe runs with Swiss-Watch precision. I can only understand about half the math involved, but it's enough to be certain that there's no way it could be random chance; and I went to college just to make sure of that."

"Why'd you switch to medicine?"

"Same reason most people switched to farming. I did some practical work at a few Mission's internationally. They needed doctors as much as they needed priests. No reason a Doctor can't pray for his patients. Or for anything else, come to that."

"Do you still?" Murph asked, more reflective than usual.

"Pray? Yeah, I do." Getty said, and held out his glass. "More?"

"More." She poured.

"Alright, your turn. Something I don't know."

"Thing is, I don't have many secrets." Murph complained. "Downsides of having no life? I'm also not interesting."

"Aside from the whole 'prodigy genius saving the world' thing." Getty pointed out. "Hey, you started this game."

"I did, didn't I?" Murph slugged back her drink and poured again. "Alright… I've never told anyone about this. Not even Brand." She took a breath. "I believe in ghosts."

"Yeah?"

"One in particular." Murph poured for him. "When I was a kid, a poltergeist moved into my room. He used to leave me messages."

"He?" Getty was intrigued.

"He. Don't ask how I know that." Murph told him the story. "One day we come home, and my window was left open, and a windstorm fills my room with dust… and then some of the dust starts falling in lines; like a barcode. Dad checks it with other things, heavier things, and he tells me that gravity itself has written some map coordinates into the floor of my room in binary."

He was staring, glass halfway to his lips. "Map coordinates?"

"My dad follows them right to the door of this Base." Murph nodded. "Brand and his daughter thought it was 'Them' pointing my father to the Lazarus Mission."

"But you don't agree?"

"The Ghost lived in my room. Why would the message be for someone else?"

"I like it." Getty didn't even blink. "Maybe 'They' knew you'd be the one to solve The Problem, so they sent you here. You taught me about the Bulk Beings. If they live in more than three dimensions, it means they can see the future."

"I hope so. Certainly I've dedicated my life to that hope." Murph yawned. "My brother thought I was stupid for believing in ghosts. But it always felt… like it was there to help me."

"Do you still think that?" He asked suddenly, and finished his drink.

Murph actually had to think about it. "Huh. I haven't really been home in a while, have I?"

He poured for them both again. "Nope. Okay, my turn again."

She sipped her next drink, the room starting to spin. "Yup. Tell me a secret."

"Umm… You're really pretty." Getty said profoundly.

Murph froze. "What?"

"Ohh, I guess that's not really a secret, is it?" Getty slapped his forehead. "Duh. I'll try again!" He put on a careful 'thinking' expression, before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.

Murph was still frozen, staring at him. "Gets?" She called quietly. "Getty, are you…?"

He was out cold, and Murph let out a slow breath, letting the sudden pounding in her chest fade away.

Murph started working in Professor Brand's lab more than her own. She stayed out of his way, he stayed out of hers. Their lessons were scheduled, but Murph knew there wasn't a lot more theory to learn that she didn't know already.

But it gave her a little distance from Getty, and that made it worth giving up her office.

Brand, insightful bastard that he was, figured that part out the second his new assistant Julie brought in lunch for both of them on trays.

"Murph, Getty brought a tray by for you. He thought you'd prefer jello to cornbread, for some reason." The blonde told her with a smile. "Private joke, I assume?"

"Something like that." Murph nodded, glancing back at the door. "He was… busy?"

"Not yet, but I'm working on it." Julie grinned saucily, and presented the Professor with his own tray; not noticing how Murph twitched. "Professor, your three o'clock is on line two."

"The weekly small talk with kings." Brand sighed.

"They want to know how it's going, and asking you once a week for eight years is grating on them." Murph counselled. "Be glad it's smalltalk. Any other country in the world, they'd have fired you and promoted me by now. One or two would do it by firing squad."

"You really do want this office, don't you?" Brand scoffed, and waved her out of the room. "I'm afraid the conversation is codeword classified; so you can't be in the room."

"Don't see why, if they keep avoiding the question." Murph teased and headed out with Julie. "So." She said as the door closed. "Liking the new job?"

"Just glad to be somewhere that isn't covered in dust." Julie sat at her desk, essentially standing guard outside of Brand's office. "And the parties are fairly wild, for a bunch of academics."

"So I hear. I never really attended."

"Really? That's a surprise." Julie waved a hand up and down Murph, as if that explained everything. "I'm betting you get some interest."

"I started my tutoring with the Professor from age ten. Nobody dared invite me, even when I became legal." Murph glanced over. "Why? Anyone bothering you?"

Julie snorted. "Naw. Like I said, they're all bookworms. They have dirtier minds than most, but don't have the nerve to say anything until they get a few drinks in them. It's like they save up all their 'unprofessional' for after working hours. Thank god for the Doomsday Parties, or I'd never get any action." She wore a Cheshire smile. "Well, not never."

"Mm." Murph decided she didn't like Julie. She was too… Anti-Murph. And blonde. "Anyway, let the Professor know I'm in Archives."

"How did Julie get a job here anyway?"

"Congressman's niece." Ellie told her. "Is this the one?"

Ellie checked the one Ellie had found against her manifest. "No, I'm looking for personal effects for the Lazarus Astronauts."

"That stuff's all sealed up as confidential." Ellie told her.

"Not the active missions, the ones that failed." Murph told her. "Since when does Lazarus involve trading favors?"

"Where have you been? All the world is reduced to trading favors before they starve." Ellie slid the box back on the shelf. "Besides, she's got the skills, professionally. No room for freeloaders on our Cafeteria line."

"That's good, because she's a walking lawsuit waiting to happen."

"Are you kidding? Knocking Boots is the only vice we've got in the Base. We can't be drunk on duty, can't spare the pharmaceuticals for anything less than an actual medical emergency; and it's not like we get paid to work here beyond clean clothes and three squares a day; so what use is gambling? Aside from the Apocalypse, Sex and Rock'n'Roll is all we got to think about."

Murph didn't really want to keep arguing the point. She checked her manifest again and looked to the top shelf. "Ah! Found it! Bring the ladder?"

Ellie did so, and held it for her. "What, may I ask, is all this in aid of?"

"The Professor told me that Doctor Mann was his last lab assistant. Practically his protege."

"Sizing the competition?" Ellie grinned.

"Trying to figure out what Mann knew when he left. If I'm going over old paths, I'd rather not waste the time."

"If you were, I'm sure Brand would tell you."

Murph pulled the box down. It was empty. "Yeah, well. I'm not so sure." She tipped the empty box upside down to demonstrate her point. "There's something he's not telling me, Ellie. I looked at the equation yesterday, and it's so… recursive. His numbers don't take into account time as an underlying constant."

"You know that when you say stuff like that, I just nod my head, right?"

Murph tossed the empty box aside. "I think the Professor has given up on finishing. I think he's…"

"Starting to go?" Ellie finished for her. "I'm the Shrink, Murph. It happens to all of us eventually."

"Yeah, but… Why wouldn't he tell me? I know he's sick. I even know about the wheelchair he's keeping hidden in his office closet. He doesn't want anyone to know yet; and that's fine. Why keep secrets from me?"

Elle bit her lip. "You know who might have an idea?"

Murph sighed hard. "His personal assistant?"

"So, I looked into it." Julie told Murph over lunch the next day. "Almost everything Mann did is sealed away somewhere, under Professor Brand's authorization, and nobody can tell me why." She sipped her drink. "I used to work in my uncle's office. I've seen those kinds of walls go up before. In fact, last time I went digging like this, I found out about Lazarus."

Murph bit her lip. "So what are they covering up this time?"

"No idea." Julie didn't seem worried. "How much worse can it be than the end of the world?"

Murph could imagine a few things, complete with bold technicolor and sound effects.

"But there were two things you might find interesting." Julie told her. "First: His daughter. Brand made sure Amelia made it onto the Lazarus Mission. It's an odd choice, but-"

"No, I know about that." Murph lied. She hadn't, but when she found out The Professor was sick, it suddenly made sense. "What was the other thing?"

"The only one to have their personal work sealed? Mann. Just Mann. Miller, Edmunds, even your dad? All their files are confidential, but no more so than anything else around here."

"So whatever it is, it's something between Mann and Professor Brand." Murph nodded.

"I took the liberty of pulling his biographical data." Julie told her. "Would it interest you to know that he had your job before he left?"

"That I knew, which is why I got curious." Murph was intrigued. "Because Brand has told me, point blank, that even if he had another ship that could make the flight, he'd never let me go. Apparently I'm indispensable right here."

'Maybe you're just smarter than Mann?" Julie said brightly. "Or maybe Brand wanted him off the planet for some reason?"

"Right." Murph nodded. "So, how do I find out what that reason is? Can we hack his account? Can we try to get clearance to unseal the files?"

"Well, we could." Julie smirked. "Or you could ask him."

Murph's mouth became a flat line from sheer 'duh'. "Or I could just ask him."

"So, I hit a snag on time travel." Murph said brightly.

"Why? Perpetual motion too dull?" Brand staring into his coffee cup. "What was the snag?"

"Well, at first I figured I'd just travel back in time and give myself the solution, but then it occured to me that I would have done it already; so I guess I'll never crack it."

"Believe it or not, Amelia made the same joke once." Brand told her, looking at the photo of his daughter, which hung alongside all the other Lazarus astronauts. "She actually spent some time trying to convince me that it could work."

"Gravity can affect time." Murph offered. "We already know that."

"It can stretch and condense, but only in one direction."

"Why?" Murph countered. "The whole point of Brane Cosmology is that dimensions interact on levels we can't perceive. Maybe the fourth dimension can only go in one direction, but so does a line, until you draw a circle, or an infinity loop, or a-"

"An interesting thought, Apprentice." Brand sighed. "But we have other things on the checklist to get to first."

"Yes, we do." Murph let it go, and moved onto the real purpose of her conversation, as casually as she could; drifting over to the photos. She stayed to the left, avoiding her father's image. "Remarkable Mann." Murph said out loud.

"Sorry?" Professor Brand called over.

"Just thinking, about when my dad was here. You said the Lazarus Missions were lead by the 'Remarkable' Dr Mann." She turned to face him. "You never used any florid verse with any of the others. Not even my dad, or your daughter."

Brand didn't look away from his chalkboards. He rarely did.

Brand went over to her terminal and pulled up Mann's personnel file. "That woman, that picture... Who is that?"

"Lucinda Mann. His mother." Brand said wistfully. "She was one of our team. Astrodynamics. Came in just after we figured out the Doomsday Clock would strike midnight. The drunken bacchanalia continued for almost a week, before the survivors of the party picked themselves out of wherever they'd passed out and went about the business of trying to save the world."

Murph snorted. "You and Lucinda were close?"

Brand looked over. "Ask me."

"What?"

"The question that you're discreet enough not to ask."

"Is Mann your kid?" Murph said it. It would explain why Brand kept Mann's things to himself, if it was personal.

"No." Brand shook his head. "His mother and I were friends, but only after she became pregnant. I was about to become a father too, so we became closer than most others on staff do."

"I was going to say, there are some of the old briefing tapes here, and I hear your daughter singing his praises..."

Brand shook his head. "Amelia was... intrigued. Mann held your job for a few years, while I worked on the formula. But he also helped out in every other branch. engineering, navigation, teaching, Stellar mechanics... he could do it all. he was just that good, so when we got as far as choosing volunteers, His was the first name on the list."

"Exactly." Murph repeated the key phrase. "He helped you with this? How? Because I don't see his notes anywhere..."

"Trust me, Murph. You've overtaken him by leaps and bounds in this area." Brand promised her.

"Even so, if we can't crowdsource the solution, having his own notes would be better than nothing." Murph said, when her device buzzed. So did Professor Brand's. The message came up for both of them: "Get to a Television."

"The town is called Littlebrock. It's being reported as a dust storm that got too heavy." Ellie reported. "But we've examined some of the autopsy results, and it was Nitrogen Narcosis. Their lungs didn't have enough dust in them to cause respiratory failure."

Getty looked grave. "The weather just lined up like dominoes for the first time, but it won't be the last. In fact, it'll just keep accelerating. Too much nitrogen and Co2 gathering in one place before the weather can balance it out. Three minutes of bad luck is all it takes."

"The first humans to suffocate." Murph whispered.

"How many?" Brand said patiently.

"Low elevation town, fairly concentrated… Looks like about eight thousand." Ellie said grimly, hugging her daughter's photo close to her heart.

"Eight thousand people, all at once." Getty said quietly, almost prayerfully.

Murph rolled up her sleeves. "No more days off." She told herself.

Murph never went back to 'game night' with her friends. Getty still brought her food, she ate, chatted with him a while. She didn't bother with Professor Brand's office. Getty had taken the careful brush-off for what it was. Every thirty hours or so, she would fall asleep at her desk, and eight hours later she'd wake up on her office couch, with her labcoat tucked warmly around her shoulders. She suspected it was Getty tucking her in, but he never mentioned it.

Other towns went the same way. Ham Radio was pretty much the only way left to communicate long distance when the satellites started falling. The Government was keeping on top of Doomsday by limiting access to some facts; spreading cover stories for others. Most people assumed it was typical bureaucratic confusion.

Ellie brought her food one night, and stayed to eat with her.

"Your usual waiter can't make it. He suddenly has patients." Ellie told her grimly. "The order came in: We can bring relatives onto the base. With the situation out there, it's more important to keep our people on duty than it is to have total secrecy."

"Good to know." Murph agreed. "The weather shifts and suddenly there just isn't enough oxygen left? Even if we can't take off, the Stations like this one might be the only hope of humanity. They're able to recycle air already, just underground."

"Unofficially, that's what I'm hearing." Ellie nodded. "The Powers That Be are getting ready to abandon ship."

"And here I am, still trying to get the damn lifeboats working." Murph said in frustration.

"You can only do what you can do, Murph." Ellie said gently. "It's easy for me to say, because I'm fairly high up in the chain. I'm essential. Even if Lazarus never Launches, I can keep my daughter here and fed. I'm sorry it's harder for you, but… Lazarus has saved my family already, and I apologize to nobody for that."

"Well, I am happy for you." Murph offered. "I don't mean to sound like such a Grinch, but it's agony being so close. I can see everyone losing faith. People don't even ask me how close I'm getting any more."

"Murph." Ellie said seriously, making the younger woman look her in the eye. "You have a brother and sister-in-law with a kid; living in the Dust Bowl. You already lost one nephew. I just told you that you could have them here, breathing dust-free air."

Murph scowled. "I… got special permission from the Professor when Littlerock died. They could have been here five months ago, but my brother won't allow it. Won't even discuss it, in fact."

"Did you discuss it either, or did you just pick up the phone and tell him to start packing?" Ellie challenged.

Murph wouldn't look at her. "I'm working."

"I'm going." Ellie didn't push it further, heading out.

Murph couldn't shake the conversation with Ellie, and finally picked up the phone a week later, after evening chow. It was the first serious conversation she'd had with her brother since Jesse died, and it was a disaster of epic proportions.

Completely wired from the screaming match, Murph knew that focusing on work wasn't an option, and went to see Getty. He wasn't at his post, and she was surprised to see Ellie there, handling his paperwork. "Hey."

Ellie looked up. "Hey."

Murph looked around for him. "Thought Getty was wall to wall with patients now?"

"Oh, Lord. I'm sorry, I thought you'd heard." Ellie rubbed her eyes. "I'm handling his non-medical duties for a few days. He's been stood down until Monday."

Murph felt her heart give a solid thump. "What? What happened?"

"Getty's father died this morning. He was on the way here, didn't make it. Getty was trying to get him to a clean-room before- Murph!"

She was already moving, nearly sprinting through the corridors towards Getty's room.

My arms hurt. Why are my arms hurting? Why didn't he come straight to me? Is it because he thinks I'll take out my own 'daddy' issues on him during this? Oh, Gets; I'm so sorry. What does he need right now? I'd do anything. Huh, I really would; wouldn't I? What does he need? What can I do to make it all bette-

Her internal monologue came to a screeching halt when she reached the right corridor. Getty's door was about twenty feet away, and she had a clear view of Julie, standing at his door, arms around Getty. His eyes were red, and she was holding him. She pulled back enough to look up at him, and give him a comforting, lingering kiss on the cheek, close to his lips.

Murph, frozen, was torn between going over anyway, and going in the opposite direction before he saw her.

She couldn't hear what they were saying to each other, but she saw the moment Julie pulled a large hip flask, and offered it to him. Getty rubbed his eyes, seeming to be as exhausted as he was emotional, and he opened the door to his quarters for both of them to enter.

For a split second, Getty and Murph made eye contact from twenty feet apart. Julie didn't notice her at all, and closed the door behind them.

Getty wasn't back at his post the next day when she brought by a breakfast tray for him. It was the first time she had ever brought him a tray instead of the other way around; and he wasn't there. Julie wasn't at her desk outside Brand's office either. Murph tried not to think about it, and went back to work.

Professor Brand looked older than she'd ever seen him. Murph didn't register it right away, but he didn't look well. She wondered how much he knew about where her head was at, given that she wasn't saying anything for most of the morning.

"Okay, back to basics." Murph said crisply. "The universe runs with precision. Has since the Big Bang. If Stellar Drift was a tiny bit slower, gravity would have brought the universe back in on itself very quickly. If the universe's rate of expansion was any faster, the cosmos would have flown apart into chaos long ago. The universe exists because of the balance between gravity and motion. So, how to use one to generate the other? You have to account for the fact that neither is a constant, Neither gravity, nor motion… But what about Time?"

His eyes were focusing. He was listening. Murph had tried to talk her way through this before, but he'd always changed the subject. Only this time, Murph was the one trying to distract herself away from what was on her mind, not him.

When the old man looked up at her from the wheelchair he was practically living in, she could see him getting ready to shift her off topic again, so she rushed forward. "Time is the tricky part, because even gravity and motion need longevity to have any effect on anything. But both gravity and motion affect time. Huge gravity can slow it down, same for light-speed velocity. So if none of them are a constant, how do they work together so perfectly?" She waved at the whiteboard. "And more importantly, why don't you have any temporal mechanics on the board at all?"

Finally Brand spoke, and it was clear he knew everything, as usual.

"You know why Julie's with him right now, instead of you?" Brand said quietly. "Because she's presenting a warm, sympathetic shoulder for a heartsick orphan to hold onto, and you're in here, saving the human race."

Murph said nothing, just looked harder at her chalkboards.

"It's neither better or worse, good or bad, right or wrong. That doesn't enter into it. Getty loves you, and trusts you, and he's in absolute awe of you. But right now, that doesn't enter into it either. Julie knows what we're trying to do in here, and she knows she can't help us at all. But she feels the dread growing, just like everyone else. For better or worse, she wants to make a little bit of it easier for someone. None of which is anyone's fault, or something they should apologize for."

"No, I guess not." Murph sighed, and finally looked at her teacher. "Is it possible, to dedicate yourself totally to trying to save the whole world, and still take all the time you need to care about one person in particular?"

"It's a paradox. It's also the most human question I've ever heard you ask." Brand said quietly. "People will care selflessly for people they know, but rarely beyond line of sight."

"I don't buy that." Murph said quietly.

"I know. But Getty isn't your only loved one. Just in case it slipped your mind."

"Like it slipped yours?" Murph was still feeling the angst, and finally said what she wanted to say. "Why, Professor? Why send your daughter off-world? Of course you hoped it would work out, but you had to know… I don't mean to cast aspersions, but you did pull some strings to get Amelia on my dad's flight. Why? Why send her away, if she was all you had to care about down here?"

'I care about you." He promised.

Murph always felt a little better when she heard him say that. "I care about you too, Professor; but that's not exactly what I asked." She made him look at her. "Hey. I know you haven't told me everything. I've been in this room for most of my life now. I've been looking at these equations since I was ten, I've understood them since I was seventeen." She pointed at the chalkboards, one by one. "Every month you rub that part out, and write a different variable. Every other month you change it back."

Professor Brand couldn't look at her.

"Hey." She reached out and cupped his face gently. "I know why you can't tell anyone, with the Government calling every other day for updates. The Doomsday Clock hit zero years ago, and only this Base knows it. Be honest. You don't need someone to check your sums."

"No, I don't." Brand admitted, looking almost hopeful.

"You taught me well, old man; and I love you for it." Murph said softly. "You can admit it to me. I know about your health trouble. And once I found out, the rest was just so obvious. Why you were spending so much time on tutoring me, instead of letting someone else babysit while you worked. Why you got your daughter off-world, before she had to watch the mental effects set in. I'm betting Mann knew, which is why you sealed all his journals; in case anyone stumbled onto the truth." She squeezed his hand. "Because the whole Mission is based on the idea that you can do this; and you know that without a Rosetta Stone, it's a time consuming search… and you don't have long enough left."

His face fell, imperceptibly to anyone else.

"It's okay." Murph promised him. "I know you well enough to know you aren't scared. Just sorry. But you don't have to be. This I promise you: I'll finish the job. You got me so far, I can take it the rest of the way. It's just time and thought. I'm sorry your time ran out."

"My time…" Brand croaked, and they both felt tears forming. "I'm such an old man now, Murph. I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of time."

Because you can't crack it fast enough. Murph thought. It's a slow job to eliminate the variables. How time affects Gravity and motion. The trifecta of the universe. Gravity, Motion… time.

There was a knock on the door, and they both stepped apart, wiping their eyes and presenting the image they could show everyone else; two geniuses hard at work on the formula. "Come in."

Julie put her head around the door. "Murph, I have your sister-in-law on Line Three."

Murph was surprised and picked up the phone automatically. "Lois?"

"Murph, hi… Um, would you like to come for dinner next week? I know you don't, usually; but… Please?"

This was uncharted territory. Lois never called her directly. She was always nice on the few occasions that Murph did come home, but her loyalties were exclusively to her husband. Lois sounded scared about something. "Sure, I'd love to come." Murph heard herself say.

It was the first time Murph had been in a room with her brother since the telephone conversation when she'd demanded he come onto the Base.

Tom didn't mention the screaming match, and neither did his wife. Denial was a way of life for everyone still trying to stay alive.

They didn't discuss her work, because Tom found it offensive to waste so much time on academics that didn't create food. They didn't discuss the farm because it wasn't doing well, and they didn't discuss family, since neither of them could talk about their father, and Murph could barely look at young Coop without tearing up.

Lois was a model of grace under pressure. She kept the conversation moving, steered it away from difficult topics, refilled the plates regularly… But her eyes always flicked to Murph when someone else was speaking.

Her sister in law had a very specific reason for getting Murph to come visit, but she couldn't come out and say what it was. "So… Would you like to stay the night? We kept your room exactly the way you left it."

Murph felt bad for her. A spare bedroom was a source of income, particularly on a farm that was trying desperately to get the hands to stay on. Tom's denial of change was getting harder to live with.

"I… can't. I have to get back." Murph said, and pretended not to see her brother roll his eyes. She covered the plate again. Every place setting had a thick tea towel, and everyone covered their plate between bites. Murph hadn't eaten outside the Base in a while, but you didn't forget those tricks. "Too many memories in that room."

"Well, I might have a cure for that." Tom said easily, and went to the liquor cabinet.

Trying to scrape the plates clean, Coop, their surviving boy, started coughing. A real bad cough. Smoker's cough on steroids. Lois flinched hard, and Murph finally made the connection.

"Y'know, Lois; I have a friend." Murph said, keeping her voice casual. "He would come out and take a look at his lungs, if..."

The look on Lois' face was all the answer she needed. Tom's missus was halfway between throwing herself at Murph's feet and shushing her before Tom could hear the offer. She wanted help so desperately she was almost willing to risk asking for it.

Tom had arrived back at the table and poured for all of them. Two or three rounds later, Murph made an excuse to go check her 4x4 and Lois went the opposite direction, out the back door.

Murph waited in the driver's seat, watching the dust pile on the side of the house.

The noise jumped dramatically when Lois sat in the passenger seat and shut the door. "He's washing up. The shower clogs pretty regularly, but I reckon we have another five minutes or so."

"I'm sorry I was away so long." Murph said quietly. "I didn't realize it had gotten this bad."

"The wind never stops at night. The dust piles on… We have to dig ourselves out every morning." Lois was near tears, for reasons that had nothing to do with the grit in her eyes. "You heard about Nelson's farm? The other families are all bugging out. All our neighbors, the school's more than two thirds empty… We can't stay, but he can't leave." She looked to Murph. "I know you have your issues with Tom-"

"It's an old argument." Murph said quietly. "A very old argument."

"The kind you can only have when you still love each other very much, even after everything." Lois agreed. "Murph, I want to be clear… I knew when I met him that he'd never leave the farm. I chose this life when I became a farmer's wife. I was a farmer's daughter, so it was not a hardship. I'll starve with him, I'll choke with him. Part of me had hoped that he'd see reason, but..." She gestured out the windows. "The sun never shines anymore. Just this hazy twilight, all year round. Today was the clearest it's been in months, which is why he had to do the crop-burning today. It should have been a week ago, the way the Blight spreads; but you can't use the really strong accelerants on croplands, and you can't keep the fire lit in a dust storm and..."

"And Coop?" Murph knew the point she was working herself up to.

"He's getting sicker." Lois could barely raise her voice over the wind. "Tom knows it, but he can't do anything, because the hospital closed down last month, and the family doctor migrated a week after that. Everyone's heading south. Even with the constant hurricanes… at least the rain washes the air clean for a few hours."

"So he sticks with denial."

"Not just him." Lois confessed. "I think it's been the main thing keeping us together since Jesse died."

Murph looked to the other end of the backyard; with the three gravestones. One for her eldest nephew, one for grandpa, one for her mom. The legacy of Cooper Farm; with one grave missing for her dad.

Murph let out a breath. "I'll call Getty right now."

"You can't." Lois hissed. "He isn't stupid, Murph. He'll know, if you suddenly decide to…"

Murph turned to stone. "Lois, are you in danger? Has Tom been…" She didn't want to say the words.

"No, no violence." Lois shook her head very quickly. "But I swear, I can see him getting wound tighter every time he goes out to the crops. He keeps saying 'one more harvest' but I don't know if we'll get there! He took over two whole other arms, and the harvests keep getting smaller." She looked sick. "He'll snap at some point. I just hope…"

Murph bit her lip. "Listen, by the end of the night, hint that I have a serious boyfriend. Tell Tom that I'm hiding him from my family. He'll insist on meeting him. I'll let him 'convince me' and tell him we'll come over for lunch. He'll be out at the fields most of the day, we can make sure Coop's all right, figure out what to do from there."

The relief was palpable. "Thank you!"

Murph did her best to give her a hug, in the confines of the vehicle. "I've been away too long. I had no idea it was getting this thick..."

"No, I'm sure you didn't." Lois said with silky disdain.

Murph looked over. "Why do you all hate us so much?" She asked suddenly. "I don't just mean Tom, I mean people in general. Because that's what it is. It's hate. I don't understand why. We aren't bothering anyone…"

Lois shrugged. "Part of it might just be the bitterness that comes from hungry, dirty people when faced with clean, well fed people."

Murph looked down, conceding that point. "And the other part?"

"Murph, your grandfather talked about how 'in his day' it was like they invented something new every day. But we both know that couldn't last… and finally, it didn't. Technology was supposed to be this magic wand that would cure the sick and feed the hungry and take us to the stars… and then it just didn't. Science and Technology had its chance to save us… and it created the Bio-Blasts and everything else the Resource Wars served up. Tech had its day, and they hate people who still trust it."

Murph looked over, eyes sharp. "He told you, didn't he?"

Lois bit her lip, kicking herself. "Yeah. Tom told me about the 'Lifeboat'."

Murph winced.

"I know, it's a secret." Lois nodded. "But that shouting match you had? I could hear him from the barn."

"He still shouldn't be telling you, if he's not going to come." Murph sighed. "Tom hates us for it. How about y-"

"Take Coop with you!" Lois blurted out. "When you crack it? When you… I haven't told anyone, but nobody will be surprised if they get told the truth. It's all falling apart, and nobody's impressed by all the happy noises the government keeps making. You can't take him now. Tom will kick your door in and take him back, but when you figure out how to get away from this… wretched planet; take my son with you, please!."

Lois let herself out of the car before Murph could say anything to that.

Murph watched her go back into the house, shut her eyes a moment, listening to the dust beat a machine-gun rhythm on the 4x4. Without opening her eyes, she tapped her phone.

"Hello?"

"Getty, I need you to help me with something next week." Murph sighed. "Something important. I'll tell you all abou-"

"Murph, thank god! I've been trying to reach you for an hour!"

"What?" Murph came upright in her seat. "What's wrong?"

"Professor Brand collapsed."

Lois wasn't wrong. The roads were impossible to see during the day, let alone the night, and Murph already had a few drinks in her. How she made it back to the Base without killing herself or others was a mystery.

"No more nights off." She told herself again and again; inching along in the dark.

Getty rushed her to Brand's bedside. The old man had been asking for her.

"You got me so close." Murph promised him, whenever he was lucid. "Don't worry. I can get us the rest of the way." Inwardly, she wasn't so sure, but there was no way she'd tell him that on his deathbed.

"I wanted you to have… faith." Brand croaked, eyes watering, voice cracking and sobbing. It was a terrible thing for Murph. Brand had practically raised her since her father left; and she was watching him fall apart right in front of her.

"I do." She promised him, keeping that loving, sentimental smile on her face, though her heart was breaking again. It was the goodbye that she should have had with her father, instead of running after his taillights, sobbing…

"...I… lied." Brand croaked out. "I'm so sorry. There was never any… way to help us…"

Murph floundered a bit, trying to dissect what he actually meant. Brand had been declining slowly for a number of years, and she knew that. She alone knew that. Maybe Ellie, but nobody else. She knew he couldn't get to the end of it in time…She had made peace with that. She had vowed to finish the work he'd started. And he knew that. The formula would be cracked eventually...

So what was he really confessing to? Or did he even know what he was talking about as his brain started shutting down?

And finally, it hit her what he meant.

Murph should have felt scared; but the first words out of her mouth were immediate and unplanned, born from some deep, secret fear.

"Did my father know?" Murph asked, and for the first time, the rage was coming through; just a little. It was the question she'd never dared ask him before. She'd talked about it with Ellie a hundred times. Because if it was to save the world, leaving the earth was an acceptable evil, no matter how much it hurt. If it was all to save humanity, Murph could forgive him, even if it had gone wrong, even if he'd died out there.

But if Brand couldn't crack it...

And if her father had known that…

"Did he just leave me?" Murph asked, scared to hear the answer. She'd been dancing on the edge of asking for ten years, and she'd left it too late to be honest.

Again.

"Do… not..." Brand rasped, and Murph could tell it was going to be his epitaph. "...go… gentle…" His eyes closed.

"No." Murph rejected that, feeling her face twist. No! I worked up the nerve to ask, it would have been a 'yes or no' answer, come on!

Brand was gone.

"No!" Murph hissed at him, frustrated with the laws of life and death. Getty rested a hand on her shoulder, but she pushed him off instantly, getting in Brand's face. "You can't leave me on that!"

Word spread through the Base soon after. Murph had expected… something. A reaction of some kind. But there wasn't one. The Base just didn't have it in them to react anymore. Nobody had the energy to offer her sympathy, and she was glad for it. Nobody had the energy to wail in despair. The whole base, the whole world was just plodding along, numb; trying not to think about it.

Murph went back to her office, and slouched in her chair, glaring balefully up at the chalkboards. She knew the answers weren't there, but like Brand before her, she pretended that if she stared hard enough, the universe would hand her the ending.

In a world where Multi-Dimensional Bulk Beings could lead little girls to secret laboratories, it didn't even seem that strange.

"Give me the answer!" She whispered, broken. "You haunted my room once, Ghost. Help me again!"

Knock knock.

Startled, even a little hopeful, Murph very slowly turned her hair. "Yes?"

She didn't know what she expected, but the familiar face was a disappointment.

"Julie, come in." Murph said with quiet resignation. Julie worked closely with the Professor more than anyone except Murph herself. Despite herself, she felt the strongest kinship with Julie now, above others. "I meant to come by, but…"

Julie waved it off. "I wasn't exactly at my desk. I hope you won't fire me for that. You're pretty much my boss now, anyway."

"I haven't decided if I'll take his workspace, but-"

"No, I mean… of everything." Julie said. "The rest of the Advisory Board submitted their resignations this morning. Williams went back to Washington, and Devane headed south to be with his grandkids… Which effectively leaves you in charge until Washington sends someone new."

"Do we know when that'll be?" Murph wavered.

"Nope. The word from DC is that the Base is self sufficient, so it doesn't cost them many resources, and they 'have every confidence in our ability to carry on, given urgent matters elsewhere that require more immediate attention'…" Julie shook her head, gone to somewhere very dark in her head. "The usual #%!&* they feed people they don't care about."

"Well, that inspires confidence." Murph drawled. "Glad to know the rest of the old men have as much faith in me to carry on as The Professor did."

"Yeah, well…" Julie looked exhausted by the whole mess. "I inherited a few things. Personal effects, mainly. Brand didn't have a next of kin anywhere on the planet. Not one he'd admit to anyway. So his personal effects were basically handed to the medical staff." She held out a thick leatherbound book. "It took some doing, but I got Getty to look the other way while I lifted Professor Brand's Journal."

"Brand kept a journal?" Murph was stunned. "I never saw him writing in it…"

"Yeah. Last entry was a week after your father launched." Julie said quietly. "Murph, you won't like what's in there." She held it out. "I'm gonna go get drunk. My advice? Burn this thing and do the same."

Murph took the journal. The moment it left her fingers, Julie burst into tears and ran out of the room. Unsettled, Murph started reading.

It was worse than she'd thought. Brand hadn't just given up. He'd finished his work decades before. He hadn't just given in. He'd run a con-game with the whole human race.

Getty was in the Transmission Room, getting ready to record a message to Endurance. It was procedure. Nobody thought there would be an answer after this long.

The door swung open like a hurricane hit it, and Murph was suddenly here, with a half empty bottle in one hand, and a twisted journal in the other. "Gets, get out of that chair." She told him. "I have words for the Endurance Crew."

"About… Professor Brand?" Getty actually felt scared of her for some reason.

"Ohhh, you betcha." She stalked over to the camera. "Besides, you're the one always telling me to send a message, so here I am."

"Um, that's Ellie, not me."

"Same difference, most days." Murph came over, weaving a little.

"I'm the Physician of Record. If his daughter is alive, it should come from me." Getty told her gently. "And it's got to be hard for you…"

"I said get out of the chair!" Murph outright snarled.

Getty considered his options and obeyed. "You… want me to go?"

"I don't care; and you shouldn't either." Murph said, and scrubbed her face with her hands, pulling herself together. "Roll tape."

"Who uses tape anymore?"

"It's traditional." She told him.

"Okay, but… try to be less drunk-like?"

"Copy that." Murph nodded, trying to straighten her appearance a bit. She slid the bottle out of view, and tossed the journal over her shoulder. It hit the wall and she turned to the camera before it hit the floor.

"And of course, you realize that with the Dust Storms worsening, the static charge in the air means it could be days, even weeks; before we get a clear transmission to the satellite, let alone to the Wormhole…"

Murph gave him a look. She didn't care any more than he did.

"Right." Getty picked up the journal from the floor and left the room.

"Doctor Brand." Murph said, sounding almost normal. "I'm sorry to tell you that your father died today. He had no pain. He was at peace. I'm very sorry for your loss." She reached out to turn off the recording, but that was mostly so she could pretend she felt conflicted. If Amelia Brand was alive, she was about to heave all this misery on someone from a galaxy away. She took a few shuddering breaths and let the camera have it. She wanted to scream, but instead, her voice came out weak and broken. "Brand? Did you know? He told you, right? He knew. This was all a sham. You left us here. To suffocate. To starve."

She took another breath, and asked the question again; knowing she wouldn't get an answer from this source either. "Did my father know too?" The tears came then, spilling out helplessly. "Dad?" She wavered, not even looking at the camera anymore. "I just want to know… if you left me here to die." She covered her face. "I just have to know!" She reached out and turned the camera off. "You had to know. Of course you knew. You were too smart to fall for Brand's patter; and you had no tolerance for BS..."

The loneliness had turned to impotent fury in seconds. "You knew." She choked, seething. "You had to know."

Murph went back to her office, and collapsed in her office chair, nursing her drinks. After what felt like a million years, her door opened. Getty was there, holding up the open journal in one hand, and a meal tray in the other. "I figured you hadn't eaten."

"You'd be right about that." She rasped, and he put the tray down in front of her. "You read it?"

"I did." Getty said softly, sitting down across from her. "By the way, you aren't allowed to steal my patient's personal items."

"Does that really matter?" Murph scorned. "Does anything?"

"Be honest, Murph. You wish you'd never read this."

"He knew." Murph breathed a confirmation, somewhere between grief and pure hellfire. "Brand knew. Mann knew. My father knew. The whole time; there was never any hope."

"Your father didn't." Getty promised gently.

"The hell he didn't!" Murph snarled at him. She was slouched in the chair behind her desk, small and broken, and only kept upright by suffocating anger. "Dad wanted to be an astronaut. He never got his wish. He was stuck being a farmer, which he hated. And then we came here, and either he was too stupidly eager to realize he was being played, or he was smart enough to know there was no hope, and decided to be an astronaut like he always wanted. The day he left, my father tried to tell me that he didn't think he was coming back! And at last, I know why! It's because there was nothing to come back to!"

"There's you." He said.

She glared at him as she stood up and staggered over to the wetbar. "Yeah well, that wasn't enough, apparently." Getty was the last person in the world who deserved her wrath, but she was too mad to care, and let him have it. "Why are you still here, anyway? There's no point in being a doctor, or a Priest, or anything else you had to offer. Take your stupid face, and your stupid jello, and just get out!" She slapped the food tray off the table with a sudden swipe of rage; sending precious food everywhere. "Go off with Julie and die in whatever manner seems most disgusting to you!"

Getty responded by stepping over to the bar and giving her a hug from behind. She had just yelled at him, taken out ten years worth of frustration on him, and his response was to give her affection and kindness.

She almost hated him for it, and turned to punch him right in the mouth. And then an instant later she was clinging to him tightly, bawling her eyes out on his shoulder.

Murph woke up from a fitful doze and found herself stretched out on her office couch, head on a pillow in Getty's lap. Getty was there, stroking her hair, asleep himself, still offering her comfort on autopilot.

The door opened quietly, and Ellie was there. She would normally smile at the two of them, curled on on her couch. But not today. Ellie regarded them a moment and went over to the food tray that Murph had thrown, picking the mess up as best she could.

Murph sat up slowly, head pounding. Getty woke from the motion, and saw Ellie. "Hey."

"Get some sleep, Gets. I got this." Ellie told him. "You had a rough brain-twist too."

"Not as bad as Murph." Getty said. "And I think we both know she's the priority right now."

"I don't need a babysitter." Murph slurred, reaching for Ellie's coffee. "Gimmie."

Getty got up. "I'm gonna crash. I'm on duty in three hours."

"No you're not. I put you both off duty for forty eight hours." Ellie told them. "I'm Chief Counselor. I can do that. Sleep, eat, and take a shower. Not in that order."

Getty nodded and tried to walk in a straight line to the door on stiff limbs. "Call me if you need me."

"Gets?" Murph croaked. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"...I don't know." Murph admitted.

"Well, you're welcome anyway."

Once he was gone, Ellie perched on the edge of Murph's desk. "You're having a big day, huh?"

Murph looked up at her old friend, eyes completely dead inside. "You knew; didn't you?" She rasped, not recognizing her own voice. "You knew the whole time. Chief Head Shrinker? You had to have been briefed. You and Getty are sitting with me in shifts, like I'm on suicide watch; and I've known the Big Secret for a day. You had to know, just in case anyone else found out and blabbed it to everyone."

"Yes, but I knew before that." Ellie nodded.

Murph sipped the coffee, frowned, and went back to the wetbar, dumping a fair amount of vodka into her mug. "How do you handle it?"

Ellie waved a hand philosophically. "You of all people should understand that."

Murph twitched. She hadn't thought about her mom in years. "Mom was honest with me about the Brain Tumor. I was six years old, and I knew she was going to miss my eighth birthday. I could handle it then. Why couldn't Brand tell me?"

"Because you weren't being groomed to be a survivor, Murph. A six year old kid in tears can lean on someone else. This is different. We need people to lean on you now." Ellie said gently. "Getty saw it instinctively. Brand spent years preparing you to take over. You're the great white hope of the Lazarus Base. I'm the Professional Shoulder-To-Cry-On around here, and while I can't give you specifics, I can tell you that people confide in me: They all lost faith that the Professor could crack it long ago. But they all believed you'd be the one to do it."

"There is no 'it'."

"Yes, but for now they need to believe that there is, and you are the only one left in the world that can be a vessel for all that hope to pour into."

"False hope." Murph pouted.

"Well, that's up to you." Ellie said. "You've been following Brand's work all this time. You telling me you never found a glimmer of something good in it?"

"How much of that work is even real?"

"You are literally the only person left who can answer that question." Ellie told her with a sad smile. "I don't envy you."

"I feel like I'm ten years old again, barricading myself in my room so that I don't have to say goodbye to dad." Murph complained. "He told me he might not make it. Tom didn't hear that, and he's still trying to turn dust into corn, waiting for dad to come back back and say 'good job'."

"Yup." Ellie said carefully. "So, with that in mind; I have to ask you something…"

"Am I going to tell?" Murph wasn't surprised. "No. I'm stuck with this now, and… I hate it with a fiery passion, but I know the truth would be worse, unless I…" She let out an epic sigh. "Unless I can solve the Plan A Problem; god have mercy on us miserable sinners."

Ellie chuckled. "That's the spirit."

"Tell me one thing?" Murph drank deep of her coffee. "How'd you take it? When you found out?"

Ellie winced. "I… The Professor confessed to me… When he found out he was going to be a father again."

Murph looked over sharply. "Jaina?"

"Always had a thing for older men." Ellie nodded. "It was after one of our Friday Night parties. The Professor found out I was pregnant and came to me. He confessed everything, and begged forgiveness; because he could get Amelia on a mission and put her offworld, but not my kid. There was only one ship left. So I told him that she wasn't his; and I put Jaina with my sister. Brand's smart. He might have figured it out if he'd seen her often enough. She looks like him." She sighed. "I wasn't even mad. The Professor had already lost one of his kids to suicide when he told the truth about Plan A."

Murph blinked. "I didn't know that."

"Yup. His firstborn son. That's what being honest cost him the first time he tried it." Ellie held out a picture of the day Jaina was born. "I told Brand that the baby wasn't his, and that it was okay, I wouldn't tell anyone. We all tell our comforting lies in the face of Armageddon. Because sometimes the truth isn't good enough."

"I agree." Murph croaked. "But I'm not so sure this is one of those times. People are already suffocating by the thousands."

Ellie bit her lip. "That's why there's a Plan B." She said seriously. "I'm getting my daughter to move into the Base. She'll live longer here than she ever will outside."

"So, that was your price?" Murph said sullenly, not really in the mood to be reasonable or understanding. "A longer lifespan for your kid, and that's all it takes?"

"Murph, if you ever have kids of your own, you'll learn there are worse reasons."

"Right. If I ever have kids." Murph said dryly. "Which do you suppose will get my babies first? Starvation or suffocation?"

Ellie shook her head at that and headed for the door, satisfied Murph wasn't going to do something drastic. "God, I forgot what a mean drunk you are on bad days. You should have come to a 'Dance' or two, kid. You'd find a whole other way to deal with empty despair."

Murph watched her go, poured another... and threw the glass hard against the wall.

Murph had never been to the weekly 'Dance' before. Brand had kept her out of it while she was underage, and she was too obsessed with the work by the time she got interested.

Tonight, she just didn't care. Brand was dead, and she wanted to be numb. The Rec Room was crowded with a seething mass of people who were desperate to get drunk and tear each other's clothes off, drowning the fear in vice for another week.

"All these people…" Murph whispered. "God, all these people, believing there's still a chance…"

The deeper she pushed her way into the pit of seething human flesh, the less she believed that any of them still had hope. This was crazed, unthinking, animal action. The way people were when they didn't care about tomorrow. They could feel it in their bones, just as Murph could, now that she knew. On some level, they all knew they were doomed. They all knew it was over.

How did I not see it? How did I not know, when everyone else has figured it out without being told?

Because I trusted the Great Professor, the same way I hoped dad would come back.

Stung deep all over again, hating life fiercely, Murph forced her way over to the bar and slugged back the first thing her fingers touched.

"Murph!" A familiar voice called, sounding fairly tipsy already.

Murph ached suddenly. Oh no, please no. She threw back another shot to fortify herself and turned, plastering a smile on her face. "Julie! Fancy seeing you here."

One of the only three people to get the truth that day apparently had the same idea Murph did, and was apparently several drinks ahead of her. "Ohh, you know me; do I ever turn down a good time?"

"So I hear." Murph said blandly. It was a veiled insult, but Julie was impossible to offend on this particular night. "Getty here?"

"Oh, he never comes to these things." Julie waved that off. "In fact, neither do you; I'm a little surprised you decided to come!"

"Good!" Some distant corner of Murph clocked that Getty wasn't part of Julie's scene, but she pushed that away and ordered another round. There's no reason he needs to see me like this. Wait, why do I care what Getty thinks? I don't. I don't care. I DON'T CARE! Stop thinking, Murph! You came here to stop thinking! Keep drinking! Drinking stops the thinking! "I… uh, just needed to stop thinking for a while."

"You and me both! And you came to the right place!" Julie giggled and kicked her shoes off, flinging them in opposite directions. The crowd cheered and Murph did another shot.

Murph woke up with a gasp, felt half a dozen bodies splayed out on either side of her, and forced her way upright with a moan of pure hellish agony. She'd been sleeping on the floor, in a pile of people. Her pants and socks were still on, but the rest of her clothes were gone, and she had no clear memory of where they went.

There was almost no chance of identifying which of the articles of torn clothing on the floor were hers, so she settled for the longest labcoat she could find, and staggered out of the Rec Room. She was the first one awake, and she felt her way along the wall back to her quarters, eyes welded shut with sleep and hangover.

Getty was waiting for her in her room, looking clean and shaved enough that she didn't want to look at him. He already had a large coffee and aspirin waiting, along with a bottle of electrolyte drink for her hangover. "Good morning." He said quietly.

She started to say something in return, when her stomach rebelled, and she lurched for the sink. He held her hair back while she heaved up the whole night's excesses. The coat wasn't doing much in the way of protecting her modesty, and he was pointedly not looking until she stopped puking.

By the time she got her breath back, he had already started a shower for her, and brought some clothes for her to change into. "Never again." She promised him miserably as he led her to the bathroom. "Never ever again."

"Good choice." Getty said firmly. "Speaking as a doctor, I mean. Can you feel your braincells dying?"

"Feel them?" Murphy groaned. "I can count them. I can hear them screaming as they jump off a cliff."

"Well, take the hint. Your braincells might be our most valuable resource now." Getty chuckled. "Come on. Don't waste the hot water."

"Guh." Murph surrendered and let him baby her, just this once.

After half an hour of hot water and some clean clothes, she felt awake. Getty had breakfast prepared for her when she came out. He didn't say a word as she ate. Some light food and a few litres of fluids had her feeling mostly human again. She had crashed into a drunken level of sleep, but felt even more exhausted than she had the day before. She could barely bring herself to keep eating. Getty was on the verge of cutting up her food for her.

"Why do you keep coming back, Getty? I've never exactly been appreciative." Murphy asked quietly, exhausted and introspective enough to finally bring it up. "There's not a day goes by when you haven't made sure I've eaten, made sure I've slept, made sure… I admit my brains are a little scrambled right now, but I can't remember ever deserving any of it."

"You'd do it for me."

"Yes, I would." Murph nodded. "Except I can't think of a single instance when I have; or when I've had to."

"Well, I can." Getty told her. "Besides, you don't need me piling on after the last few days. You have enough issues with the guys in your life."

"I do. All four of them. You and Tom are the only ones left, and I can't even be in the same room as him." Murph admitted. She rubbed her aching head again. "I'm sorry I froze you out over your fling with Julie. I misread that."

"Yeah, well. So did I." Getty admitted. "But in my defense, I wasn't exactly thinking real clearly when that particular Mistake happened."

"You don't need a defense, Gets. I'm not mad." Murph sipped her coffee and her head tilted. "Huh. I actually don't seem to be mad at anyone right now. Not even Brand." Murph almost laughed. "I've known the truth about Plan A for twenty hours and I spent as much of it as I could being very plastered. Imagine carrying that for more than thirty years. And my dad? I don't even blame him. I've got a nephew who lost his big brother. I've been home to see him maybe twice in four years, and my brother thinks it's because I don't care. Truth is, I just can't stand to look at them. Coop especially. He deserves to see my age at least, and he ain't gonna get there. I told myself that I'd go back when I had a solution, and a way to save them… but there isn't one. And there never was." She put her face in her hands. "I don't blame dad for bailing before watching it happen to me."

"Yeah, well. I don't think that's necessarily what happened." Getty rubbed her back gently.

She rolled her neck to look up at him. "Why do you have more faith in him than I do? You never even met him."

"Maybe not, but…" Getty hesitated, and finally spit it out. "I know you. And I know that he wouldn't leave without you. Not for money, not for fear, not for survival of the species." He paused for a microsecond before going further. "I couldn't leave you forever if I had a gun to my head; so I don't believe your father could."

She looked up at the earnest look on his face, and even as messed up as she was, she recognized that he'd just served his heart raw on a plate to her. It was less than a day since she had roasted him and sent him away. She had responded to her pain by spending the night at a drunken rave, and she wasn't even close to being rational about it yet. Part of her wanted to slap him harder, so that he'd get the message this time and just leave, like… Like everyone else had.

But she just couldn't do it.

"It should have been me and not Julie." Murph said suddenly. Did I just say that? He looks stunned. I must have said that out loud. "I should have stayed with you the night your father died. I'm sorry I didn't, but when I saw Julie showing up at your room, I lost my nerve." She reached out and squeezed his hand. "It should have been me."

"Well..." Getty said finally. "You don't owe me anything, least of all… that. But I needed you that night. Julie would tell you that I just needed to not be alone, and that was true, but I didn't want it to be 'just anyone'...and I didn't wait for you. I should have thanked Julie for her concern and come to see my best friend. I'm sorry if I hurt you by not-"

"No, Gets. You don't owe me any apologies for needing whatever it was you needed on the worst night of your life." Murph told him quickly. "And I feel like a total ice bitch for treating you like you did. We both grew up in a place where they called every Friday night a 'Dance' because nobody wanted to tell the ten year olds what went on in the Rec Room. We know the difference between what's necessary and what's real. When I heard the news, I went running to your room. My arms actually hurt, I wanted to hold you so badly." She rubbed her aching head and poured her heart out. "Your father had just died, and you'd been taking care of me all the time I was without mine. You deserved to have 'real' that night. I should have acted like an adult, and come in. I should have told Julie not to let the door hit her surgically-improved ass on the way out. You needed me, and chickening out because someone was thirty seconds faster wasn't right. It should have been me."

Getty took a shuddering breath. "I wanted it to be you."

Both of them were breathing a little hard, stunned into silence by the mutual confession.

"I have no idea what to say now." Murph admitted finally.

"Me neither." Getty said quietly.

Long silence.

"Surgically improved, huh?" Getty said finally.

"You couldn't tell? You're a doctor." She quipped, and knew they'd be okay.

Silence.

"It should have been me last night." Getty offered. "Worst night of your life, and I stayed back, waiting with hangover cures. I should have gotten you out of there right away."

"Gets, it's the same problem with the opposite solution. You needed to be cared for. I needed to not care. For that, it had to not be you." She'd woken up with her pants still on, but it was hardly the time to get into that. Murph rose, set her coffee down, and put his face between her hands. "Getty, it's not an exaggeration to say that you're the only person I still trust. I mean: In the world. Living or dead; the only one. You're holding me together right now. For a lot longer than now, in fact. But…"

"But." He repeated the magic word, turning red.

She made him look at her. "I'm not an idiot, Gets. You've gotten some offers from classier sources than Julie, and you don't even go to the parties. I know that calling you 'just a friend' all this time was like stabbing you in the heart." She had tears gathering, despite herself. "And believe me, I know what it feels like to get stabbed in the heart. What you need to understand is that there's no 'just' about it for me." She hugged him quickly. "But I can't. Not like this. Please don't think it's because I don't love you utterly; or because I don't take your place in my life seriously enough. You're my… well, my everything now. But I just can't go there. Not with anyone. Not until..."

Until what? She asked herself. Until the world is saved? You just found out that was a joke. What are you waiting for?

She could see the exact moment he decided to be a man about it. "Back in college, I saw some guys get really annoyed when their girlfriends got higher grades than them. I've known how much smarter than me you were since we were twelve. I wasn't angry about it, even once. I was twelve years old, and I knew you'd be the one to solve The Big Problem. I could see it. The first time I tried to tell you so, I came by your bunk with hot cocoa, and I saw you crying into your pillow, holding a picture of your dad."

Murph nodded, still holding his face, feeling like a lonely little kid again. She hadn't cried over her father's picture since she was fourteen. How long has he felt this way? How long have I? She pulled his face down to her neck and wrapped her arms around him, years late, but not too late for it to matter to him.

"I didn't have the nerve to say anything to you about it, but…" Getty sighed. "I made up my mind that I'd be the one thing in your life that was hassle free. A policy that I took too far, I admit." Getty hugged her back. "Murph, right now, you've got a much bigger job than making me happy. But I promise you this, while you're saving the world, someone has to make sure you stay healthy enough to finish the job. You're The One. I'm the one The One counts on. Not such a bad deal for me."

"You still believe in Plan A, then?" She wavered.

"I never believed in Plan A." Getty told her. "I believed in you. And I still do."

Murphy let out a breath and released him. "Faith?"

"Faith." He promised. "Murph, you've always needed trust more than you could ever want love. But… if you ever decide you are ready for both?"

"You're the only one I could ever ask." She promised. "Be patient with me a little longer?"

"Heh. Until the end of the world, anyway."

Murph kissed him, so soft she could barely feel his lips on hers, and went back to holding him for a very long time.

Ellie, also a bit hungover, came into Murph's office, hours later. The redhead was packing her reference works into boxes. "Everything okay?"

"Not really, but I'll live." Murph rubbed her head. "But yeah, better than they were."

"Good." Ellie said, stayed where she was.

Murph glanced up. "If you're sticking around, start pulling things off that shelf. I'm moving into Professor Brand's Office."

"Okay."

Murph looked back at her a few moments later. Ellie was taking things slowly off a shelf without taking her eyes off Murph. "Ellie, you can take me off the 'suicide watch'. I told you, I wasn't going to out the truth about Plan A to anyone." Murph assured her. "I had a bad day. I've been racing at breakneck speed towards a prize since I was twelve, and I just found out it was a mirage the whole time. Give me one weekend to have breakdown over it before you break out the butterfly nets?"

"One weekend is all it takes." Ellie told her. "I know, because… Well; Julie killed herself last night."

Murph looked up from her boxes sharply. "What?"

"At least, it looks that way." Ellie said sickly. "After the party, she was good and loaded. She went up to the surface, got in her 4x4, and drove full speed into a tree. It was the only tree for five hundred feet in any direction, and she had to go offroad to get to it. Could be she just passed out at the wheel, but..."

"Hell." Murph bowed her head for a moment. "Does Getty know?"

"He knows. He took it fairly well, all things considered. Whatever you said to him this morning must have helped."

Murph shook her head. "I feel terrible. I treated her like-"

"Never to her face." Ellie told her. "This wasn't you. This wasn't even Brand. It's a fact of life you can't confess to suicide. Losing hope is what finished her off." She stayed right at Murph's side, as though expecting her to run away, or turn into smoke. "So I'm asking… You still have any left for yourself?"

"Hope? Not sure. Faith?" Murph asked, glancing over at the door, as though he'd be there. "Yeah, I got handed some of that just this morning. Enough to keep going."

"I'm glad." Ellie said quietly. "Because… it's on you now. To keep that illusion of hope going for us. You're the only one left that understands even a fraction of what's on those chalkboards, let alone what's wrong with the equations, so-"

"It's not enough." Murph told her. "I won't be satisfied with a comforting lie. I'm not stopping until this thing is solved. For real. Brand gave up on us. So did my dad. I haven't."

Somewhere, in another galaxy, Joseph Cooper fired the retros that would get him back into orbit, away from the time dilation of Gargantua. Even gaining the altitude would take months and months of objective time, but that couldn't be helped.

Cooper's hands were so tight on the controls he heard them creak. Nobody said a word. They'd waited impatiently for the engines to drain, knowing that every second was irretrievable.

Amelia, on his left, didn't look much better. But of all of them, she started to speak. "Do not go gentle into that good night…"

Murph started sorting her new office from the late professor's belongings. The only book that was open on the Professor's desk was a book of verse, including the old man's favorite.

As much as she hated him for the lifetime of lies, Murph found herself clinging to the words herself, feeling the weight of her mission settling on her shoulders. "Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night."

Cooper shivered as he looked down at the planet they left, and the same wave that had killed Miller, still making its slow journey across the surface of the water world, and the next one that cost them so long giving chase. Despite himself, he followed along with Amelia.

"Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Down in medbay, Getty slowly packed Julie's things, her body in a freezer behind him; as he boxed up her personal effects. He'd heard The Professor reciting the words like a mantra, and felt their weight on him now.

"Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night."

Covering the box with Julie's name on it, he slid the box into storage, with all the others; and added the paperwork to the file. So far, the count was up to seventeen suicides in the last year, even on Lazarus Base. He was responsible for sending the remains home to their families.

"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Murph had moved her things into the Pr- into her office. Her last act was to take the photos of the Lazarus Astronauts down. She had hesitated over her father's face, before taking that one down too, letting him go, as she had with the Professor. She was starting over completely.

"And you, my father, there on the sad height," Murph said quietly, not knowing if she meant the words for her dad, or for the Professor.
"Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Chapter Text

Reading the journal, Cooper let out a low sob. Reading of the lowest moment in his daughter's extraordinary life was hard, but the notes about suddenly feeling the call of 'her ghost' resonated with him powerfully. While he wasn't certain, that would have been about the time he had made it back into orbit after losing so many years to time.

Amelia thought that love transcended distance and time. Cooper thought to himself. Maybe on some level, Murph knew where to find me all along.

Amelia. He thought. What happens to her now that Plan A worked?

And as hard as it was to read the low points, Cooper was living proof that it got better. So he kept reading.

Murph started from scratch, ignoring Brand's whiteboard. She had always worked out her problems on a notepad. It was how she had done her homework, the problems her father gave her, almost all of the training with Brand…

And her ghost. She had worked out her ghost's messages on paper.

The longer she worked, the more she wanted to go back to that moment and check. She wanted to go home. She hated being in that house, but it suddenly felt like the answer was there somewhere.

But she hadn't been back in that room since grandpa died, and she hadn't wanted to be there since dad left. This was her home now.

She kept working, and figured out the snag.

"Gravity, Motion, Time." Murph explained to Getty. He couldn't understand half the things on the board, but he was spending more and more time with her, and she was glad to have it. Brand had spent his life locked in the office, mostly alone with his own thoughts. If that had been what lead to his monstrous Lie, Murph would gladly work in a funhouse before letting her own thoughts take that path. "Here's how it works: Everything in physics is covered by one of two theories: General Relativity, and Quantum Field Theory. The first covers Gravity; only visible on a planetary scale. The other covers everything else. Nuclear forces, Electromagnetism, all of it."

"Okay." Getty nodded.

"The thing is, the two fields disagree on how gravity works at a quantum scale. In science, you either find data to support a theory by observation, or experimentation. But there just isn't anywhere on earth you can do that. The last hundred and fifty years of theoretical physics has been trying to reconcile Quantum Mechanics with Relativity."

"Oh, is that all?" Getty drawled.

"I know, I know." Murph smiled a bit, despite herself. "One of the main points of disagreement between Quantum Field, and Relativity; is how a Singularity works. The kind you would find in a black hole. Like the one on the other side of the wormhole." Murph stilled, feeling the anger building towards Brand all over again. "If he'd just sent the Lazarus Missions to Gargantua instead of the planets in its orbit, we might have gotten the data needed to finish the formula."

"And if it hadn't worked, he'd have thrown all our eggs, and the basket, into a black hole." Getty pointed out. "That's why there's a Plan B."

"Because the old man, in his eternal wisdom, figured that if he couldn't imagine a black hole in his head well enough to invent the math, then surely nobody else could do it in real life; despite the fact that we got given a hell of a shortcut." Murph scorned. "But without those ships, or anyone else that can make the flight to Jupiter, that's what I have to do now. Invent a Black Hole in my imagination..."

"You'll need coffee."

"We have coffee?" Murph was awed. "I thought it was extinct!"

"It is, but… well, Lazarus has some, vacuum sealed. From the old days. You're head of the Science Department now. Rank hath its privilege."

Murph let out a moan. It had been unspoken since The Night she admitted feelings for him. It felt like something new, but familiar between them. Something that had always been there. Murph knew what the 'something' was. But she hadn't saved the world yet, so 'love' wasn't on the table. But the prospect of him bringing her actual coffee had made her realize all over again just how much she…

She shook her head. Back to work!

Murph had been studying the equation longer than she could remember. Troubleshooting the first part of the formula was actually fairly simple. Figuring out where it suddenly broke down was equally straightforward. After a week, she had made it halfway to the finish line.

The other half was as impossible as ever, and Murph finally understood why. She wasn't chasing ghosts any more.

Getty brought her food, as always. She made a point of showing more gratitude than she usually had. They were touching each other more than they used to. Innocent, friendly; just this side of flirty. Her connection to him was growing, but neither of them dared mention it.

"Murph, check your messages, would you?" Getty said patiently. "You tablet has been flashing this indicator light since breakfast."

Derailed from her thoughts, Murph obeyed. She had forty messages from her sister-in-law, all of them variations on the same three words. 'Where Are You?!'

Murph cursed, loudly and fluently enough to make Getty cover his ears. She had completely forgotten. "Listen, I need you to make a house call."

"Tourette's Syndrome?" He quipped, and Murph blushed.

She spent the next few minutes explaining to him, as best she could, the situation at home. "I meant to bring it up a week ago, but of course, that was the night Brand died, and everything just got…" She shook her head. "That's no excuse, I know. He's my nephew, and I forgot."

"Don't be too hard on yourself. You've told me about Tom's obsession with keeping the farm going. I doubt he'd be okay with them coming here, let alone a stranger in his house." Getty offered. "Especially since…"

"Since I know what the prognosis will be." Murph nodded. "Tom won't let you bring him here."

"I figured." Getty said grimly. "I think your dad's leaving screwed him up worse than you."

"I think so too. And after this week, that's saying something." Murph admitted. "His anger at dad was what kept him on the farm until Jesse died; and after that he was committed. He couldn't admit he was wrong after losing his son." She rubbed her eyes. "It was bad, Gets. I can't sit through one meal with my brother without things getting… distant. There's just this canyon between us ever since Jesse died."

Getty said nothing to that, just listening.

"Okay, maybe a lot longer than that." Murphy admitted. "Before Dad found out about Lazarus, education was a real thing for him. I got suspended from school because my dad and I were taking on my teachers for suggesting the Moon Landings were real."

Getty snorted. "I heard about that sort of thing happening everywhere. There are some places that are an inch away from offering human sacrifices to keep the harvests coming in."

Murph chuckled. "Yeah. Tom went to High School, took Advanced Agriculture, I came here and was tutored in physics." She rubbed her eyes. "And then I royally screwed it up."

"What do you mean?"

"When I went home to visit? Tom was having trouble with Plant Pathology. He wanted the class to help with the Blight on the farm, and… I told him it was easy." She smiled tightly. "Y'know, just botany."

"Like fingerpaints." They chorused the words, and Getty laughed at the age old rivalry between the Base's science teams. It had been a running joke for longer than either of them had been alive.

Murph sobered. "Tom didn't find it so funny. He spent five years in school and had to repeat a few classes, while trying to run a full time farm, and the usual high school gauntlet at the same time. Then his little sister comes home and spends the visit patronizing him about science? He's trying to feed the whole town with sick crops, while his fifteen year old sister is in a nice antiseptic base, getting fed three squares a day, bragging about what she's learning in Quantum Mechanics? The sort of thing that's useful to NASA's hail mary plan, but not to people trying to eat dust." She rubbed her eyes. "Grandpa kept the veneer of family going, but then I tried giving Jesse the equivalency tests; and Tom nearly attacked me over it. There's a whole…" She shook her head. "They hate us, Gets. Outside the Base? They hate people like us. They put anyone with a PHD in the same category as the people who came up with the Bio-Blasts, the Resource Wars, the H-Bomb…"

"They may actually have a point." He reminded her. "The world didn't just 'happen' to fall apart."

"I know, but when I told Tom that I was working on a way to save the human race by abandoning earth, he nearly took a swing at me. It's like there's a wall between people covered in dust, and people who aren't. They're trying to claw their next meal out, and we're in here scribbling on chalkboards all day without dust choking us. They hate us for it."

She could feel him tense. "And you're going back?"

"Relax. I've been wrassling my brother since I was seven years old. I can take him." She gave him a grin. "And I'm taking you along to protect me."

"Protect you, and see if I can find a door number three." Getty said grimly. "Because if Coop has… what we both think he has, then either he'll die; or he'll have to live here. Either way will split your family all over again.

"I know." Murph shook her head. "Lois looked so scared, Gets. She wanted to say yes, and she was scared to ask for help from anyone on Base. But it's Bad enough that she's willing to go behind Tom's back. She's told me when he's going to be out on the fields, and we need to time our visit precisely."

"I'll be ready." Getty promised instantly, just as she knew he would. "Come to think of it, I haven't been off Base since dad died."

"It'll be an eye-opener then. It's harder to ignore the Doomsday Clock when you're off base." Murph confessed. "This is the only place where I don't need to sleep in a facemask, or put a cloth over my plate between bites. That damn dust is just… everywhere."

"A person can get used to anything." Getty chuckled. "Alright, I'll get my medical kit together."

"Bring a jar of lollipops." Murph told him. "It's traditional."

They talked about her work on the drive, for the simple reason that she wasn't ready to talk about her brother yet, and there was nothing else in their shared life, beyond their almost romance. Neither of them were ready for that topic either.

"Starting over from scratch let me figure out the truth from fiction with Plan A." Murph explained. "The equation isn't wrong, it's incomplete. He only has half the variables. The gravity formula is, literally, half done."

"How do we get the other half?"

"Out there? A black hole. Here on earth… I don't know." Murph sighed.

Getty felt her tense beside him. They both knew where to find a Black Hole. It was on the other side of the Wormhole. "You think that 'They' opened the Wormhole because they knew that?"

Murph stilled. "I have no idea what 'They' had planned, but I'm fairly sure this isn't it." She said finally.

Getty felt for her. The Black Hole was the answer, and there was nobody left to get it. The Lazarus Missions were over. There was nothing left to launch. Murph could tell them exactly where to look, but there was nobody left to build a spaceship, and little left to build it from. All the people who knew how had retired or died. Everyone else was fighting over food.

Her father would have been in a perfect position to help his daughter save the world, if he was only alive to answer them. But even hinting at the thought was a raw nerve that could do nothing but hurt.

The road was filling up with cars, and more dust. Murph pulled over to let them pass. The entire town was moving out, Migrating away from the Dust Bowl. Murph was glad the dust was so thick. She didn't want to see them. She knew all their faces, all their names. She grew up in this town.

"What are they hoping to find?" Getty asked, watching the dozen or so carloads of people with all their possessions lashed to the rooftops.

"Survival." Murph said with grim familiarity. "They want to leave this town and find a way to stay alive. We want to leave the planet for the same reason."

"True enough, I guess."

Getty wanted to tell people, deep down. He was the only one left to keep the faith in anything, let alone humanity. He wasn't wrong, thinking that she was acting like Professor Brand. But Murph knew the difference. Brand hadn't been working all that time. He was just playing out the motions, keeping Plan B in play. His work had ended the moment his daughter launched with those Embryos. That's why the journal entries stopped.

Why did he take me on? Guilt? Hope?

Such thoughts chased her as Getty gave her nephew a physical. Lois couldn't stop looking out the windows, watching for Tom.

Murph steeled her nerves and did something she hadn't done in ten years. She went back to her old room.

It was like stepping into a time machine. Lois wasn't kidding when she said it had been kept the way she left it. She could practically see her younger self putting her father's watch on that shelf and leaving it there…

Coop came and checked on her. Murph realized that she'd been communing with the room vacantly for almost twenty minutes. That feeling was back, that she was with her ghost. That he was trying to tell her something. That she needed to be here.

But she shook it off and went back downstairs.

Lois was getting a physical herself, and Getty was not smiling. He put a friendly smile on his face when Murph brought the boy back into the kitchen, and asked Coop to hop up on the table, but it was just procedure. Getty had his diagnosis already.

"Lois too?" Murph said inaudibly.

Getty gave her a hard look. "They cannot stay here."

Murph wasn't surprised, but it made the tension jump another notch. If they couldn't stay; then the next problem would be telling Tom. And that was when it struck her suddenly: Lois had been keeping watch, but if she was being examined too, then-

Tom walked in. He was surprised to see a stranger with a stethoscope, but less so when he saw his sister. "What's going on here?!"

Okay, here we go. Murph steeled herself. "Tom-"

He was already squaring off with Getty.

Murph went into a semi-crouch automatically. Tom wasn't going to be reasoned with. "Your neighbors have already migrated, and so has most of the town. They all know it. They can't stay here anymore, Tom."

Getty chimed in. "You need to leave." He said, feeling the adrenaline spike. Getty had done relief work and humanitarian missions to areas still sick from the Bio-Blasts. He knew when there was a lynching coming. During those missions, the Doctors had survived by putting the focus elsewhere. "Let me be very clear: You have a responsibility to-"

Pow! Tom punched Getty right across the mouth, and went to the sink indifferently before he hit the floor. "Get her things, Coop. She's leaving."

The casual nature of the violence made Murph certain that Lois hadn't told her everything. Tom was getting violent, and he knew why Murph was back so soon. "Dad didn't raise you to be this dumb, Tom."

"Dad didn't raise me. Grandpa did. And he's buried out back with mom and Jesse." Tom still sounded so… unconcerned.

"Look, if you're not going to go, at least let your family go. Save your family."

"And what?" Tom said with barely contained hostility, squaring up to her. "Live underground with you? Wait for daddy to come save us?"

And there it was. He still thought she was trying to chase after their father. Getty had been right. Dad leaving had screwed Tom up as much as her. She was trying to find him, Tom was trying to take over his role.

Murph let out a breath, and told him the secret she'd held back from her family until now. "Dad's not coming back. He was never coming back. It's up to me now."

It had been her mantra since the night they'd buried Brand, but Tom wasn't getting it. "So, if dad couldn't do it, you will; is that it?" He was derisive, scornful. He hadn't gotten it.

"Dad didn't even try!" Murph flat out raged at him. "He abandoned us! All of us! He left us here to die!" Get that through your head, brother. Stop thinking about what dad would do. He's not a good role model when it comes to saving your kids.

But it was the worst thing to tell Tom. Telling him that their father knew the earth, and the farm was a lost cause? Telling Tom that he needed his little sister to keep his family alive? That was worse.

"What are you gonna do?" Murph demanded. "Wait for another of your kids to die?!"

It was too far, but she wasn't sorry. She wanted to shock him out of The Old Argument. To at least get some kind of reaction out of him. And she got one. For a split second, Tom was ready to haul off and swing at her. Murph didn't flinch, ready for it. He'd swing, she'd rear back, and he'd be wide open. Just like every wrestling match they'd had since they were kids. Bring it, dumbass! I'm ready for you!

But Tom didn't strike. She was almost disappointed. She was feeling twenty years worth of frustration and bitterness and lies pushing at her from every direction, just being back in their kitchen. She wanted to hit something so much she would have taken an axe to the walls if she'd had one.

"Get. Out." Tom said seriously. "And don't come back. Ever."

Coop was coming down the stairs quietly, carrying a box of Murph's things.

"Keep my stuff." She told him, wiping back tears. "I don't need anything from this house."

Lois was trembling. Getty looked the question to her, but Lois' eyes flicked to her husband, and she shook her head, barely.

"He's doubling down on the wrong choice." Murph snarled, gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were white. "He's just so pissed at dad that he's going to stay right where he was when he left, and he'll kill himself waiting for dad to come back and face him before admitting that it's over."

"It's his call, Murph."

"Yes, it is. And I wouldn't care at all, except that he's going to take the rest of the family down with him." Murph growled. "And I am so sick of stupid, arrogant men making choices for my family without a word."

"Murph, take it from a doctor: Patient consent is the one thing that overrides even Hippocrates." He looked at her sideways. "And for a woman who was determined not to come back until the world could be saved, you seem to be taking it awful personally."

Murph forced herself to relax, fractionally. "I am, aren't I?" She sighed. "God, just being back in that house…"

The feeling came back. It was so strong now. Like any other time she thought of her father, she could feel it like a tether pulling her back to her old bedroom.

That house, where her grandfather died, waiting out a clock he could barely bring himself to care about. That house, where her father had taught her that anything that could happen, would happen. That house, where he'd tried to say goodbye to her, and she wouldn't even look at him. But she, at ten years old, doubled down on her anger too long, and even running after his taillights couldn't undo it.

That house, where the next generation was trying desperately to keep breathing, while Tom doubled down on the wrong choice…

Just like me, doubling down on Brand's Plan A, on his refusal to tell the truth...

Murph let her face turn to stone again, and slammed both feet on the brake pedal. No.

Getty had no idea what she was going to do, but he was on board.

Murph had the spare fuel tank in one hand, and a road flare in the other within seconds. The dust was tearing at her face and hands, but she barely felt it.

Lois was already packing when they got back to the house. "You burned the crops?"

"I figured it's the one thing that'd get him out of the way." Murph declared, heading inside. "Be glad, Lois. I'm an inch away from burning the whole goddamn house down on general principle!"

There were one or two things Lois couldn't part with from her bedroom, and Murph left Getty to keep watch. Upstairs, the three of them crammed everything into a box. Murph felt her gaze shifting back to her old room; even under current circumstances, she couldn't stop looking back at the door.

Lois noticed caught her arm. "Bring your father's things." She said intensely. "Some of them, at least."

Murph was caught off guard.

"I know it hurts." Lois said, not unkindly. "It does for Tom, too. But I don't think we'll ever be back, and…"

Lois didn't have to finish that, and Murph shooed her extended family downstairs to the car.

Leaving her alone. At her bedroom door. With the Ghosts.

Defying Tom was equal parts reckless and nessecary. She wasn't about to see reason now. Squaring her shoulders, she went into her old room; and made a beeline for the box of her father's things.

Most of it she barely remembered. She remembered the model Lunar Lander, broken in half, when her Ghost had knocked it off the shelf. She put the two halves together again, and put the model back on the bookshelf.

She remembered the watch. He'd taken it from his pocket and given it to her. She'd thrown it across the room. It had stopped ticking at that point, though the second hand still twitching, trying to turn; even after all these years.

A few stuffed toys, things that had been hand-me-downs… But she wasn't looking at them. She was looking back at the model. The first thing her Ghost had knocked off the shelf. The first hint she'd had that there was something going on in her room...

"All right, ghost. I'm here." She hissed at her bookshelves. "You showed me once, straight as a line, how to get where you needed me. I was ten. I had no clue. Times have changed. You opened the door to the Black Hole. You got me to Brand, so I could learn what I needed. Tell me where to go next… Or have you given up on us too?"

No answer.

Of course not, idiot. Murph shook her head hard, as if trying to clear a fog. She felt… connected. Like there was something drawing her back to this room, to the moment when she'd first wondered about her own personal poltergeist.

But that was silly, of course. It was twenty years later now…

She was holding the chair. Her desk chair. Why was she doing that?

The memories were coming thick and fast now. She'd barricaded the door, flopped on her bed…

Murph looked down and found she was indeed sitting on her bed, like her younger self had taken over for a minute.

"Murph!" She heard her father calling frantically.

She shook her head hard again. No, not her father; Getty. He was outside, wasn't he?

Which brought her back to the bookshelf; because for a minute, just a minute, she was hearing him again; getting a message, just like…

Just like when she was a kid, reading Morse Code in the spaces on her bookshelf… She had spun around and was pulling the notebook out of the box. The old notepad she had written in, translating the message.

"Stay." Murph whispered. Oh god, I'm going insane! I'm losing my mind, right now; I can feel it!

But it was twenty years later now, and she knew that time wasn't always a constant, knew that things didn't have to happen in a straight line…

"When I'm up there…" Her father had told her, the last time they'd spoken; the day he'd given her the watch. "...In hypersleep, or travelling near the speed of light, or near a black hole, time's gonna change for me. It's gonna run more slowly. When we get back… We'll compare."

"Time will run differently for us." Murph heard herself whisper, the same way she had as a girl.

Why would my Ghost have told me to stay here when I was a girl?!

And then Murph realized why it felt so familiar. It wasn't memories. It wasn't nostalgia. There was an actual presence in the room. One that she recognized, because every other time she'd been with her Ghost, he'd been there too.

"It was you…" Murph breathed. "You were my ghost?"

She was moving forward again, like a dream. Looking at her bookshelf. Tossing dust around, hoping for another message...

"Murph! The fire's out! Come on!" Getty was yelling from outside.

Does a crazy person know they're crazy? Murph thought absently.

"Murph, I can see them coming back! Come on!"

Murph shook her head. "Okay. I'm coming."

She grabbed the watch, and was about to scoop it into the box when the second hand caught her off guard. She had seen something; and it made her feet freeze. She kept staring to make sure. Just like listening to the last signals from those dusty, dying towns…

She stared another few seconds to make sure. She could hear the engines of her brother's truck, plus a few others; but she was a million miles away. She wasn't imagining it. The second hand of the watch was signalling. It wasn't slipping a gear, or the twitch would be constant and rhythmic. This was something else entirely.

There were a dozen things with moving parts in the room. Two different clocks. But the one that she had been drawn to, the one tapping out Morse Code, was her father's watch. A more blatant suggestion she couldn't imagine. It was practically a signature. Like the message 'stay', written in Morse.

"Dad?" Murph almost whimpered at the watch's face.

When she came running out of the house, Tom was there, squaring up to Getty. He was going to murder someone, covered in soot and blackened by the fire she'd set. Lois and Coop were trembling in the back of her 4x4, but she barely registered any of it.

With a huge smile, she waved the watch at him like it explained everything. "He didn't abandon us!"

Tom knew who she was talking about, but had no clue what she meant.

"It was him, this whole time!" Murph was laughing, tears streaming down her face, like she'd seen a holy sign. "Dad's gonna save us!"

Tom was too confused by her apparent mental collapse to get violent. Getty secretly wondered if that was Murph's plan to get them out alive, but doubted it.

Lois was scared to death of which way this was going to come down, and immediately opened her door. "Tom, thank god you're here!" She said quickly. "They've gone crazy! She's gone crazy! Telling us to get in the car, or else."

Tom was still fixated on his sister, who was still fixated on the watch. "Go back inside, Lois."

His wife nodded quickly, and took Coop, who was getting annoyed by the constant false starts. Lois sent Getty a quick, betrayed look as she went back inside.

Getty was mad as hell when they started driving back to Base. "We went through all that to save your nephew and his mom." He bit out. "And at the last second, she had to pretend we were doing it against her will. Murph, you haven't gone crazy on me, have you?"

"Don't be mad at me just yet, Gets." Murph said with a grin. "I swore I wouldn't go back without a solution. What I didn't realize was that I got that backwards. I didn't find the solution until I went back." She had a strange, vaguely unhealthy gleam in her eyes. "I can do it, Gets. I can save everyone!"

Murph had locked herself in her office for two days. Getty brought her food, but she wouldn't open the door for him. Her eyes were glued to the watch, writing down each subtle flick of the second hand. She couldn't pause the motion, and if she took her eyes off it, she'd miss valuable data. When she ran out of page, it would be a race to get to the next one before she missed something.

It wasn't the formula. It wasn't the holy grail she'd been after. But it was the data. It was all the numbers that described gravity at both the astronomical and quantum level. The question mark that had been the only blindspot in the unified field theory. The only thing without data to back it up.

Data that filled in the gaps, if you knew how to read it. If you knew how it related to quantum mechanics, and how both things related to general relativity.

Murph kept recording the movements until she was very positive that she was repeating herself. If she had been wrong, if she had taken her eyes off the watch, even missing one number would be like moving a decimal place.

The data took almost a day to give a full revolution. Murph wrote the entire Morse Code message out a second time, start to finish; just to make very sure she hadn't made any mistakes.

It was exhilarating. It was the most focused she'd been in months. The most certain she'd ever felt. She could have gone forever. A lifetime of all-nighters, cramming sessions, and exacting tests from the sharpest minds left alive had all been building to this. Years of keeping others at arms length, avoiding social situations and going without food or sleep had given her the physical and mental endurance to work non-stop. She'd been training her whole life for this.

When the data began looping a third time, she put the watch down and her hand rebelled, cramping from the position it had been in for almost thirty-nine hours.

Murph didn't know Morse Code as well as her father did. She'd been taught it, but she'd never had need of it. But NASA had copies of every digital and analogue transmission format ever invented, and she began translating.

The code was in a repeating sequence; like a constant mobius loop. Once she figured out where the first number was, she finally had the data.

After that, it was just a matter of finishing the equation. The point where Brand had pretended to be at for thirty years.

Having reached that point, Murph suddenly realized how long she'd been at it, and bolted for the bathroom. That done, she also noticed how hungry she was, and she went to the door. There were three food trays stacked on Julie's desk, untouched.

Getty. Murph took the top tray and crammed the slightly stale sandwich in her mouth, drinking the melted jello soon after. You told him you couldn't. Now that the hard part is done…

In a day full of electrifying hope for the future, this thought still made her giggle to herself a bit. Well, after this long, don't I deserve to celebrate, just a little?

She couldn't stop smiling. She had it. The data was there, in her office; right in front of her. The Holy Grail and the Rosetta Stone alike. Her father had sent it to her. In her old bedroom. Twenty years later, and still helping me with my homework, showing up my teachers.

Having eaten, she knew she should have slept, but there was no chance she'd be able to.

"So, dad." She said to her father's watch. "Now that we've got all the pieces to the puzzle, let's see how long it takes to figure out what the picture should look like."

"I'm worried about her." Getty said for the fifth time in three hours.

"She's gone on work binges before, Gets." Ellie told him soothingly. "She's still wearing her bio-monitors, and she's not redlining yet. In fact, her readings say she's happy."

"Ellie, she's been in here for almost three straight days without food, water, or sleep." Getty said. "I'm a doctor. Take my word for it, a smile only takes you so far." He rubbed the back of his neck. "And the… the way she was grinning when we drove back to the Base…"

"You think 'happy' is code for 'finally cracked'?"

"It was a watch, Ellie. She thinks she found it in a watch that wasn't ticking." Getty stood up. "I'm going to go kick her office door in. If I don't like what I see, I'm bringing her straight to you; to be restrained and medicated as needed."

"Well you go, girl." Ellie snorted, nonplussed.

Getty was marching to Murph's office so fast he almost didn't notice her going in the opposite direction at a jog. She was thumbing through a dozen sheets of notepad paper, and almost missed him as well, but she grabbed his arm with a giddy smile, hauling him along with her as she made it to the central shaft, looking out across the entire circular Base.

Almost climbing over the handrail, Murph threw half the papers out across the chamber. "EUREKA!"

Her joyous cry was so emotional and heartfelt (two things which were in desperately short supply) that half the Base was watching her immediately.

Murph turned back to Getty like she was dancing in a dream, seeing his disturbed expression. "It's traditional." She excused… before throwing her arms around him and giving him a passionate kiss.

He was so surprised he didn't get a chance to kiss her back, before she'd already broken off, and thrown the rest of her papers out into the air; crying Eureka! again, laughing euphorically… Before spinning around and kissing him again.

This time he was ready, and kissed her back. Getty forgot about his worries in an instant. He'd been waiting years for this, and he eagerly enjoyed every soaring heartbeat of it.

Word spread fast. So fast, in fact, that Ellie was waiting when they got back to Murph's office. Murph had her hand on Getty's arm possessively, leading him towards their nearest bet for privacy.

"The whole Base is buzzing. And your bio-monitors spiked a few minutes ago." Ellie said lightly, looking them both over. "Please tell me it's office gossip and tiger beat lust. Because the alternative is something far more… hopeful."

"Any reason it can't be both?" Getty quipped, hoping she'd leave immediately.

No such luck. "Murph, Gets came to me half an hour ago, worried for you. He says your reaction to your father's watch was incomprehensible, bordering on unstable."

Murph sent Getty a look. "Being excited is unstable? Archimedes leapt from his bathtub and ran down the street naked, shouting 'Eureka' when he made his breakthrough!"

Getty held his hands up, realizing The Moment was over. "Murph, your brother and I were getting ready to have a knife fight, and you were dancing around your father's broken watch."

Murph settled instantly. "You're right. I'm sorry. My brain got ahead of my mouth. I was the bane of every teacher I had, before Brand." She forced herself to take a deep breath and sit at her desk. "Ellie, you can contact… whoever it is Brand answered to, and tell him that in the wake of his tragic demise, the formula is finished."

Dead silence.

"Start at the beginning." Ellie said, voice raw. "Tell me everything."

"You have, repeatedly, sworn that you don't understand the math."

"I don't, but I know that the math hasn't be the problem for thirty years. So what changed when you went home?"

Murph glanced at Getty. "Gets, shut the door."

He did so, and both her friends sat down.

"Ellie, tell me something." Murph began. "Do you believe in ghosts?"

The energy in the Base was palpable. They all knew who Murph was, what she was working on, and what could make someone cry 'eureka', let alone laugh joyously and start closed door meetings.

By the time evening chow was being served in the Cafeteria, the Base was all on the edge of their seats. In her office, Murph had managed to get the whole story out.

"You realize, of course, that you can't tell anyone about this." Ellie said carefully, once the story was done.

"You think I've gone crazy. Just like Tom did." Murph rolled her eyes. "You, of all people."

"Of all people? Murph, your fixation on your father leaving has been the driving force of your life for twenty years. Ditto this formula, which you just found out was always a con-job. Add to that the heartbreak of being lied to by your surrogate dad, and the extra pain of losing him; plus the pressure of the whole Base expecting you to save the human race by rewriting the laws of physics…"

"Ellie, that's exactly the point." Murph said intensely, pointing at the pictures of the wormhole. "We have physical proof that higher dimensional beings can control space-time, and use gravity to cross dimensions. That's what all this was based on. The whole Lazarus Project exists because of those Gravity Anomalies. Is it so hard to think that people who exist outside of time might have given us the whole solution; and it just took us this long to work out the message?"

"Doesn't sound hard to believe at all; but most people don't know about the Wormhole, or the Gravity Anomalies, or this station at all." Ellie reminded her. "Or, for that matter, that the world is doomed. You've got a lot of difficult concepts to get across to a bunch of people who don't believe the moon landings happened. You think the idea that you're being haunted by your long-lost father from the fifth dimension is going to get them to take you seriously?"

Murph stopped moving so fast it was almost comical. "You're right." She said finally. "This is going to take some careful diplomacy."

"Social politics are not your strongest brand of Kung-Fu, kid." Ellie reminded her. "So walk softly with this one for a while."

Murph bit her lip. "You're right. I need a plan."

"And before you do any of that, you need Proof of Concept." Getty put in. "I'll be honest with you, Murph. This equation? It's gibberish to me. So was the stuff Brand had been putting on these blackboards for decades. In fact, he made sure it was. The fact that nobody understood what any of this meant is the way he was able to fake it for so long."

"My brother." Murph said immediately. "If I can convince him, I can convince anyone." She turned back to her laptop. "Ellie, find Howard."

"Engineering? Why?"

"Why else do you call an engineer? I have something I need to get built."

Ellie went to fetch the head of their Engineering team, and Getty hurried to catch up with her. "You believe any of this?"

"It's clear that she believes it." Ellie offered.

"Which is not at all what I asked."

"You want to know if your office crush has had a psychotic break." Ellie nodded.

"She's a lot more than that to me."

"I know." The psychologist sighed. "Look, she wasn't wrong when she said that all our work is wrapped in the hope that extra-dimensional beings are trying to save us. I'm not a physicist; but I've seen Back to the Future enough times to hope she might be onto something."

"But the idea that it's her father?"

"It's… hard to believe." Ellie conceded.

"Which is psychiatrist-speak for 'whacko'." Getty said harshly.

"Look, I know Murph. If she needs to see her father in a dream to get inspired, that's fine with me." Ellie said simply. "The rate of suicide on the Base is up another nine percent. Seventeen people this year, and counting. Fifteen thousand a day are suffocating, globally. If the formula works, I don't care if Elvis or Bigfoot gave it to her."

"What if it doesn't work? Getty asked quietly. It was the closest he could come to asking 'what if she's just lost her mind?'

Ellie sighed. "Then she's going to need you with her when she realizes it."

Lois was ready to strangle Murph when she came back to the farm a week later. "You bitch!" She snarled. "I came to you for help! I was already packed! I was begging for my kid's life, and- what is this?!"

Murph and Getty were carrying a large footlocker between them, heading for the barn. "Well, if it works, this is what's going to save all our lives." Murph said cheerfully. "You're going to love this, Lois."

Lois was staring at her sister-in-law, trying not to cry. After a moment, she let them go, and turned to go back into the house.

Getty felt for her; and took the opportunity to have words with Murph. "Last time we were here, we weren't nearly as much help as she needed. Please acknowledge that some time before show and tell? We all but offered to kidnap her so she wouldn't have to face Tom, and then we left her to face the consequences without us because of that watch."

Inside the barn, Murph pulled off her mask, and turned to him. "Gets, I know that part of you thinks I'm cracked. But trust me, this is going to work. And when it does, Lois and Coop will have all the time in the world."

Tom came storming into the barn. "Murph! I told you to get off my farm and not come back!"

Murph, over at the foundations to the Barn, spun back to smile at him. "No vehicles left?"

"Not in here. The tractor is out on the back forty. We're spraying anti-blight as fast as-" Tom caught himself. "You need to leave!"

"Tom, I know you hate me, but trust me: This was all worth it."

"Oh, so your little seance with dad's watch was successful then." Tom scorned.

"Tom, no fooling: This is going to be bigger than the Wright Brothers!" Murph enthused. "I haven't done this before, because I needed you to see this moment before I showed anyone else." She actually reached out and gave her brother a hug. "This is going to change the world forever!"

Tom wasn't impressed, wasn't even intrigued. He was sad for her. He didn't even talk to her, looking to Getty. "She just flipped like a pancake, didn't she?"

Getty couldn't meet his gaze.

"Whatever you did to my barn, undo it; and then get lost." Tom turned to leave them alone, not even bothering to see if they were obeying.

"What I've done, is turn your barn into the first thing to fly without wings, hot air, or fuel." Murph chased after him, putting her arm in his. "Let's get the others together. They're going to want to see this too!"

Fifteen feet from the Barn, Lois held young Coop tight against her, both of them facing the structure. Tom was beside them, arms folded. Getty had drifted closer to Murph, who held the remote in one hand, counting it down; with a dangerous gleam in her eye. "Five! Four!"

Young enough to be excited, Coop counted it down with her. "Three! Two! One!"

Getty tensed so hard his limbs hurt when they reached zero. Either Murph was right about everything, or the pressure had finally driven his brilliant beloved into total delusion; and here was the moment of truth.

"Blast off." Murph's voice dropped to a hushed whisper, and she hit the controls.

Nothing.

Frowning, Murph hit the controls again.

Nothing.

Getty deflated. He wanted so badly for this to work out for her, but it hadn't. The formula was a bust. The hard part now, would be trying to keep Murph from losing it completely when she realized she'd imagined the whole thing.

"It doesn't work." Murph whispered. Horror and confusion crossed her face. "Why doesn't it work?"

"Because you were looking for the meaning of life in a broken watch?" Tom guessed dryly. "Can't imagine what the trouble with that plan was."

"Will you get off it already!?" Murph rounded on him. "You can tear me up all you want, but it won't help anyone survive what's coming! You have any idea what's really going on on here?!"

"Murph." Getty tried to hold her back. Lois was doing the same for Tom.

Nobody noticed Coop wandering back into the barn. The machine that Aunt Murph had built wasn't like any of the sci-fi stuff that his dad had been describing when he went on his rants about 'the damn eggheads'. In fact, it looked a lot like some of the battery generators that they used on their farm equipment. Tom had told his son about his namesake's talent with machinery, and Coop had inherited the knack from his grandfather.

Noticing something in the works that struck him as important, Coop started fiddling with the switches.

"Tom, I'm telling you; there's nothing else it could be!" Murph was insistent, almost crazed. "How can you not follow this? You grew up in that house the same as I did! You heard dad talking about-"

"Oh, here we go." Tom scorned. "How many more ways are you gonna find to call me dumb? You know the difference between you and me, Egghead? The stuff I make actually keeps people alive. What's on those chalkboards that's so all-fired awesome? Because it looks to me like you've been chasing a mirage for twenty years."

"Tom-"

"Maybe I am stupid, Murph. But you're just nuts; thinking dad is haunting a wristwatch!" Tom was winding up for something big. "Even your boyfriend over there thinks you're ins-"

"Auntie Murph!" Coop screamed as he ran from the barn as fast as he could. "I think I changed something!"

All the adults turned to look, as a moment later, the barn groaned... and then ripped free of the ground. It floated up into the air. It reached an altitude of almost a dozen feet, before it fell to bits and came crashing back down to earth in ruins.

Long silence. Getty glanced to Tom and Lois, who were staring in open disbelief.

Murph grabbed her nephew by the shoulders and made him look her in the eye. "Do you remember the thing you changed?!"

Chapter Text

Cooper had to stop for a while, after reading the whole saga. It had played out exactly the way he'd hoped it would, but it was still an emotional rollercoaster to follow in the first person. The fact that his absence had started a war between his kids was not a pleasant thing to learn.

It was then that it occurred to him that the story was only just getting started, and he started reading again.

Work continued at a breakneck pace in Lazarus Base for a while. Word had spread within seconds of their return that the experiment had been fully successful; and that meant the mission was finally going to happen.

It took far less time to prepare than expected. They'd been building one station after another for forty years, and then redesigning it again as the theories were put to the test. In a way, twenty years of beta testing the self-sufficient Base was a great way to finish the Station.

But with the Gravity Equation solved, the powers that be had to be informed.

"Government's Man is here." Getty said softly.

Murph nodded, not looking away from the controls. The Control Room was the last part of the Station to be assembled, now that they had a Drive to make it fly.

"Murph, how does this all play out?" Getty asked quietly. "You know that the second they figure out the Beta Test worked, they take it off us. Professor Brand's journal says that they made their own plans for Plan A. That's why he told them it was possible, as long as he was in charge. It was his condition that they allowed Plan B. It's why they put money up at all. They stayed out of our way all this time, because of that. The second they find out that it wasn't Brand who cracked it, school's back. They'll go right back to old patterns."

"I know." Murph said quietly. "Did I ever tell you why my dad named me 'Murphy'? He said I was named for 'Murphy's Law', but that wasn't a bad thing. He said it meant that whatever can happen, will happen." She looked to Getty. "My whole life, I've been fighting 'Murphy's Law', and I got fairly good at it. We have to make sure that only one thing can happen."

He was exactly what she expected, and she disliked him immediately.

Senator Barton looked around as he was escorted in. He was flanked on both sides by a Marine Guard. Murph was waiting in the Main Conference Room when they made it there.

"Senator." Murph said. "Professor Murphy Cooper, we spoke on the phone." She extended her hand, but he didn't shake it.

"Yes." Barton wasn't impressed. "So, you think you've been able to do in six weeks, what your predecessor couldn't do in thirty years."

"That's right." Murph said, sitting down, Getty on her left, his guards taking position at the doors; giving them privacy. "And before you go any further, you should know, Professor Brand kept a journal."

"Meaning?"

"I know about the original meeting, where you agreed to this plan." Murph said carefully. "None of you thought this could work. Well, good news: It's working."

"Yes, just as the Professor dies, and the Lazarus Project is declared an official failure, you suddenly have a magic wand to wave at the problem." Barton sneered. It was clear he didn't believe it.

"Still, it might be wise to take a look at the minutes of that meeting." Murph observed, eyes flicking briefly to the guards that he brought with him.

What followed was a showing of the evidence that NASA and SETI had presented to prove there was a Wormhole, along with the conclusion that someone had to construct it. They followed with the evidence that the earth was doomed.

Murph let Getty make this point, showing footage from the dying crops and the ruins of the suffocating towns all over the world.

"Plan A was to escape." Murph said, looking at Barton, but talking to his people.

"It was a hail mary play." Getty put in. "That's why there was a Plan B. A solution in the event that Plan A couldn't work, and humanity doomed to extinction. Plan B was to send a Population Bomb, made of thousands of embryos, and all the equipment to raise them. It was sent with Endurance out through the wormhole, to a hopefully habitable world. The human race will be looking for a rock to cling to for a few good generations; whether Station-Born, or Tank-Born."

"Fortunately, it looks like we can do both." Murph reported. "The Gravity Equation has been solved. Plan A is back on the table at last." She sent a smile to Barton, and then another to his guards. "The Charter included plans to evacuate the world, with the construction of as many Stations as possible; plus the construction of Cryo-Bed Lattice Satellites for those we couldn't get airborne in time."

"Unfortunately, we're a good bit behind schedule." Getty put in. "Which is why we can't waste anymore time. The rate of suffocation is increasing across the world."

Barton had heard enough. "Yes, we have all these numbers already. We have for forty years. The part we don't have?" He glared lightly. "After thirty years, you're telling me you suddenly have the solution? Brand was the only one who even understood that mess of gibberish you call a formula, and now-"

"Now we got someone who could not only understand it, but finish the job." Getty said, pointing at Murph.

Barton looked Muph up and down, and she recognized the look instantly. It was the same look her school teachers had when she was a child. It was a look that said: And who are you, little red-haired girl, to think you're smarter than we are?

It was a look that Murph hadn't seen for a while, and she didn't like seeing it again. Not even a little bit. "It's a bit of a fairy tale ending." Murph allowed. "But I can prove it. Without a blackboard being involved."

Barton scoffed. "By all means."

Murph pushed her chair back from the meeting table, and then kept pushing back, until she came around the table, still in her chair…

...which had no wheels. Murph's chair was floating at a steady height above the floor.

Barton did his best to look unimpressed. The two guards were openly gawping. Murph stood up, and gestured for them to examine it, the way a magician did with an audience. "There is a trick to it." She told them as they took turns sitting in the chair, gliding around the room. "The simplest trick there is: It's real. It's as advertised. The chair is being held up by an opposing gravity, repelling the earth's gravitational field precisely. No matter how much weight you put on it, the opposing field compensates."

"Well, Doctor. This is impressive work." Barton agreed, already seeing the angles. "And, to be clear, you can adapt this to a larger structure?"

"The whole Base will be a Space Station in a few weeks." Murph confirmed. "Plan A is a partial success. If we can find somewhere to go, it's a total success."

"Even if we don't have anywhere, we believe we can get this Base to total self sufficiency within a few months. That alone would be enough to make Plan A a success." Getty put in.

"Well, this is impressive work indeed, Doctor Cooper." Barton said again. "Obviously, I'll have to check in with the President, tell him that it's good news. I'll be taking the prototype with me when I return to Washington, and I'll need you to collect all the supplementary materials too, for… verification."

Murph tensed. Here we go. "Why would you need to take the formula?"

"Well, obviously a discovery of this magnitude is sensitive material." Barton told her, as though speaking to a small child. "We need to keep the formula secure; until we can decide the best way to make use of the resource… And you have civilians on this base. It's not at all secure."

"This Base is classified." Murph pointed out. "The only civilians here are the families of people who have worked, and in some cases died to make this possible. The formula was meant to make Stations like this one fly. Why take it away from here? What could be more appropriate a 'use for the resource'?"

"Due respect, Professor: That's not your call." Barton told her.

"Due respect, Senator: Why the hell not?" Murph fired back.

"I will remind you that all of this has been funded by the US Government." Barton said with biting understatement. "It would be best to keep that in mind."

"You were funding us to do a job, and we did it." Murph countered. "The best people, the experienced people, who have spent their entire careers training for this precisely, are all here and already assembled. To speak plainly, it would be foolish to replace them now that they can finally finish the job."

"Then let me be more plain." Barton countered. "There was no real understanding that this would ever work out. We let you pick the people, because we never expected that anything would come of it. The world ending was enough to give the previous administration reason to throw money at a… well, a joke. Now that it seems we have options, we have a responsibility to ensure that the right people get priority."

Murph wasn't even surprised. "And by the right people, you mean…"

"You are aware, I hope, of the situation outside this base. It's difficult to keep the party, and the public in line. People who are in a position to shape the policy and implementation are few and far between." Barton gestured at the charts and pictures that Murph had put up. "As you say, the situation is getting pretty tight. Your conclusions… well, it's not hard to figure that out; if you have influence enough to get hold of the relevant facts. Now that we have something to offer-"

"Leverage." Getty put in. "So, to translate, now that we've given our lives over to building a lifeboat, you're free to take it from us and let the rich and powerful people bid for a seat on the Ark while the rest of us drown."

"The Station you want to launch is a closed system." Barton said, as though Getty was the unreasonable one. "Every person in this Base is taking a spot that could be put to better use."

"Every person on this Base is responsible for its success. Every person you bring in has no idea how any of this works."

Barton's mouth became a thin line. "This is how the world has always worked, Doctor Brock, you know that. I assure you, we'll keep enough of your people on board to ensure the safety of the people we choose to go."

Murph flicked a glance at his guards again. They were professional, keeping watch over their charge. But their eyes were flicking to the pictures Murph had shown. "Senator… What you said, about how people who were able to shape policy were few and far between… You're one of those people, aren't you?"

"I am." Barton agreed.

"Then, Senator Barton… I beg of you." Murph made her plea. "Don't fall into the same old patterns. Exploitation of resources, of people… As you said; this is how the world has always worked. And look at how the world ended for it. It's what lead to Climate Collapse, mass starvation, and finally extinction. In a predatory system, the world has eaten itself, and now that we have a chance to let all that go, to start over and focus on saving lives… You're arguing that we use this lifeboat the exact same way we use everything else we've ever built."

"I'm not arguing that 'we' do anything. As I said, it's not your call." Barton said. "And I don't appreciate being lectured by a civilian."

"You let the public think that NASA disbanded, after we refused to drop bombs from space onto starving populations." Murph told him. "Do you not get this? The wars are over. All that's left are refugees. If anything the human race has is worth saving, we have to break the cycle!"

Barton smirked. "I wonder if you'd be so eager to 'break old patterns' if you weren't on the Base."

"Meaning?" Getty asked sharply.

"Meaning, I'm going back to Washington; and I'm taking the prototype with me, as well as all the supplementary materials." Barton said again. "And you, Professor. You'll be coming with me; since you're apparently the only one that can recreate this formula."

"I'm not going anywhere." Murph said firmly. "I'm in charge of this Base now, and the people here are under my authority."

"The people here are also under contract with the US Government." Barton pointed out. "A word from me would be enough to have them all fired."

"Why?!" Murph was gobsmacked. "These are the people you need running the base!"

"These people, are… to be blunt… assets."

"Expendable assets?" Getty guessed.

"I will say this again: Nobody thought this station would work out." Barton actually seemed annoyed that he had to say it twice. "The disposition of this Base is now too high a priority to be left in the hands of civilians that we didn't assign." He looked hard at Murph. "We didn't pick you, Doctor. Brand did. And he's dead. I don't mean to, in any way, minimise what you've accomplished. But frankly, this is way above your pay grade."

"You don't pay me anything." Murph countered.

"You are not authorized to make decisions as important who gets a seat."

"I can decide anything concerning the preparation and launch of this Base." Murph told him. "Brand gave me the authority when he named me his number two. The rest of the Directors here resigned when he died. If you had a problem with my credentials, you had twenty years to say something." Murph glanced at his guards again. "Maybe I'm not your choice, but you're not qualified. Remember, this isn't just selling seats on a lifeboat. This is about choosing which members of the human race get to survive for the next generation."

"Exactly. We can't leave that decision up to you." Barton said. "That decision lies with the United States."

"Actually, no it doesn't." Getty raised a hand. "Take a look at the Charter. Personnel and Procedure is up to Station Commander."

"Subject to the Government." Barton insisted.

"Actually, I looked at the Charter before you arrived. We don't need your approval." Getty told them.

"You do now." Barton said blandly.

"Not legally."

"Let me make a call." Barton was already reaching for a phone.

"And… what? The laws change to suit you?"

"Only the ones that need to." Barton said smugly. "I always win these arguments, Doctor. Always. I set policy. You follow orders. That's the way it's always been; that's the way it always will be, that's the way it is."

"And here we didn't think the government could be that efficient." Murph's eyes flashed. "Senator, ask the people who know me best: I don't like having unqualified liars making choices for me; regardless of the facts. And I flat out despise people who make self serving choices, knowing that people will die, and not caring."

Barton grew notably taller. His guards tensed, hands drifting to weapons.

"Doctor Cooper, you are relieved of your duty." Barton said firmly. "And so is your staff. All of them. Everyone on the base. We'll have replacement personnel here within the week. My guards will escort you to your office, where you will collect all data and equipment pertaining to the Prototype; and then you'll be escorted from the premises; as you are no longer authorized to be here."

Getty looked sickly towards Murph.

"Tell me something, Senator. Does it occur to you that the Base is laid out a little oddly?" Murphy asked calmly.

"I said, you're excused, Doctor Cooper." He said tightly.

"A little... sideways?" Murph pushed. "You see, this Base isn't just our research station. It's been rebuilt from the inside out, to be the first permanent orbital colony. Seriously, look at the hallway. Turn your head sideways."

"I'm glad to know you were prepared." Senator Barton commented. "But you aren't running the place any more. Soldier, remove Professor Cooper from the Base."

Murph looked to Getty, trusting him to read her mind. Getty pulled out his device and tapped in a message. Murph felt her device buzz, but didn't reach for it. She looked sideways out the window and saw others in the Base were all reaching for their devices. He'd sent a mass-memo to the whole base.

She would later find out it was just two words. "Lazarus Rises."

There was a roar that made Murph's ears hurt, even from inside her own office, when the ground started to move. It was such a smooth ride that it took them all a few moments to realize it.

The roar wasn't from the machinery, or the steel grinding on concrete. It was from the people. The crew had waited a full generation for this moment, and their roar of exultation was louder than the sound of the station taking off, as it was meant to do.

There were few windows outside. The Senator wasn't quite sure what was happening, but he looked into the corridor and saw the entire population of the Base grabbing for something to hold onto, and he got the message. He and the soldiers all held onto the wall mountings, the table... anything they could reach.

Murph and Getty went to the wall and opened a wall panel that revealed several harnesses. They put the harnesses on over their shoulders, now strapped, standing upright, against the wall.

The soldiers found another panel and followed their lead, helping their charge do the same.

After several moments of shuddering and rotating, the PA sounded off. "We have cleared the launch bay!"

Another roar went through the base, this time Murph was cheering with them.

"Altitude is rising at a rate of fifty meters a second and accelerating. Increasing Gravity Drive to 20% of power. Doctor Murphy Cooper, please report to the control room!"

"Like hell!" The Senator roared at his security. "Arrest that woman!"

"That would be unwise." Murph warned quickly as she unstrapped herself. "You see, this Base has a mass of almost half a million tonnes, and it has all the aerodynamic properties of a large brick. We're already at an altitude of 400 meters. The cross currents in the atmosphere get pretty unsocial in another thirty seconds or so. Getty and I are the only ones who are qualified to run the Gravity Field Generators. So you either let me at the controls, or you arrest me and find out what a dirt storm can do to a plane the size of a skyscraper. You'll see what gravity can really do, when you aren't controlling it."

The Senator turned to Getty, who was also climbing out of his harness. "I'm promoting you to Head of this Base. Get us back on the ground."

Murph and the Senator both looked expectantly at Getty, who took a deep breath... and crossed his arms, stepping over to stand beside Murph.

"You've got 15 seconds left to decide, Senator." Murph's gaze was pure ice.

"You're bluffing. You'll crash too. Twenty years of work? You won't let it go down." The Senator called her on it.

"It may not be the best moment to appeal to my better nature, given that you just tried to have me arrested for doing my job." She countered. "Ten seconds."

Seven second silence.

"Fine. Go." The Senator declared finally, surrendering.

Murph grinned like a shark and ran to the control room.

"Nice of you to join us!" Ellie barked. "You know that I can't fly this thing, right? I just look pretty and tell people to put their seat backs and tray tables in their full-"

"Move, Ellie!" Murph dove on the control panel, and started working controls. "Gets, rotate the drive core seven degrees!"

"Seven degrees, aye!"

"'Aye'? Are we playing out Star Trek fantasies already?"

"Altitude at 100 kilometers. Gravity Drive at 35%" Ellie called.

"We need at least seventy-five percent power to reach escape velocity!" Getty countered.

"I am aware of the math." Murph was weirdly calm. "Crosswinds?"

"Eighty-five knots from the southwest." Ellie reported. "Getting stronger, too. Altitude at one hundred seventy meters… Drive at 55%."

"We're not going to make it." Murph grit her teeth. "Getty, turn the drive 65 degrees counter-clockwise. Turn us into the wind!"

"Are you crazy? The cross will smash us back down again!"

"Rotate on Z-Axis twelve degrees." Murph was spooky relaxed as she hit the PA. "All hands, brace for instability! We're going horizontal!"

Soon after, The Base was on its side, once again; and everyone held on tightly as Murph tried to make the whole Base fly on a breeze that they actively should have avoided.

"Aerodynamic properties of a brick, huh?" Getty commented under his breath.

"Yeah well, so was the Space Shuttle." Murph reminded him.

"Altitude at eight hundred hundred meters… Air pressure is dropping, we're beyond the dust!" Ellie said brightly. "Gravity Drive at 68 Percent of capacity!"

"Wind won't help us this high up…" Murph had a single bead of sweat running down the side of her face. "Cut power to the entire base, lock everything into the drive!"

The lights went dark, and there was a chorus of shouts and screams from outside as the Base appeared to lose power.

"Gravity drive at… Seventy two!" Ellie shouted in panic. "Is it enough?!"

"No." Murph was pure ice. "Getty, turn the entire drive ninety degrees! Let's see if we can get enough lateral movement to skip her off the atmosphere."

"Can we get enough speed for that?" Ellie was worried.

"We're about to find out."

"Murph, take her back down. We can launch again with better weather conditions, more charge time…"

"We set down now, they'll never let us try again." Getty told Ellie. "The meeting did not go well."

"We crash, and it hardly matters!" Ellie insisted. "It's impossible!"

"It's necessary." Murph was actually smiling. Let's hope it's genetic, Dad!

The next few minutes were a hellish ride in a washing machine for the people inside. But then there came a moment when Getty felt his stomach trying to climb up throat, and his feet left the floor. He let out a shout, thinking that they'd lost speed for lift, and were falling to the ground…

But then he realized. The Gravity Drive and the actual gravity of earth had stopped competing. They were in Zero G.

As if to answer the thought, the lights came back up. Outside the window, the earth filled the left hand side of the viewport, but their feet were 'down' on the floor. Murph controlled 'up' and 'down' in the Station now. At a steady speed, the earth turned to be 'below' them again.

Murph still had her hands locked on the controls. She still looked calm, but she wasn't moving. Getty came over on shaky legs and put his hands over hers without a word. Hands trembling, Murph prised her fingers open and stepped back from the control panel.

"Care to do the honors?" She croaked out.

Getty shook his head. "No."

Murph looked to Ellie, who was smiling at both of them, eyes shining. "Oh, don't even think of offering it, gorgeous."

With a smile, Murph keyed the PA again. "Att…" She cleared her throat and tried again. "Attention all hands, this is Doctor Murphy Cooper. On the insistence of my two closest friends in the world, I'm lucky enough to be the first to tell you, that Lazarus Station has achieved a cruising altitude of five hundred kilometres, and all systems are working perfectly. We made it, people. We made it."

The roar that answered her from every corner of the Base would have been audible from the surface.

Murph barely heard it, throwing her arms around Getty and Ellie, hauling them close for a tight embrace, laughing happily at the success.

"Well, as much as I hate to interrupt the heartwarming moment…"

The three of them turned to see Senator Barton stride into the Control Room, flanked by his guards.

"Now that we've stabilized the situation... You're under arrest." The Senator glowered at Murph. "Pray that I don't have you shot for treason, too."

"You can't arrest me, Senator."

"Watch me."

"No, she means you legally cannot." Getty put in. "Maybe you didn't read the Cease-Fire Accords from the Resource Wars, but it states that any inhabited craft over an altitude of 400 kilometers is officially declared 'International Waters'. At the time, there were only two space stations, and it was the guy in your job who couldn't find the money to bring them home safe, after the shooting stopped. So you declared them independent and let them starve, or suffocate. You can't give orders here. To us, or your guards."

"These men work for me."

"These men work for Para-Military Contractors. Under law, they can only operate under contract; and only within US Territory. And you can't order us either. The government is a civilian body. A governor or a Senator cannot give orders outside US territory. This station is now under International Treaty Law." Getty pointed at Murph. "She's the Captain now."

The Senator turned white as a sheet, and turned, very slowly, to his guards. "Listen to me. I don't care where we are. I care about the fact that if we ever want to see earth again, we have to go through her, and take command of this station. You're the ones holding the guns, and you work for me."

Murph stepped forward and made her case. "You're in neutral territory now." She told the soldiers. "You've been following us around all day, listening to the numbers. Earth is finished, and they've known it for forty years. This station is the last chance of a future for the human race. And you heard how he plans to use it. If you have wives, children, I can promise them safe passage here, and long lives. Something nobody back there can offer, until I get on the phone, and teach them how to fly their stations, their arks... whole cities, if they want. And I will do that. That was always our charter. But I can't do it if you shoot me." She gestured at the Senator. "He just gave you an illegal order. But he's right. You're the only ones on board with guns. Decide the fate of the human race, right now."

The soldiers took two seconds to decide... before holstering their guns. "My kids. I want it in writing." One of them said his nametag read 'Simpson'. The other said nothing, but it was clear he agreed.

"You got it." Murph promised. "Make sure the Senator doesn't push any buttons. I'll have a shuttle organized to fly the Senator back to ground level. If you want to go with him, you can."

Ellie smirked. "Orders, Cap'n?"

"Take us to an elevation where we can broadcast to as many people as possible." Murph told them. "We have to tell everyone we can that there's a way out."

Cooper laughed hysterically as he read the story of how Murph had taken off with the first of the Space Stations. His girl had taken over the human race without a shot being fired, and she'd done something good with it.

Then he kept reading, and found out it wasn't always that easy.

The US Government was screaming bloody murder. Senator Barton was fired the minute he got back to earth. Murph found out later that it wasn't because he'd broken the laws and tried to give illegal orders; but rather because he was supposed to negotiate passage for certain ranking members of the Government and their families. Instead, he'd made sure that none of them could reach the station at all.

"What do you see, Ellie?" Murph asked the next morning.

Ellie had been perched over the orbital cameras all night, observing the earth. "It's what you expected, Cap'n." She reported. "They've started a crash upgrade to the high altitude aircraft. They're trying to get to us."

"Can they make it?"

"Hard to tell." Ellie reported. "They aren't exactly spacecraft, but… What do they think they can do? Those Sky-Sleds are meant to parachute back to earth after a supersonic flight. It was a rich man's way to get between continents, back when there were rich people. What can they do?"

"They can call our bluff." Murph said darkly. "They can launch their sleds, and gamble that we won't let them fall out of the sky."

"Will we?" Ellie couldn't help but ask.

"Best not to chance it." Murph agreed and went to the controls. "Take us to two thousand kilometers. Far enough that we wouldn't even get back to them in time if they decided to try for it." She glanced over at Getty. "Are we transmitting?"

"Broadcasting our coordinates on every frequency." Getty reported. "Anyone who's got so much as a pair of binoculars can find us now. They'll never be able to cover it up."

"So, if they can't treat Lazarus Station as a secret lifeboat for themselves, what's the next move?" Ellie asked.

"To save as many people as we can." Murph reported. "It won't be easy." She glanced at Ellie. "Put me through to the President. Time to get this going. But since we aren't ready to do that, time to involve politicians."

A week later, the government put it to a vote. Five minutes before the vote was scheduled, they decided to put it off until after the next election.

"I don't get it. Why would the Government vote against building more stations?" Getty complained as the news reported it.

"They didn't vote 'no'. They can't vote no." Murph said, unsurprised. "But they also can't vote yes."

"That's my point. Why the hell can't they vote to save lives?"

"Remember what you said, about how no small number of places in the world were on the verge of offering human sacrifices to keep the harvest rolling in?" Murph spelled it out for him. "Well, it's a few years later now, and no small number of places in the world have crossed that line, and any other you can think of. They hate us, Gets."

Ellie got it first. "And a politician would get more vote- uh, be better serving the public's will, if they argued against the Stations as a solution."

"They've spent almost a hundred years blaming science and academics for the state of the world. A college education isn't affordable, so 'educated' became code for 'rich brat'. And here we are." Murph nodded. "But if the Powers That Be come out and say that, then they can't negotiate their own passage up here. So they can't say no, and they won't say yes. So they put it off."

Getty got it. "Well that's just obscene. In fact, it's pure evil. People are going to die! And what do the politicians want to do? Change the subject until after the next election. Which, by the way, is two years away. Does the earth even have that long left?"

Ellie piped up with their best estimate. "Five years. Maybe eight. But there won't be much left of it by then." Ellie rubbed her eyes. "I'll tell you the honest truth, Getty. I'm not so sure we have the right to tell them so."

"What do you mean?" Murph asked.

Ellie looked ancient suddenly. "What I mean is, this Station has enough room for another five or six hundred people. A thousand if we start putting folks in Cryobeds. There are still two billion humans down there. Maybe telling them we're the only lifeboat is cruel."

"Maybe it is, but it's the only way to get people building more lifeboats." Murph said seriously. "I'm going down there."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Getty said immediately.

"Can't be helped. Besides, I promised the Senator's Bodyguards that I'd let them go home to their families and bring their kids back. We have to start using the Gravity Drives on something the size of a Ranger eventually."

"I'm going with you." Getty said immediately.

Murph smiled, despite herself. "I knew you would. Ellie, keep it together until I get back."

"I don't like this either, Captain."

"I'm travelling with two bodyguards, and a guy who wasn't sure whether to be a doctor or a Priest. Exactly how prepared would you like me to be?"

The UN wasn't based out of the States anymore. The money had dried up, and nobody wanted to share their Resources with other nations. With War preferable to starvation, the Resource Wars had come and gone, and the UN had only twenty members left.

But it made the point that the stories were true. The transmissions from space were genuine. By the time they landed at the new Headquarters in Geneva, there was a huge crowd gathered outside, watching the skies.

"There's no question, we've got the world's attention." Murph said. She'd parked the Ranger, of all places, in the parking lot beside the Assembly Hall, about to go in. She'd taken the chance to use their own 'phone' to call home. "We were smart, broadcasting to everyone we could reach." Murph said quietly into the Comm. "But the Top Secret side of things bit us. Most of the planet had no idea we were even working on this. Some people thought it was an Alien invasion, most thought it was a hoax."

"What are you telling them?"

"Everything except for the Wormhole. We're trying to get people to accept the existence of a lifeboat. Trying to explain 'Bulk Beings' is not going to play well."

"Well, for what it's worth: You got your wish." Ellie reported. "We're looking at the feed right now. We've checked it and rechecked it. This conference is indeed transmitting to the whole world."

"No pressure, or anything." Murph drawled, and disconnected, turning to her primary 'bodyguard'. "We weren't properly introduced before, Sergeant Simpson." Murph shook her hand. "Call me Murph."

"Bartholomew." The guard shook his hand.

Murph smothered a smirk. "Your name is Bart Simpson?"

"I've heard all the jokes, Ma'am."

"I'd imagine that's so." Murph agreed, aware it was probably a nerve. "If you want to find your family, I can make sure everyone's looking at me for the next hour or two. Getty knows how to fly this thing. The two of you can make that kind of flight and be back quick, if they know you're coming."

Simpson hesitated. "To be honest, boss… I work for you now. If this goes really badly, I'm not about to take your escape craft."

"Whether this goes good or bad, they won't do anything while I'm on stage." Murph told him. "They'd be more likely to sneak out back and take apart our Ranger to see how she flies; before we get back to her."

"Hate to say it, but she's right about that." Getty admitted.

"Go get your kids." Murph told him. "Be back before my address is over."

Murph took the stage, and began her presentation. It was all the same evidence she'd given Barton; with a slightly more determined edge, now that she could point to the proof in the sky.

There was dead silence from the assembled world leaders as they listened. Murph knew that the general public was watching too, so she didn't hold back.

"The projections are at 100%. They have been for thirty years." Murph summed up. "They've always… We've always known it. As the Blight spreads, it kills plants. Less plants mean less Oxygen in the atmosphere, which means the Blight thrives; which means even less plants. Those of us who survive starvation… Will not escape suffocation."

And still, only silence.

"The Plan has been in place for thirty years, and finally, all the pieces are available to make it happen." Murph declared. "We can escape the earth before it's too late. Those that will not fit on the stations can still be saved, preserved against disaster, until we can transport them to a new home."

Finally, a reaction. This was part of the story that they had never heard before.

Murph took a breath and quoted her father. "We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we've barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us."

Dead silence from those watching.

"I… I'm flat out begging you all to put the effort into living. Into staying alive." Murph was blatantly pleading now. "That's all. There's no agenda here, no secret plot for profit and power. The Charter of the Lazarus Missions, my life work, in fact; is to get humans off an earth that is turning to poison as we speak. Five years, and there may not be anyone left to save. Please. Lazarus and her people are safe. Don't let us be the only ones."

She stepped away from the podium. Still with silence.

Murph sighed. Fine. The hard way.

The Ranger was back where she'd left it. Murph was being chased by journalists and angry protestors, but she managed to shake them and return to her ship.

"Hey, Cap'n. I saw your speech. Powerful stuff." Ellie said from Orbit, over the Comm.

"They won't go for it. They're talking now, but the fact is, all of them had their minds made up before they got within ten miles of the place. If any of them could be swayed, they would have at least clapped politely when I finished." Murph told her. "New Plan. Get together all our most experienced engineers and flight personnel. We're going to launch those other stations ourselves."

"And… fill them with who?"

"Anyone who wants to come, eventually. Tell Howard it's Plan B." Murph told her, and disconnected; before she opened the cockpit hatch and addressed the rest of her passengers. "Any problems?"

"My place was being watched." Simpson cracked his knuckles. "It's not any more. I got them out." He made introductions to the three newcomers. "My wife, Lucinda; and our boys."

"And you must be George and Casey." Getty said with a smile to the small boys. "Your dad here is a friend of ours. In fact, he saved my life a week or two ago."

The kids were holding onto their mother's leg tightly. The woman looked quietly scared to death. "That stuff you said? Is it true? Is the world ending?"

"The world ended a while ago." Murph said plainly. "Care to leave it while you can?"

When they reached orbit, the kids looked awed, suddenly plastering themselves against the windows. They'd never see the earth from orbit before. "Whoa!"

"Too bad you didn't see it a hundred years ago. There was a lot of pretty colors to see down there." Getty said from the co-pilot's seat.

Murph worked the throttle, and slowed them down to a relative halt. "See the station?" Well, if my watch is right; and it is, it should be in direct geo-synch orbit over one of the other stations they've been building."

"Why?" Simpson asked.

"Because we can project a gravity field, same as we do with our own station." Murph explained. "We can actually lift Station Two a few dozen feet in the air."

"W-what good does that do us?" Simpson asked, amazed.

"Well, the Stations are meant to go from underground bases to Space Stations. Murph explained. "It's not like there are helicopter pads."

Simpson understood swiftly. "But there's a place for a Rangers to land, right?"

"A few dozen feet up means nobody else can get into the Station except us." Murph nodded. "I'll drop you guys off; and head back out. I'm sending engineering teams to all the other Stations, before anyone else can get to them. Barton said a week to replace all our people. Six days later now, and they've had the gates locked and the doors barricaded until we could get them out."

"Cooper, what do you think you're doing?"

"Those Stations are not government property." Murph said firmly. "Check the Charter. Once again, once the Primary Station has launched, it comes under our jurisdiction."

"Yes, but at this moment, they're on the ground." A familiar voice warned.

"Senator Barton?" Murph was stunned. "Is that you?"

The camera picked up another man who walked into frame. "It is, although it's Secretary Barton now. Of the newly formed Cabinet Posting of 'Homeworld Defense'."

"Are you kidding me?" Murph heard Getty hiss somewhere behind her.

"So, you've decided we're hostile, then?" Murph sighed.

"You've appropriated Government Property, and disregarded the proper chain of command."

"We've followed our Charter Procedures precisely. The Charter, by the way, that you wrote." Murph pointed out.

"Those procedures were written up by a previous administration." Barton reported. "We do not recognize those regulations as being in the best interests of the United States."

"Well, if you'd like to declare the laws regarding my station null and void, go right ahead. They're the only reason I'm still talking to you." Murph retorted.

"We'll have a draft resolution brought before the UN and passed within the day, declaring you to be pirates, and calling for the return to the stations."

"And we'll have landing sites within the day set and scheduled, the timetable transmitted to everyone with a TV, Radio, or computer." murph countered. "You want to arrest my people, you'll have to get past a crowd of refugees that have more faith in us than in you."

"Remember something, Doctor Cooper. That Station was built because we said so. You may have played a shell game with them-"

"As you did with the truth."

"As you say, but don't forget the fact that your bargaining position isn't as strong as you think it is."

"He isn't wrong." Howard said a few hours later.

The Station Charter included a hierarchy; as Lazarus Station went from an underground Base to a small town in space. The Science Council was made up of the Department Heads. Howard was Engineering. Ellie was Personnel. Murph was The Station Commander. They should have had an Operations Manager, but he had suicided a month before Murph made the breakthrough, and the Government hadn't seen fit to replace him. Murph took over his role too, having expected Brand to be the General Manager until he died.

"What's the situation, in real numbers?" Murph asked.

"Simple. We're way understaffed, and under-supplied." Howard told her. "We can generate food, water, air… But there's a lot more than that in need. If we're going to manufacture equipment, gravity drives, Rangers… We need material. The one thing we can't conjure in a lab is hard metals."

Murph nodded, filing that away. "In particular?"

"Steel and carbon composites are the most important things." Howard said. "There's no way to get Iron Ore from earth without landing craft, which we're making as fast as we can… We're cannibalizing a few things to get parts. One advantage to the smaller workforce than we expected. Lots of free rooms."

"And what's the word on that?" Murph asked Ellie.

"We're at 70% of capacity." Ellie put in. "But morale is good. Everyone's been doing the work of three people, and we're finally getting something out of it. They're raring to go."

"Good." Murph nodded. "Now, bottomline: Worst problem in the long term."

"In the long term? Power." Howard said crisply. "We're in a stable orbit, and we're high enough to avoid the space debris, even this long after the War. But we've used up almost all our juice getting here, to say nothing of lifting Station Two. We can't move this station again."

Murph frowned. "The Station has a Nuclear Reactor. How can we be overtaxing it? We're still in startup mode."

"The Gravity Drive works, Murph. But the power draw is unbelievable on anything bigger than a Ranger. We either need the Drive shut down, or we need more power."

"We shut down the drive, we go Zero G." Ellie put in. "The Base isn't designed for Zero G work. We'd trash half the base, and the people."

"So. The question. How do we get more power? We can't get fissionable material from nothing." Murph thought aloud. "The other stations?"

"We daisy-chained the lift. We used Lazarus Station to lift Station Two, then we fit a Gravity Drive and used Station Two to lift Station Three, and so on." Howard reported. "At the moment, only three stations are active. The others are all offline. We evaced their staff and pulled their batteries, their reactors… They can drift, waiting for us to crack the power problem."

"They've waited this long." Murph said with grim understatement.

"And how do we get people? Or materials? Or equipment?" Ellie asked.

Murph shook her head. "Power is all we need." She said seriously. "We combine power with Gravity, and we've got the whole sky to make use of."

"Seriously?" Ellie reacted. "That's the goal, here?"

"We can float the whole base, you think we can't float an asteroid full of Iron ore?" Murph shook her head. "I've been running the numbers on the Gravity Drive. The speeds we can achieve… With a Gravity Field to push micro-meteors aside, we can get as fast as…" She shook her head. "One thing at a time. We need power?"

"We do." Howard nodded.

"Alright, that's our priority right now." Murph noticed a familiar face gesturing from the doorway, and passed the meeting off to Ellie.

"How are the kids settling in?" Murph asked as the door closed behind them.

"Better than their mother." Simpson told her with a grin. "The kids are on a grand adventure. Their mom is trying to figure out the catch."

"Tell her the catch is that the earth is dying."

"I did." Simpson nodded. "But if occured to me that if you can't start mass evacuations right away? I know some people you might want to tap first."

"Who?"

"Well, before Barton came here, he was told to meet a few other scientists." Simpson told her. "See, the Government didn't have much faith that Plan A would ever work, so they staffed it out to a few other genius types. None of them ever had any luck either. Brand was the only one reporting any measure of progress."

And only because he was lying. Murph reflected. "Who did they get?"

"Nobel winners, mostly. Nobody on earth still runs a research lab." Simpson reported. "But I was following along while Barton met with them. I get the feeling they'd jump at the chance to get up here."

Murph smiled a bit. "The kind of people you'd need, to figure out a way to generate power in a hurry?"

Simpson nodded.

Murph grinned. "Bart, I'm refitting all of our Ranger craft with Gravity Drives. How'd you like to take one and go on a recruiting drive?"

"It'd be nice to do something I know how to do." Simpson agreed.

Cooper finished the second volume of the journals that had been left for him, and immediately reached for the next one. Murph celebrated her first New Years in space by hosting the few remaining people with her kind of education and agenda for the future.

The Brains Trust were thrilled to find out the Space Program not only existed, but was now independant. They were only too eager to sign on.

Cooper felt for them. Bitter, older people, who could remember a time when people looked into the mysteries of the universe. People like him.

Cooper flicked ahead two months. The power issue was becoming more of a problem, and the rhetoric from earth was getting more extreme.

"It's nasty as hell down there." Getty reported grimly. "I've been following the news. There was a riot this morning in Houston. One protest demanding that they all be allowed to come up here, the other protest demanding we be shot down. The two groups met and everyone felt obliged to start throwing punches. And rocks. Bottles. The occasional bullet."

"Who has bullets anymore?" Murph let out a curse under her breath. "How bad?"

"Bad enough, but then a low pressure system moved in and the alarms went off. The alarm towers in their area had been trashed, so only a few of them knew it… The Nitrogen built up and the whole riot stopped… permanently."

Murph rubbed her eyes. "The really painful part is that we can't get any of them up here until we crack the damn power problem."

"I know." Getty squeezed her shoulder, and she leaned into it automatically. It was a moment that lasted half a heartbeat, but Murph felt buoyed by it nonetheless.

"All right, folks. Here's your first lesson in Black Hole Mechanics." Murph told her class. Her original class had been a group of kindergarten level kids. She was now making her case to nobel winners; teaching them what she knew that they did not.

"As you've witnessed in our Beta Testing, the ability to generate a mini-singularity is theoretically possible. I need not tell you, I'm sure; the dangerous nature of this discovery. Weaponizing a Black Hole, even a tiny one, will lead to the end of our species at some point. Especially since we'll need to make more than one of them to power a dozen Stations."

There was a rumble of agreement at that.

"Look at you." Getty chuckled. "You're trying not to dance in your seat. You loved it."

"I loved every second of it." Murph exulted. "The people in that room were… They were good, Gets. They were smarter than me, they weren't lying about anything, they were genuinely trying to make something amazing. No bull about National Security, or National interest, no agendas or deceptions… It was a straight up think tank made of exceptional minds who finally had a chance."

Getty was quietly thrilled for her. "Must be nice, to finally have some people around on your level."

Murph swiftly reigned herself in. "It wasn't bad." She demurred.

"Don't do that." Getty told her seriously. "I love you, Murph; but I know I'm not within sixty IQ points of you. It's not something you should hide to make me feel better. You saved the world, Murphy Cooper, and without a shot being fired." Getty leaned in and kissed her nose sweetly. "You deserve to at least have the company of people like yourself."

"Maybe I do." Murph promised warmly. "But I want the company of people I love." She let out a breath. "Which is what makes this hard."

"You're leaving." Getty surmised. "I know you designed a new kind of spacecraft, and you're having it built already. Must be urgent."

"With the help of the Brains Trust, we think we can go from theory to practical application." Murph nodded. "Controlling gravity might be a power source after all. It's been a staple in a lot of the literature, to tap a singularity as a power source."

"How does that work?"

"Do you know how a solar panel works?"

"Well… no."

"Well, imagine that, only with a micro-Black Hole instead of a star." Murph offered. "If we can create a gravity field that powerful, we might be able to open a Black Hole in a lab, and keep the force of its gravity contained to a small area. Limitless power that will never burn out."

"Which would solve everything." Getty nodded. That much he understood. The first expedition to the Asteroid Belt was being planned. They'd identified several enormous asteroids made almost entirely of rock and iron ore they could harvest. Ice was also a popular item to be collected, also in the Belt.

But it was on hold, as everything else was. It was all happening so slowly, as the Station hovered, waiting for any one of the dozen ingredients it needed to get up to full capacity.

And every day that passed in stalemate, people kept dying far below them.

"Thing is, nobody's ever tried to tap a black hole before; much less make one." Murph sighed. "If it works, we'll have more power than anything nuclear or fusion put together can offer. If it fails, we'll have conjured a black hole and obliterated the earth. So the decision was made to relocate the Beta Test."

"To where?"

Murph hesitated. "The Wormhole."

Getty nodded. "Makes sense. If it starts to come apart, you can dump the whole experiment into the wormhole, let it fall into Gargantua."

"That's the plan." Murph nodded. "The equipment isn't actually that complicated. Only a skeleton crew is needed to actually run the experiment. In fact…"

"You're going." Getty said quietly. It wasn't even a question. "How long would you be gone?"

"A year if it works, to get to Saturn and Back…" Murph was watching him carefully for a reaction. "Two years if it doesn't work. The trip back will be low-fuel consumption. Always takes longer. If it works, a high-power trip will be half the time."

"Who else is going?"

Long silence.

Getty was stunned. "You're going alone?!"

"I don't want to risk anyone else." Murph admitted. "And frankly… I'd like to get away for a while. I don't know what to say to all those people who are coming aboard. I spent my life working on a secret project, now I'm apparently up for Sainthood, and that's not so easy for me."

"I know it's been hard for you to handle the attention." Getty allowed. "But this seems a little extreme in the opposite direction, does it not?"

Murph looked at her feet. "I… I want to go." She said quietly. "I wanna see Saturn. It's all my childhood dreams come true since we launched, and I've spent all of it in meetings. I've been The Last Hope long enough. I wanna be an astronaut too."

"Okay." Getty didn't even blink. "I'm going with you."

"You were right." Murph told Ellie. "He flat out insisted on coming with me. He'd stowaway if I said no."

"It's a dream for him too, even without you there." Ellie said. "He got bounced from the Astronaut program because of a heart murmur. Creating a mode of spaceflight with earth-normal gravity solves a lot of the physical strain problems. EM generation solves the radiation risks… Look, are you really sure you want to do this?" Ellie asked. "Because spaceflight across half the solar system isn't exactly a weekend getaway."

"I'm sure." Murph said quietly. "Frankly, the meetings are starting to make me crazy." She looked sideways at Ellie. "You don't approve of my travel arrangements, or my choice in crew?"

"No, I think you've been putting this off for way too long." Ellie went to her desk and pulled out a box. "Here."

Murph checked the box. "Champagne? Really?"

"In case the conversation goes well." Ellie said with an impish grin.

Murph rolled her eyes, but couldn't help the secretive smile. "Keep the place running until I get back."

"Aye, Cap'n."

Cooper wasn't sure he should be reading this. He'd never met Getty, but what Murph had chosen to record made him proud to know the guy, of only indirectly.

But it was still his daughter's love story playing out on the pages, and Cooper wasn't so sure he should be reading her private journals on the matter.

Not that it stopped him.

The new Ship was named 'The Jesse', and was on course for Saturn within three months of Lazarus Station getting into Orbit. Construction time was short, since it was basically two Rangers welded together, with a large detachable chamber added for the experiment.

Two days into the flight, Murph reported that all systems were nominal, and so they were setting the controls to automatic, in preparation for both of them going into cryo.

"But there's no reason we can't actually go into Cryo tomorrow." Murph smirked at Getty. "The estimates say it'll take two weeks to exhaust all our options if we have trouble with the Experiment. There's five weeks of food for redundancy in the event of system failure. Why not take a day?"

"I agree." Getty said with a smile. "But I didn't think you liked days off."

"Not when there was work to do. Now there's nothing to do, beyond what we're doing." Murph admitted. "That's never happened to me before."

"Me either."

The Jesse was powered by a Gravity Drive. Technically, it was falling towards Saturn, and doing so fast enough that they could walk around in normal gravity, with earth 'above' them, and Saturn far 'below'.

There were two viewports, one of them in the control room, looking out at the huge blank space, the other at the 'base' of the living area, giving them a view back the way they'd come, albeit through the floor.

Getty came into the viewport room, and found Murph had brought blankets and pillows from their sleeping cots, and laid them out on the floor beside the viewport, so that they could look back at the Earth..

"Wait for it…" Murph said warmly. "And there she is."

Far 'below' them, Lazarus Station glided past the earth, a clear shape against the clouds, framed by darkness and starlight. Getty killed the lights in the cabin to give them a better view.

"Y'know, we never really looked, did we?" Getty said quietly. "We were in orbit, and the only time we ever actually stopped to look at the earth is when we're flying a Ranger back and forth."

"Mm." Murph agreed. She patted the blanket, and he sat beside her. "Speaking of things we put off for far too long…"

"Not yet." Getty told her gently.

Murph nodded, laying her head on his shoulder. He'd been waiting longer than she had, and he was nervous too. Which was fine. There was no rush.

"Nobody's ever had this view before, Murph." Getty said quietly. "I mean, think about what's happening here. We're in a spaceship that you designed, flying to Saturn, having a picnic lunch while we 'stargaze' at the whole earth. I mean, the last time anyone saw the whole earth at once? The lunar missions. And those guys weren't setting out blankets or kicking their shoes off to be comfortable."

"The Apollo guys were Zero G all the time." Murph nodded. "Even the Lazarus Missions would have had to watch this view spinning like a top the whole way. Romily sent back a request for more dramamine if we ever got a resupply mission to them."

"Exactly. We're on a spaceflight where we don't have to justify every gram, where we can bend the schedule by a few days to take some time off… We're officially a space-faring race now. And that's thanks to you. You did an incredible thing."

"It wasn't just me." Murph demurred. "Part of the reason I wanted to get away for a year was to let the others have their chance to run their projects, work their departments… Easier to do without the boss in the room all the time."

"Yeah, I can see that." Getty nodded. "But like it or not, there'll be statues of you on every station. Forever."

"We're a long way from done, babe. That's why we're going to Saturn."

"True. But we're close than we've ever been," Getty nodded, very aware that she'd just called him 'babe' for the first time. "Which reminds me…" He stood and stepped off into the next room for a minute, and came back with a plastic box. "For you."

Murph opened the box, and took out a vacuum sealed package. "Strawberries?" Her tone was blatantly turned on. "Where'd these come from?"

"I grew them myself. The hydroponics bay needed every inch of space. There's enough magic in the air filters that we can have one planter box in each crew quarters. Most people grow herbs, I grew strawberries. Took me a month's pay to get the fruit, but I was able to harvest and preserve the seeds. I've been waiting ten years to plant them somewhere they'd have a chance to grow." He tapped the sealed wrapper. "That's my entire first harvest."

"I'm honored." Murph said honestly… before jumping up herself. "In fact, I'll match that." She went out to her compartment and came back with the bottle Ellie had given her.

"Champagne?" Getty was surprised.

"I'm told it goes really well with strawberries. Something about how the flavors mix. No crystal glassware, obviously, but we can't have everything." Murph nodded, collecting cups. "It was a gift from Ellie, hoping the mission went well."

"The mission, or… something else?" Getty drawled, and the bottle's cork popped to punctuate the point.

Murph blushed a little as he poured. "Are you mad?"

"Mad?" Getty almost laughed. He gestured at the blankets and pillows on the floor. "The minute I saw the room, I knew this was a date. I'm all for it, in fact. I'm just a little…"

"Nervous?" Murph guessed. "If I'm honest, so am I. I don't have a lot of experience in this area."

"Strawberries, champagne, privacy… and the impressive view of all time. I'm no expert, but I'd say we're doing pretty well so far."

There was enough champagne for two drinks each. Twenty minutes later, the strawberries were nothing but a delicious taste in their mouths; and things were far more mellow. They were stretched out in their little nest, her head resting on his chest as his fingers gently took her hair out of its braid. She found herself nuzzling into him a bit automatically. She honestly couldn't remember ever having snuggled with someone she cared about; and she was loving every second of it; feeling more human than ever.

In a lifelong crusade to save humanity, I've had very little human contact. She thought to herself.

"I told myself that I didn't volunteer for this mission just to have you all to myself for a while, before or after we went into the freezer." Getty said quietly, as if to answer her thought.

Murph smiled a bit. "I tried to tell myself the same thing about you, Gets. I really did." She sat up to look at his face. "But who are we kidding?"

He smiled a bit, looking back at the earth as she slid over tighter against him, pulling his arm around her shoulders cozily. "We didn't talk about it." He said softly. "I figured, it wasn't time yet."

"We were busy." Murph said quietly. "And don't think I didn't know you were waiting for me." She sighed. "I had hoped it would work another way. Part of me hoped that I could just hand the formula over to the people in charge, and they'd do the right thing. But they didn't, and so the work wasn't finished yet."

"For either of us." He promised. "I've got more practical experience with Cryo-Tech than most medics alive, which isn't saying much. But my workload jumps every time we get a new load of refugees, and they all need to get to a good healthy baseline before we can put them on ice. Medications, oxygen absorption… Zero G has a lot of benefits for some health troubles. There's a whole new kind of medicine emerging for Space Station life; and I get to write the book on it. But I'm one doctor among many. You? Your work can't be put off, or handed to anyone else."

"It's not fair to you." Murph said quietly. "Or to me. I've wanted a night like this with you for years, Gets."

"It's not fair to anyone if we pretend I can share you." Getty said honestly. "Every day that you're working, it makes it more likely the human race survives. I'm not so petty as to think that you need to make me your top priority. I'm not gonna be that guy. We're Lazarus Crew. Just because you're harder to replace than I am, don't think I care any less than you do about the mission succeeding."

"I know you don't." She vowed. "Gets… We've both been called to this, and if it's okay with you that you're always going to be 'mister Murph Cooper', then don't think for a second that you aren't a priority for me." She held his face between her hands, the way she did when she first admitted she had feelings for him. "Because you are, Gets. Maybe the world needs me, but I need you. So very much."

Getty leaned in and kissed her, tasting strawberries and champagne and something uniquely 'her'. "Mister Murph Cooper, huh?" He teased. "You're going to be so high-maintenance, aren't you?"

She snorted, and swatted him lightly on the cheek, even as she felt him rubbing the back of her neck comfortably. "Gets, I think we both know that this is for all the marbles."

"All or bust is the story of our lives, really." He didn't even blink. "And when we do have a chance to save the world, and be together?"

"You mean… like tonight, for instance?" Murph was already unzipping his jumpsuit slowly.

"Tonight, tomorrow morning… five weeks worth of food, you said?"

"For emergencies." Murph murmured. "But I'm feeling pretty lucky tonight, how about you?"

"Ask me again… later."

Murph pushed him back onto the blankets, and there was nothing more to say.

They had five days on 'vacation' before they surrendered to the timetable (and exhaustion) and got back to work. He'd kissed her goodnight and zipped her into the cryo-chamber; and she slept for months with a smile on her face.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, they were a few days from Saturn. They'd had another picnic, looking at at her rings; knowing their luxurious week of sweet, unhurried romance was ending.

"It's very beautiful. Space? It's incredible. All those years on the Base, and I couldn't even see stars. But they're amazing." Getty admitted. "And I say that while looking at the love of my life, currently wearing nothing but my shirt. I don't think I've ever seen anything more perfect than you, the way you look tonight, with Saturn out the window behind you." He put a kiss on the side of her forehead. "I love you."

"This is why I was born, Gets." Murph murmured happily, leaning into her boyfriend. "This week has been absolutely perfect, and I loved every second of it; and I love you too."

They smooched again, not wanting the moment to stop.

"We have to check in with Base." Murph finally surrendered. "We're thirty hours from the Wormhole. We can't pretend we're still asleep anymore."

"I know." Getty promised. "But there's still the return trip."

"Yeah, there is." Murph chuckled. "Assuming I don't kill us both, trying to create a black hole."

"Well, if this is our last day in the cosmos, it was worth it." He kissed her again. "Go switch the monitors back on; let them know we're here. I'll clean up, before anyone notices anything… dishevelled in the background of our reports."

"Dishevelled? That's what you're going with?" She teased, and switched the appropriate machines back on. She had time to change into her jumpsuit and tie her hair back as they started up; and she reported in. "Attention, Lazarus Station; this is The Jesse. Ship and crew are well; on final approach to the Wormhole. All systems are in the green. Are you receiving? Message ends, 1620… mark."

A few hours later, they got a transmission back.

It was Ellie. She looked haggard. "Nice of you to check in, Murph. It's been a long eight months back here. The 'Project' you left me on is working out like you thought; but otherwise, we're all trying to keep several balls in the air. Every time we landed an evacuation Ranger, there was a full-blown scrum of people trying to get aboard. The Government had to send troops to keep them from killing each other. But every now and then, the troops would take a shot at one of us. With you out of contact, I made the call to Secretary Barton. I told him to get those troops in line, or nobody on Government Payroll got a seat. As a result, The Government has admitted that they don't think the 'Caretaker Generation' thing is going to work, so now it's a mad dash for the lifeboats. Three months ago, three of our Ranger Crews were taken hostage. The mob in question demanded safe passage to the Station, in exchange for their lives. We knew we couldn't negotiate for the lives of hostages, or we'd never be able to close that door again. But we had no weapons… So we lost eight people, one at a time." She looked miserable. "A month after that, one of our Rangers exploded in the Docking Bay just after it got back. Thirty fatalities. Nobody you knew, I don't think; but we were able to confirm that one of the refugees we picked up was a suicide bomber."

"My god…" Getty commented.

"We were an inch away from shutting down our rescue flights." Ellie reported. "But then we were approached by a National Guard unit, who offered to screen our refugees, and protect our crews; in exchange for the formula. We vetted him as best we could, and there seemed no connection to any of our enemies. I fact, it looked like he was trying to build a co-op that could be turned into a spacecraft, if only it could be launched. There's been a trend towards people building their own airtight, self sustaining homes; hoping we could get them into space."

"Here's hoping." Murph said to herself.

"We managed to hammer out a deal with the Guardsman, to get our people protected when they made refugee pickups. We had to release the Gravity Formula. It was on the list of things that you felt was worth sharing, if we thought the other guy was acting in good faith." Ellie looked sick. "He wasn't. Turns out our 'honest broker' was working for Secretary Barton the whole time."

'Barton has the formula!" Murph covered her mouth in shock.

"We've been monitoring the communications, the TV Speeches… Barton's been tossing out some pretty heavy rhetoric. A lot of talk about 'taking back what's ours'." Ellie shrugged. "There's nobody that thinks he can convince an army, but if he can get them to fight, then we've just given them the way to get their troops to us." Ellie shook her head. "We don't have many offensive options. Or defensive ones, come to that. Our solar power is enough to keep the Base lit up and producing food and air, but… moving the station isn't an option. Our orbit is stable, but we're sitting ducks, if Barton can actually raise an occupying force… And he can. Our data says he's converting troop carriers and submarines into space worthy craft. Once he adds the Gravity Drives, we're finished."

Murph winced.

"Where did he even find an Air Force?" Getty asked. "Weren't the militaries disbanded after the Resource Wars?"

"So was NASA, officially." Murph pointed out.

On screen, Ellie sighed. "And that's the report. Our intel says he'll be ready to attack in six months. By the time you get back, Lazarus Station will be under new management." She let that sink in. "We're working on solutions to the Power problem, but nobody's game to try creating a Micro-Singularity here in Earth Orbit. If it goes badly, it'd be suicide. As much as I hate Barton, he isn't worth extinction."

"Agreed." Murph commented, though obviously Ellie couldn't hear her.

"Obviously, we're watching your next few days with bated breath." Ellie said dryly. "I hate to lay this one on you, Murph; but it's hardly the first time." She almost smirked. "Hopefully, Getty can help you with the stress. Good thinking, taking a doctor along."

Getty, watching over her shoulder, blushed, just a little. "Subtle, Ellie. Real subtle." He glanced at Murph. "So… No more nights off?"

She reached out and pulled him in for a sound kiss. "I won't go back to the way things were. And I wouldn't have traded the last week for anything, love." She let out a slow breath and released him. "But it's time to get back to work."

Murph's journal included notes on construction of The Jesse, and the Gravity Chamber that she was hoping to build the new power source in. Cooper got a good look at her notes, and started to feel like he'd been here before. There was something about this that just felt too familiar.

He realized, an instant before he read it on the page, and jumped to his feet so fast that he dropped the book. Cooper scrambled for it and flicked ahead, wanting to see if his hunch was right.

It was.

"You can't control the reaction from outside the chamber?" Getty fretted.

"It's a safety feature." Murph said. "If the Chamber has a beach, I don't want there to be even a half second delay between realizing there's a problem, and ejecting the whole section. I need to see it."

"Which you can do from the other side of a thick pane of plexi-glass." He reminded her. "Why do you have to be in the room?"

"Gets, the whole point of this is to see if we can create a micro-singularity under fixed conditions. If we can contain the gravity enough to tap it, then it's safe. If it's not contained, then it doesn't matter if we put a steel wall a hundred feet thick in the way."

"Oh, well; that makes me feel much better."

She gestured at his control panel. "The Bridge is as far from the Chamber as I can get it. You'll have the best chance of making it home if something goes wrong. That button there is the Emergency Safety. It'll shut down the whole chamber."

"When do I hit it?"

Murph gestured at the readouts. "You'll be monitoring the power levels. If this works, they'll go off the charts and stay there. I'll know in less than thirty seconds if this is going to work."

"If it doesn't work, this will be the last conversation we ever have." Getty warned her.

Murph gave him a look. "Gets, in all seriousness… I've checked everything there is to check a million times. I don't feel this is a huge risk."

"No, you're just trying to create a black hole, and keep it stored four feet from yourself. Why would that be risky?" Getty said with grim understatement.

She had lied about the risk. It wasn't quite that easy, or they wouldn't travel across the solar system to test it. Murph hid her smile. "I love that you still fuss over me, even after so many years." She kissed him soundly. "I'll be back soon, and we'll have made things better for a lot of people. But if it goes wrong, I just want you to know that in a life which involved Time Travel, Spaceflight, Dodging the Apocalypse, and becoming a World Power… This week is still the happiest and most content I've felt in my life."

As last words go, those are the kindest she could have offered. Getty thought to himself as she turned and walked off the bridge. It took her a few minutes to travel the entire length of the ship, and he watched on the monitors as she stepped into the Chamber.

"Gets, can you read me?"

"Loud and clear."

"I'm starting the experiment." Murph reported. "Keep an eye on those power readings. Either this works, or it doesn't."

"Hey, one thought?" Getty quipped, "If this fails, and we can't crack the Power problem? We may be safer on the far side of the wormhole, once Barton takes over."

"Ha! Why not?" Murph grinned. "In three… two…"

Getty watched the clock. She said it would only take her thirty seconds, and she had been out of contact for three minutes. The power readings were all off the charts, as predicted; which meant the experiment worked. If she was in the middle of something critical, he didn't want to distract her…

But as the timer passed four minutes, he couldn't stand it. "Murph? How's it going in there?"

No answer.

Finally, his nerves got the better of him, and he hit the Emergency Safeties.

With an alarm, the Chamber shut down, and the doors unsealed. Getty ran the length of the ship as fast as he could, calling Murph on his headset. She still wasn't answering.

Getty hauled the Chamber door open, and he found Murph, laying on the floor in the fetal position. She had only been in there a few minutes, but she looked permanently changed by it. Her red hair was wild and free, half covering her face as she rocked back and forth. The whites of her eyes were completely blood red, she was drooling on the floor; and her fists were clenching and unclenching so tightly she had broken three nails and drawn blood on her palms. More blood was tricking from her tear ducts, from her nose, her ears...

But the unsettling part, was that she was cackling like a madwoman.

"I… I… I saw... I saw! I SAW IT! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!"

Chapter Text

Murph didn't stop laughing as he scooped her up and carried her towards the Medbay. She barely got herself under control as he started checking her vitals. She was present again, but no more coherent as he started testing her for signs of a psychotic break. "Murph?"

"We were wrong." She told him intensely.

"Murph?"

She was babbling. "We were building from the wrong end, chasing the string in the wrong direction, turning the merry-go-round the wrong way!"

"MURPH!" Getty yelled in her face, and she finally looked at him. "You're scaring me!"

And then, just for a second, just for a moment, she looked at him like he was the centre of the whole universe. His heart gave a solid thump. He'd wanted her to look at him that way for longer than he could remember. Even when she'd told him she loved him, she didn't have that look of pure… omniscience.

"Getty…" She whispered, a voice full of wonder and awe. "I could see all of it, from every direction. I could see inside and through the world from every direction. It was wonderful!"

"Murph, come back to me for a sec. Okay? Speak in sentences."

Murphy was up off the cot, casting about, looking for something. She was searching all her pockets so frantically that she tore two of them off her labcoat. "I need a pen. I need a pen right now! Where's my pen!?"

Cooper flicked through his daughters journal, skipping the next ten pages entirely. The prose was borderline unhinged. But there were sketches in the margins. He recognized the shapes she had drawn. It was the Tesseract. The fractal infinity of his daughter's bedroom.

The words that accompanied them was impossible to figure out. They were all actual words, but they made no logical sense, strung together randomly.

But on the last page of incoherence, written over the scribble in a much newer hand, in a bright red marker strong enough to cut through all the crazy, was a small note; and it was addressed to him.

"Murph..." Cooper thought aloud. "How did you know I'd be reading this?"

Dear Dad,

You may be the only one who has a clue what it's like; other than me. I was seeing every instant in the past and future of everything. The reason you came through it was that I was able to anchor your view. You saw every moment in the history of only my bedroom. You're wondering how I know that, but I know, because as the last ten pages of near insanity will attest, I had no anchor. Which means...

"...I was seeing every moment in the history of the everything I knew." Murph explained to Getty. "It was overwhelming. I'm not entirely sure I'm really back, to be honest. I just can't stop seeing this insane kaleidoscope when I close my eyes..."

She had been drifting in and out of lucidity for a while, and she'd woken up feeling clear at last. Her last clear memory was asking for a Pen, and then everything went blurry.

Her head was still pounding, and she'd tried to sit up, only to realize that she was strapped into the bed. Getty had been asleep in the chair next to her bed, and she'd woken him gently. She'd tried to reach, and found her arm strapped down, with an IV feeding her fluids. Getty had woken up and checked his medical machines, while she tried to explain that she was okay again.

"Your dompanie levels are still off the charts, ditto for the EKG." Getty reported. "I have no idea what the wormhole itself does to human physiology, but this is something new."

"It is." Murph nodded, looking sane and clear again. "Getty, we were looking in the wrong direction!"

"You kept saying that, but I have no idea what it means." Getty told her. "You were babbling like a lunatic for almost a full three days. No sleep, no food or water..." He brought over three clipboards full of crazed scribbling. "You kept writing until the pen ran dry, and then you kept going so fast the tip tore up the page. I had to strap you down and put an IV in to keep you hydrated on day two."

"Three days? Is that all?" Murph was awed at the thought, which did nothing to improve Getty's nerves. "What did Ellie say?"

"I haven't told her yet. The worst thing we could tell Earth was that Murphy Cooper had lost her marbles." Getty told her. "You finally passed out almost twenty hours ago. Your brain scan said you were having some pretty wild dreams, but they finally settled after you got sixteen straight hours of sleep."

"I'm not surprised." Murph didn't seem concerned. "The human brain is designed for Euclidean Geometry and linear time. I have no idea how to lay a ruler along what I saw."

It took another six hours and a full slate of diagnostic tests for Getty to decide she was stable again, and he untied her. Bloodshot eyes aside, she looked less deranged after a shower and change of clothes.

But she was different now. Getty saw that instantly. There was a strange glow on her face, like she was lit from within somehow. Her eyes had changed, becoming older and sharper.

He tried to get the story out of her, but she was telling it in different pieces, so he needed to listen for a long while before he could thread together the 'beginning' 'middle' and 'end' of the story.

"The experiment worked, but… I did more than create a Singularity. I think I created something else."

"Like what?"

"A… doorway. A Bridge… I don't know how else to say it."

"To where?"

"The Bulk." She looked at him, that inner fire brighter again. "Getty, I think I'm the first human being to see higher dimensions."

He stared at her. "I have no idea how to respond to that. How do we even know that's what it is? I mean, we live in three dimensions. How do you even describe an extra one?"

"I still don't know that I can." Murph admitted. "If you want to look at a 2D image of a house, you look at a floorplan. You want to see it in 3D, you either build it, or model it, so that you can see from different angles… What do you do when you want to see it in eleven dimensions? Because it's still the same house…"

"What was in the 'wrong direction'?" Getty asked her. "As incoherent as you were, you were fixated on that thought. Can you explain that part to me?"

"The wormhole." Murph nodded. "We first discovered it decades ago, so we assume that was when it was constructed. But it wasn't. It was constructed in the future."

Getty stared at her. "Murph..."

She was getting that intense look again. "Everything humans build, they are constructed, they last on into the future until they are taken apart. The wormhole goes the other way! It was constructed in the future and continued back to when it was needed."

"Like it ages backwards?" Getty tried to get there.

Murphy giggled. "You think I've gone insane. You know more about my work than anyone alive, and you can't understand a word of it, but you know that it's theoretically possible to control gravity and use it to bend time far enough to tie it in a knot."

"I was there when it stopped being theoretical." Getty nodded. "You know, I never really believed, about the watch…"

"I know." She reached out with both hands, caught him by his lapels, and pulled him in close for a passionate kiss. She didn't let him go when they broke for air, resting her forehead against his. "I saw you and me, Gets. I saw our wedding, I saw our kids. Their first step, first tooth; first grandkid. I saw you joshing me when I found my first grey hair, I saw you catching our youngest getting drunk on moonshine and hiding him from me till he sobered up; I saw you getting freaked out by this monologue and interrupting by-"

Getty kissed her back swiftly, hard enough that their teeth mashed together. She was more than willing to go along with him. Poor thing must have been so scared. She thought, unable to settle.

"I know how to make the micro-singularity." Murph whispered to him in bed that night, head resting over his heart. "I can do it. It's easy. I know how to condense the Gravity Field until it breaks through to Bulk Space."

"Then what went wrong?"

"I went wrong. I went too far, and got pulled into the Bulk Space myself. I can fix that now, if I can keep the Singularity narrowed to the size of an atom." She let out a breath. "Unlimited energy, Gets. We could be home in three months. We could bring the whole Station back here if we wanted."

"Mission Accomplished, then." Getty said, fingers going still in her hair. "Right?"

She didn't answer.

The next morning, they received a message from Lazarus Station, telling them the situation was getting more desperate. Barton had overheard them reporting 'limited success' and was trying to rush their invasion plans, before Murph could achieve her goal, and get the Stations entirely out of range.

"I don't know what he's worried about." Murph said lightly. "If we transmit the formula to our people, he'd be able to hear it too."

"Our people are the only ones set up to build one of those Chambers. I'd be amazed if Earth has that kind of tech left." Getty commented. "But you get the message, I'm sure. They're telling us to work faster."

"And they don't even know what we're working on anymore." Murph nodded. "I'm afraid it's gone quite a bit beyond a power source."

Getty looked at her expectant, hopeful face, and sighed. "All right. Convince me."

"The problem with the Gravity Formula was that it was only half complete. The other half needed more data to reconcile Relativity. Time and Space. This new Formula? I know how to reconcile it, but I have to anchor it to a specific event. We have to go again." She told him.

"Murph, creating a Tesseract nearly killed you!"

"No, it did kill me, and then put me together again. I think." Murph said directly. "But I think I know how to beat that, now. See, a Tesseract is a cube in four dimensions. A square is two dimensional, a cube is the same shape in three dimensions, and a Tesseract is the same shape in four. With me so far?"

"Yes." Getty noded. "Ish."

"Good. The problem was not the shape of the box, it was what I put in it." Murph held up the new equations on her tablet, as though that explained everything. "You build a box around a single person, and the only thing in that box is one person, no matter how many dimensions you're in. I had no idea how to… direct the box I was building, and that was what nearly killed me. I can make a Tesseract, and give it a focal point. The outside edges of the box will reach into infinity. But if you can figure out where the exact centre of a place needs to be…" She saw she was losing him. "When you assemble a jigsaw puzzle, you always start with the borders. You know where the edges are, and the picture fills in from there. When you build a Tesseract, you need to know where the exact middle is, and the edges build around it."

"Okay." Gety nodded. "So, where do you plan to focus the Tesseract?"

"Well…" Murph bit her lip. "This has never been done before. So, like any good scientist, I need a control group. Something to compare my results to."

"Usually, you create a control group with an already successful instance, or a naturally occuring example." Getty reminded her. "Where do you plan to find one of those?"

"I'm afraid I can only think of one place and time when I know this sort of… Omni-Vision was used."

"The wristwatch in your room." Getty said, and she knew he'd thought of it too. "Now, maybe I'm missing the obvious, but… to do that, you'd need to have exact coordinates of the space and time in question."

"I have that." Murph nodded. "I can give you the location of my old bedroom in GPS, to the square inch. Spatial coordinates too."

"But if you're right, about your father using this kind of technology to send you a message, then you'd need to know his exact coordinates, too."

"That, actually, will not be hard." Murph said with a hard sigh. "I can enter the Tesseract here, because I'm creating a focal point. But last time, when it was done by accident? It's because I was trying to generate a Singularity." She smiled like a shark. "So, how did my dad get into a Tesseract?"

"Well, unless he also had a Singularity... to... enter…" Getty thought hard for several seconds, and then looked out the window to the Wormhole. "Gargantua?"

"The only place where a Singularity, and a Gravity-Construct co-existed in proximity, just like here. We both made the same journey, on opposite sides of the same Wormhole; with the Tesseract as a bridge between both." Murph nodded. "To create a Tesseract that I can manage, I need data. To do that, I need to look at a functional Tesseract. The only place and time where I know one existed? The one my father used." She looked at him intensely. "Gets, you're the only one I ever told about my Ghost. You're the only one that believes me about the Bootstrap Paradox. I can't ask anyone else to let me do this…"

"Please don't ask me to let you do this." Getty asked softly.

"I have to."

"Three days, Murph. After years of hoping, dreaming, and idly craving you, we finally got our chance… and then I spent three straight days by your bedside, listening to you babble like a lunatic. Do you have any idea what was going through my mind, listening to you rave for three straight days and nights?"

Murph caught herself short. "No, I don't. I don't have the clearest memory of it, to be honest."

"Lucky you." Getty said tightly. "I don't want a happy holiday with you, Murph. I need there to be a beginning, middle and end."

Murph cupped his face between her hands again. "I want that too." She said honestly. "Look… Gravity was always a long shot, back then. But we did it. Now, I'm telling you that we need this, just as much. You have nothing but your faith in me to help you decide if you believe that. I'm asking you to have faith again. For me. In me. With me; because I don't know for sure this will work. I just know that it has to."

Getty looked sick. "You know I can't ever say no to you, Murph. Walk softly, because if you asked me to walk through fire for you, I probably would."

She kissed him sweetly. "I know." She said quietly. "I don't take that lightly. I know what I'm asking you for."

"And if you… If I don't get you back, this time?"

"Then you take this ship back to Earth at top speed, and you tell the others how to create a Micro-Singularity at atom size. We'll have saved the Stations, and the human race, one last time." Murph said quietly. "The mission is a success, but there's another mission now. To make sure the circle is closed."

Long, fragile silence.

"Murph?" He said finally. "Did you mean it, when you said you saw our futures?"

She smiled. "Yes. And to answer your next question, yes; I will marry you when we get back."

Getty smiled, just a bit. "Then let's get this done and see if we can set a speed record back to Earth."

The formula was adjusted, using some mathematical voodoo that Getty couldn't even guess at; and Murph went back into the Chamber. Getty knew quickly that this time was going smoother, because she was on Comms the whole time.

"My God! It's full of Stars!" Murph exulted in awe.

Getty keyed the Comm. "I saw that movie too, babe."

"I know." She laughed joyously. "This is really amazing, Gets."

"Can you... Describe it?"

"I can see every second of my old life unfolding like a hall of mirrors. I know that doesn't make sense, but that's what it looks… Wait… something's wrong."

"I'm pulling you out."

"No! Not with the machine, not with me… Getty, there's no Tesseract here. I'm not just opening one, I'm… I'm creating it! How is that possible?! We know the time loop existed in my bedroom."

Getty's hands stilled over the Emergency Stop. "Maybe… we were looking in the wrong direction on that, too?"

Long silence.

"Gets, if you're right… then I just built the Time Loop that my father used."

"Are you still so sure it was your father?" Getty said finally. He'd been dancing around that question since she'd shown him the watch.

Long silence.

"Only one way to find out." Murph admitted.

Silence.

"Murph?" Getty called again. "Still with me?"

No answer.

"MURPH!"

Murph was actually enjoying herself. It was incredible! Her room, laid out in four dimensions, from the moment the house was built. The bookshelf was there before Murph was born, and she could see her mother and father, combining their bookshelves, carefully laying their library together.

She could see the moment her mother put a crib across from the bookshelves. She could feel tears gathering, as her father brought his newborn daughter into the room for the first time, laying her in the crib. Her father was smiling so much...

He loved me. Murph thought to herself. I spent twenty years wondering if… I spent all that time screaming about how he left me to die.

Floating through a place where there was no 'up' or 'down' or 'past' or 'future', Murph was surrounded by her own past, her own bedroom, her own…

Every time her dad helped with her homework. Every time her dad cheered her up after a bad day. Every time her dad told a story, or gave her a puzzle…

Looking at it from an adult's perspective, Murph could see how much effort he put into her, even when he was tired, even when he was dusty, or heartbroken…

She saw the moment he hugged her, the night mom died. He'd held her all night while she sobbed. Then Tom came in and dad pulled them both together tightly.

Why did I hate him so much? Murph felt the shame hit her like a freight train. How could I think that he'd abandoned us without trying?

She saw the moments after she left home. She saw the dust getting thicker on the windows. She saw Tom getting older, coming into the room and glowering at their father's remnants. Dad gave Tom the farm. He gave me the watch, and I didn't want it...

She saw Tom get older, angrier, more stooped by stress and growing doom. She saw Lois hiding in the doorway, getting less sure of herself around him, more scared.

She saw Tom yelling at Lois and felt her heart race. She saw Lois come running into her old room with Coop, barricading the door with Tom on the other side. I left her there.

She saw herself, a full grown woman, come into the bedroom with an oxygen mask in her hand. Tom wouldn't look at her, staring sullenly into space as she sat on the floor of her bedroom beside him. They were speaking, but she couldn't hear them. I don't remember that. Is that the future?

Murph saw herself stand up, and kiss Tom goodbye... And then look at the bookcase. For a split second, Murph was making eye contact with herself, across space and time.

Awed, Murph felt her way along the kaleidoscope, looking for more information... when her headset suddenly buzzed. "Cooper? Can you read me? I'm detecting an EM Transmitter. Is that you, Cooper?"

Murph felt her heart start to speed up. That voice wasn't coming from anywhere in her room. Not at any point in the timeline. "This is Cooper. Please identify?"

"This is TARS. Cooper? Your voice is different."

Murph had studied every facet of the Endurance and her Crew. "TARS? The android assigned to the Endurance? How… Why… How are you here?"

"I entered the black hole, attempting to gather Quantum data on the Effects of the Singularity. Pilot Joseph Cooper was to come behind me, but that was over 99999 hours ago."

Murph felt her heart start to race. "To be expected. If you entered Gargantua in front of him, the time dilation effect has separated you quite a bit further. He… may not make it to this side of the Event Horizon for quite some time… Even centuries."

"My understanding of Tesseract Mechanics is limited, but was included in my subroutines, so that I could help Doctor Romily with his observations and conclusions of Black Hole Physics." TARS reported. "As I understand it, Time is no longer a consideration. May I ask when you entered Gargantua? Are you part of the earlier Lazarus Missions?"

He isn't here. Murph thought weakly. He's still falling through space, towards a black hole, waiting to die. Once he gets here, time is meaningless, but it could take him a million years to fall all the way in; and I opened a doorway in twenty seconds. "TARS, do you understand where you are?"

"I have identified the primary subject visible through the Construct as Murph Cooper. She trespassed into NASA property some time ago." TARS said. "I have yet to determine why this space is fixated on her bookshelf."

"Did you see me too, Murph?" A woman's voice rolled to her softly, from some direction in the future that Murph only caught glimpses of.

"TARS, make your observations for as long as you can. Eventually, Cooper will join you, and he'll need that Data." She told him. "Will you give him a message for me, TARS? When he gets here?"

"I am unable to confirm that, until I know your clearance level. Please identify yourself."

"I'm the one that built this Construct." Murph was about to respond, when she felt the space around her start to warp again. "TARS, I'm being pulled out of the Tesseract, but there's more than one point where this space and the Physical universe overlap. When it closes down, you'll probably come out on the other side. I promise, the Tesseract will stay active until the mission is complete! Good luck, and tell my-"

The Tesseract was gone, and she was suddenly facedown on a solid floor again, gasping.

Getty was right there with her, shining his penlight in her eyes again. "Murph? Talk to me. How long this time?!"

"A few more seconds would have been fine." She told him, not really annoyed. "But I have no idea what I would have said, anyway."

Murph was silent as she oriented the ship for the ride home. Once they were moving, there was little to do but wait. Getty gave her space, as best he could, and she finally noticed him pushing a tray of food at her, yet again. "Sorry. I haven't been nearly as good company on the return flight as I was on the outgoing one, huh?"

"I'm not upset, believe me." He said easily. "I'm used to deep-thought-broody Murph Cooper. It's a far cry better than the last time I pulled you out of there."

"It worked, Gets." Murph said quietly. "I can anchor the Tesseract to a specific place or object, and as a result, I can see that object in four dimensions. I can even anchor the entry point to more than one singularity. One I made, or one naturally occurring. Gargantua, the Wormhole, my Singularity, currently powering the drive… All points where euclidean geometry ceases. I can turn any of them into a Doorway to a Higher-Dimensional Space." She wiped her eyes. "The experiment worked better than I ever dreamed it could. I know how to create the Wormhole, because I just created something very similar. A bridge between multiple places in space-time."

"So why do you look so miserable?"

"Because…" Murph sighed. "He wasn't there. He wasn't there, and I thought, of all the places he must be…"

Getty stilled. Other than himself, there was only one 'he' in Murph's world. "Tell me we didn't take that chance with your sanity again because you wanted to find your father."

Murph couldn't meet his gaze. "It's not so terrible a reason, is it?"

Getty looked sick. "Murph-"

"I know how my father gets the message to me, through the watch." Murph said quietly. "I just set it up to happen, but he's still stuck in slow motion, a galaxy away. It could take my father another thousand years to make it all the way into the Black Hole, and he doesn't even know how long it'll be." She shook her head. "Paradox. And I still didn't get to say goodbye."

He looked sideways at her. "Y'know, this is almost worse than you babbling incoherently, because I still can't be sure you haven't lost your mind. You're talking about your father and what he'll do in a thousand years, despite the fact that he was presumed dead over a decade ago."

"I know."

He was silent a long moment. "Murph, I don't want you to make a Tesseract again. We don't know exactly how it works, what it does, or what it's doing to you. Until we can figure out an answer to at least one of those questions; I don't want you to do it again. I know you outrank me, but speaking as your doctor; it just seems too… crazy. To say nothing of what someone like Barton might do with it; if they ever find out."

Murph smiled. "Okay. Then I won't use it again."

He froze. She had conceded way too fast. "Really?"

"Really." She promised. "And while we're wiping the details of how long we put off hypersleep from the Ship's Memory, we might want to wipe out details of the Tesseract too. Nobody but you and I will ever know."

"Is this that thing women do, where they keep agreeing with someone until they give in? Because we've only been an official item for a week, and I don't want us to play that game."

"A week?" She smiled. "That depends entirely on your perspective, believe me."

The Jesse turned, ready to 'fall' towards earth at terrific speed. And yet inside, there was no feeling of motion. The two of them looked up at the starfield. Without a word, Getty went and collected their blankets and pillows again, recreating the position they'd been in when they left earth; only this time, they were looking towards their destination.

"Which one is us?" Getty asked suddenly.

Murph smiled, and pointed 'up' at the speck of light in question. "That one."

Getty shook his head. "Yikes."

"I know." Murph agreed, feeling it too.

Silence.

"Voyager 1 passed this way in the late 1980's." Murph said quietly. "Our first up close picture of the planet Saturn was taken by that probe. And now we're here, seeing it in person. And we're not even the first ones to do it."

Getty nodded, his hand finding hers.

She pulled him closer, until his head was laying back against her stomach, and she curled around him, snuggling up like she'd been doing it for decades. Murph turned down the cabin lights and found herself talking again, soft and gentle. "Professor Brand was a big Carl Sagan fan. Sagan asked them to turn Voyager's cameras around when it passed Saturn, to get a shot of Earth. He didn't get permission until the probe passed Neptune, years later. But the picture it took… My God, Gets. We're actually looking at that view right now."

"Yes, we are."

"I've been looking at it for so long. The old man had it framed on his wall."

Getty started to forget the ship, like her voice and the stars were the whole extent of the universe. "Pale Blue Dot. I remember."

"I wonder, sometimes; if that was why he lied about Plan A. From here, it doesn't seem like that big a deal." Murph said softly. "Look at it. It's nothing. We're still in Earth's own neighborhood, and I honestly can't be sure I haven't gotten the whole Earth confused with a speck of dust on the window."

"It's a very humbling profession, space travel." Getty said softly. "Every Apollo Astronaut described it as a religious experience."

"Faith?" Murph murmured in his ear.

"Faith." Getty nodded.

"For a theoretical physicist, God is Physics." Murph murmured back. "What is it for you?"

"You know my views."

"Yeah, but… I figured having a Doomsday Clock strike midnight would shake that." She gestured at the tiny dot that was their homeworld. "The universe isn't cruel, it's indifferent."

Getty shook his head. For all the heavy topics, the mood was just so… mellow. "It's not about kind and cruel. Those are questions for religions. Creation is something else. Design is about seeing the universe and believing it's not an accident. Religion is about who's signature gets put on the job."

"Ah. And you have faith in Design?"

"Yeah." Getty nodded. "One of my teachers told me about the Periodic Table. He said that every element on the table has an atomic number; but when you line those numbers up with each other, a pattern emerges. One so precise that scientists were able to predict the undiscovered elements, even what they would look like, long before anyone found them and put them under a microscope. Even a single cell organism has hundreds of different sub-cellular components that have to work perfectly in sync. More complicated than Darwin ever dreamed." He reached back and started stroking her hair again, almost like an unconscious need. "Space is the same way. You said yourself if the universe was moving any slower, or any faster; the cosmos would have ceased by now. But the balance between Gravity and Motion was so perfect… I never knew what to make of Religion, but I loved the idea that the same god who could create the cosmos was also the one that made a cell divide."

"I like that idea too; but I don't know that I agree with it." Murph admitted. "People in my profession have spent centuries trying to figure out how the force that holds an atom together can be the same force that makes the earth go around the sun so flawlessly. There's still so much I don't understand."

"Murph, you want to see God's Signature on something, look through a microscope, look at your formula, look at a Periodic Table of Elements. Complexity isn't what gives me belief. It's that the complexity isn't random. The patterns are so perfect that you can tell me where Saturn will be in a billion years."

"Or see the ratio of a spiral galaxy in a seashell's curve." Murph was feeling the mellow, loving tone of it too. They weren't arguing Science Vs Religion, they were each giving someone they loved a personal view of life. "Voyager left the Solar System, Gets. Without the Wormhole, it'd be the only thing we ever built that did. If we hadn't cracked it… If we hadn't pulled it off; Voyager would have been the only proof that life ever existed on the third little rock, spinning it's way around this one particular point of light among trillions."

"Buzz Aldrin was religious. He quoted the Psalms when he was on Apollo 11. 'When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him?'" Getty almost hummed. "I always liked the idea that a shepherd boy could see our place in the universe the same way we do, thousands of years later, because his faith told the same story as our telescopes. The Story of an insignificant Pale Blue Dot, surrounded by infinite wonders."

"I have that Sagan speech committed to memory. He was about as anti-religion as you could get. When a bible verse and a notably brilliant confirmed atheist agree on something like our position in the grand scheme of things, it's no small thing." Murph murmured, reciting the speech in question. "'The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar', every 'supreme leader', every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there. On a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot'."

The mellow warmth cooled a bit suddenly, brought back to reality. Murph sat up slowly, not wanting the moment to end. "We'll talk more, love. Right now, we have to get back to Earth, before Barton starts yet another war over our particular speck in a sunbeam."

"Yeah we do… Or worse, before he wins it." He agreed. "You have a plan?"

"I do, but it rather depends on getting there before anyone starts shooting."

Getty nodded, letting the moment go. They had agreed where their priorities would be. "So what are you waiting for? Step on it!"

Ellie looked at the radar scope, showing over a dozen military craft closing on Lazarus Station. After almost a year, they were still running on minimal power. Everything they turned on had to take energy from something else.

There were no weapons, no ships capable of ship-to-ship combat.

The approaching fleet was made up of fighter craft, and landing craft, full of troops. It wouldn't take many soldiers to overpower the control room.

Contact with the Jesse had been lost when they got up to speed. Ellie had no idea when to expect them.

As the enemy grew closer, everyone was looking to her. Murph, what do I do? She reached for the Comm. "This is Doctor Eleanor-"

"Assault Fleet to Lazarus Base. You will stand down all operations, and surrender control of the facility to our authority. Legal hurdles have been cleared, and we are taking back ownership of the Base."

In other words, having rewritten the laws you find inconvenient, you have given yourselves permission to do what you want. The matter-of-fact way they put it turned her stomach, but she had nothing to fight back with, nothing to negotiate with.

"Boss, I got a bogey coming in at 0.4 of Light Speed." Howard reported.

Ellie looked over sharply. "What the hell goes that fast?"

"No idea. It's moving so fast it barely reads on the radar!"

Ellie tensed. "Equipment failure?"

"If it is, it's heading for Barton's Assault Fleet." Howard reported. "And it's slowing down!"

The Comm crackled. "Sorry to sneak up on you like that, Ellie; but time was of the essence."

Ellie felt her heart stop. "Murph? What the hell did you do to that thing that it can go so fast?"

"Wild, huh?" Murph reported. "Sorry about the telemetry. It probably looked like we went dark the second we got her up to speed."

"Well, you got here just in time to negotiate our surrender." Ellie said grimly. "There's no way we can adapt your power source to the Station in time."

"No there isn't." Murph agreed. "But Getty was kind enough to sleep for two months so that I could take his food, and work on a few modifications to the Gravity Drive. Hang on, I'll see if I can get their attention."

Down on Earth, Secretary Barton was monitoring the operation.

"Base, we have a new craft coming into range. Don't recognize the configuration."

The militaries had disbanded after the Resource Wars, along with most governments, but to save their own lives, Barton was able to pull half a dozen Generals and Air Marshals out of retirement. Surrounded by them, Barton leaned forward and commed his pilots. "That's The Jesse, believed lost near Saturn over two months ago. It has no offensive capability. Continue the mission."

"Copy that." The Wing Commander reported. "Still no response to our warning."

"Then begin moving on the Airlock." Barton directed. "Remember, these people are smart, but unarmed. They may have improvised some defences, but there should be minimal resistance."

There was a shudder through the footage as the Assault Craft accelerated. He got a clear sight of the Jesse for a split second, before the camera went still, holding position.

Barton hit the comm again. "Ignore the bogey, continue on mission!"

"Sir!" The Commander grunted. "We're experiencing… I don't know what's happening here, but my readouts are currently at Three G's!"

"What does that mean?" Barton asked the room.

"It means they're fighting gravity, the way they do when they launch." One of the generals said.

"Up to Four G's now." The report came. "We currently have no forward motion… None of the Fleet does." He was grunting. "Engines are overheating. I've got to keep our engines at 70% just to hold position!"

Barton glowered at the screen, and the one craft that stood alone between an entire fleet and the Station. "The opposing gravity is being generated by that ship. Take it out, immediately."

"Roger that, locking on." The Commander said, and it was clear he was becoming pained, trying to tough out Four G's.

"This is Murphy Cooper, of Lazarus Base." A call came over the radio. "We have no desire to fight. Your assault fleet is making an illegal strike, in support of an illegal order. Return to Earth, and we are prepared to negotiate for open immigration status to the Station Freeholds. Any pilot who ejects will be given safe passage back to Earth. Turn your ships around if you don't want to risk that. But right now, you're coming with missiles and guns, against unarmed people. People who are under my authority. You will not pass my ship."

"She's on the Jesse herself?!" Barton breathed. "Destroy that ship right now, and odds are the Stations will surrender within the hour!"

"We have a lock. Fox Two."

The missile launched, the trails visible on the screen… before the missile suddenly fizzled out and fell back towards the fleet that launched it.

"Evade! Package is live! Evade now!" The pilots shouted, and the footage went wild as the assault craft spun and wheeled, trying to evade their own ordinance.

They dodged, without any casualties, but the evasive maneuvers cost them range. The image stabilized, and the Station became visible again, smaller now.

"What happened?" Barton called. "Guidance failure?"

"Negative sir; the thing used all its fuel trying to fight gravity and…" The pilot was in agony now. "Now reading Five G's…"

"Any more and our pilots start passing out." Someone warned Barton.

"Look, our intelligence says that the Gravity Drive takes a ridiculous amount of power to project. We can wait them out."

"Ayesir." The Pilot moaned. "Engines are overheating… Now at 115%!"

"Wait Them Out!" Barton roared.

"This is insane." Someone hissed behind him. "She isn't even moving. She's just sitting there, and our people are using everything they've got trying to get closer!"

"She can't keep this up. It's a bluff. This is her entire plan." Barton insisted. "Hold the line! That's an order!"

"Who breaks first, Mister Secretary? Our engines, their power source, or our pilots?" Someone barked.

"Red Five, back in formation!" The Commander yelled.

"I… I… oohhh."

"He's passed out. Someone override the guidance on that ship before he hits the atmosphere!"

"Red Three, back in formation!"

"I have total engine failure. They burned out! I have to glide her back before we burn up!"

Murph looked sadly out the window. "They're dropping back."

"Should we increase the power?" Getty asked. "Force them down?"

"We can't do that without killing the pilots." Murph shook her head. "This is as far as we take it. Trust me, Gets. We can hold out a lot longer than they can."

Another assault craft fell back, unable to keep fighting the tide.

Murph keyed her Comm again. "Secretary Barton."

"I'm here." He grated.

"Basic rule of warfare, sir." Murph reported. "Seize the high ground. In space, there is no 'up' and 'down'. The High Ground is wherever we put it now."

"Just remember one thing, Cooper. There are more of us than you, and we have all the guns."

"I can increase the pressure to Nine G's, Barton. Or ten. Or twenty. There's nothing but my goodwill keeping your people alive. If there's anyone else listening, believe me when I tell you that I can keep this up all day."

The line cut out. Murph waited, watching the fleet straining their engines to a vain effort to get to her against the gravity well she was generating.

The line came back five minutes later. "This is General Cutty, formerly of the Air Force." Another voice came back. "Secretary Barton has stood down the assault. Two of our pilots cannot make it back to Earth under their own power. You did promise safe passage?"

"I did." Murph agreed, and switched off the drive. "Have your people break off, and I'll bring the two pilots aboard the station safely. They'll be returned by this evening."

The battle was over without a single fatality.

"Barton couldn't even admit he'd lost; he had someone else make the call." Getty observed. "Think it was a coup?"

"I do not." Murph complained. "But it means the military options are exhausted. So ends the first attempt at open space warfare."

There was a standing ovation waiting when Murph and Getty stepped off the Jesse, back aboard the Station. Murph gave quick directions that the Singularity Generator be moved to the Station Drive Core.

She looked back at Getty, but the two of them had been swept apart in seconds, parted by the crowd of people who were full of questions, congratulations, gratitude…

Getty didn't look upset. He knew they'd find each other again eventually.

It took hours before Murph was done walking the rest of her science teams through the creation of a Micro-Singularity. The rest of the stations would have the same capability in weeks.

She wanted to go to Getty, promise him that they were still together, and always would be. But there was work to do, and it had to come first.

The second she was alone, she went down to the habitat ring.

"Simpson." Murph said crisply as he answered his door. "How are the kids?"

"Relieved, boss." Simpson said promptly. "You did it again."

"Not yet, I haven't. Which is what brings me to you, in fact. I was wondering if I could interest you in a mission. We have two pilots to escort back to Earth; and… something else to take care of afterwards."

Simpson grinned. "Ohh man, this is going to be big, isn't it?"

"We're going to end this." Murph said, pure steel. "Big enough for you?"

Secretary Barton was in his home. The Secret Service Protection was part of the uniform, and he slept better, knowing he was protected. He was one of the few people with guaranteed food and shelter, and that meant he had a target on him.

His phone rang as he prepared to settle in for sleep, and he answered it. "Barton."

"Evening, Mister Secretary." A vaguely familiar voice said. "Just had to make sure you were in your house, and not working late. Is your mistress with you?"

"Who is this?!" Barton barked.

"Okay, hold on."

Barton was about to say something obscene as the line disconnected, when suddenly his stomach turned over. He started to gag, when his feet left the floor. An instant later, there was a horrific tearing, crumpling sound that shook apart the world… and suddenly his house was shifting on the foundations. Plastered against the ceiling, Barton was trying not to scream, or lose his lunch, when the roof finally gave up, and snapped into pieces.

Barton went flying up into the sky, howling in shock. He had the briefest flash of people down below pointing up at him, as large sections of his house floated twenty feet into the air, and then back down to ground level.

Barton kept falling upwards… until a flash of metal crossed his vision, and he suddenly felt himself smack into something, face first. The wind stopped instantly. There was the sound of doors closing, and then 'down' was working again as Barton dropped, five feet to the closed bomb bay doors.

Gasping for air, Barton tried to get his bearings, when the hatch forward swung open, and in stepped two familiar faces. "Mister Secretary." Murph said easily. "Apologies for the late hour; but we were dropping two pilots back at their Base, and thought we'd stop by, since we were in the neighborhood. You remember Simpson, of course?"

"I remember he used to be my bodyguard." Braton glared at Simpson, suddenly realizing where he knew the voice on the phone. "Traitor."

Murph smirked. "Making your bedroom try to 'fall' into the sky was a relatively easy set of calculations. Little known fact, a roof is much stronger when it's on top of a room, rather than under the weight of one. Creating a gravity field that narrow from a hundred feet up took more power than travelling to Saturn. But for honored guests, nothing but the best."

"You realize you've just declared war on the US Government, I hope?"

"And your assault fleet yesterday? What was that?"

"A police action."

"Uh-huh. I'm sure you were just going to write us a ticket." Murph commented, unsurprised. "Pardon me a moment." She pulled out her tablet and tapped for a moment. Barton immediately 'fell' the five feet to the ceiling, and Murph had the bay doors open 'above' him. "With the flick of a switch, I can have you back to street level in puddle form."

"You won't do it!" Barton shouted over the sudden wind.

Murph had the doors close again, and let him drop. "You're right; I wouldn't. Threatening summary executions? All that talk is coming from your side of the table. But I wanted to make sure you understood: I have the high ground here. Morally, physically, technologically, even militarily, if I had any desire to become like you… and I have one big advantage over all the people of earth. I've got time. It's now Twenty Five Thousand a day that are dying by suffocation. But none of them are my people. My Stations are self-sufficient, and don't require anything from earth any longer. Not fuel, not food, not manufacturing or textiles.." She gave him a death stare. "Do not make the mistake of thinking this is a negotiation. There is nothing but my desire to save lives keeping me involved with Earth at all."

Barton had nothing to say to that.

"You want to make a deal?" Murph offered. "One that will get you off earth personally? You and your contributors, your kids, your wife; your girlfriend?"

Barton hesitated. "What do you want?"

"An end to this insanity." Murph told him firmly. "The Stations are all in 'international waters'. All your people have to do is immigrate. There are plenty of legal frameworks for migration. Half the planet is trying to get somewhere else as it is! Hell, climbing into a Ranger is still a safer, shorter flight than most airports can offer."

"It's not that simple. Your Science Council is multinational. How are we supposed to immigrate our people to-" He paused to phrase it right, but she beat him to it.

"To a place not ruled entirely by Americans?" Murph finished the sentence for him. "Barton, look out that window. You see any borders drawn across the continents? Any state lines? Because all I see is dust. Manifest Destiny doesn't apply to the cosmos."

"Cooper, if you want people to immigrate… My job is to serve US interests. Anyone who wanted permanent resident status in international waters would either have to renounce their citizenship, or apply as a refugee, as a matter of law. You really think people are going to go for that?"

"As it happens, the European Union, the South American Nations, the Australians and more than two thirds of all still functional governments have already decided to take that deal. Any citizen who wants to go to space can do so, if they renounce their citizenship rights." Murph shook her head. "You tell me. How many all-american ex-patriots do you want there to be in ten years?"

"More importantly, do you want to be one of them?" Simpson chimed in.

"We'll give you the night to think it over." Murph told him, and nodded to Simpson, who went back into the cockpit. "Try not to struggle. I can 'fall' you down to the ground, gentle as a feather, but it's tricky."

"Cooper, one question." Barton said suddenly. "Your stations aren't that big. What are you doing with all these refugees? There's no way you've got resources for them all."

"Not yet, but we have a solution to that." She promised.

"Eighty six thousand Cryo-Beds and counting." Ellie reported. "The printers are churning out components, and my crew is assembling them day and night. We're keeping ahead of the refugees, but just barely."

"The rate of refugees is going to increase dramatically, I'm afraid." Murph reported. "They took the deal. It's no longer a Refugee Crisis. It's now an Immigration Matter."

"Half of what politicians do is naming things." Getty observed dryly. "But it means we can finally go about the business of evacuating people."

"And put them where?" Ellie complained. "Murph, I'm not kidding. We don't have room for all these people, and if we overtax the life support systems…"

"That's why the Cryo-Beds are so important." Murph nodded. "We can take as many refugees as we can get up here, and we can have them assembling Cryo-beds on the surface. They don't need to fear suffocation if they sleep through it. Within two months, we'll have more people making the trip as Cargo than Passengers. We can get them up here when we have somewhere to put them."

"And… where will that be?" Ellie asked, intrigued.

"I've just turned over The Jesse to the Science Council." Murph explained. "They're taking a flight to the Asteroid Belt. They find a few asteroids that are rich in minerals, and they can use the Gravity Drive to fly it back to earth. They spend the trip hollowing out all the alloys, and we'll have an asteroid that we can seal up airtight, and rotate for gravity. A fair sized interior that we can turn into an O'Neill Cylinder. A hollow world with a circular horizon."

"That's where we put the refugees?"

"That's where we put the workforce. Lazarus Station is Logistics and Research, the other stations all have their own duties. We make something out of a large asteroid, we can house thousands of people, have them churn out more Cryo-Beds." Murph hesitated. "Sooner or later, there won't be such a demand for them, but that'll be in two or three years."

"And there's no reason we can't make more Stations." Getty put in. "If we can convert an asteroid into a habitat, we can do it again, and again, and again. Meanwhile, I've been researching ways to turn the Cryo-Chambers into large satellites. Solar power can keep the monitors online, and if we put them out in space we don't have to worry about them thawing out prematurely. They'll be safer outside than inside. We can house thousands that way; until we have a world for them to set foot on."

Long silence.

"We're really doing it, aren't we?" Ellie breathed. "We're actually going to pull this off!"

"With a little luck." Murph said, not smiling. "Marching orders: Ellie, liaison with immigration. Get people up here as fast as we can take them. Getty, Cryonic Satellites. The designs are all done, you monitor the transfer from Refugee to Human Popsicle. Both of you make sure there are enough Cryo-Bed manufacturing plants down on earth, and get them up here before the storms make it too dangerous. Float them up in a Gravity Tube if you have to."

"What will you do?" Getty asked.

Murph set her jaw. "I have one last person to talk to… and then I will cheerfully never set foot on a planet again."

You needed an oxygen mask to walk around Cooper Farm now. Murph noted that the whole house had been covered over in plastic, with an air tent set up at the door. She hit the buzzer to be let in.

Lois was waiting for her, already packed. Coop was there, mask over his face.

Murph took hers off, once inside. She didn't have to say it. Lois had a few bruises, but she still looked healthier than the last time Murph had seen her. "Tenting the house turned out to be a good move." Lois said quietly. "Made the place air-tight. Kept the dust out. Our lungs are actually healthier…" She trailed off. "How did you know? I've been trying to find a way to call the station for weeks, and I'm sure you must have a lot of important…" She trailed off again.

Murph pointed. "My ship is about thirty feet straight ahead of the door. Don't walk left or right; and you'll find it." She needed to give directions. The dust made it impossible to see that far.

Lois knew why Murph was there personally. "He's upstairs." She nodded, and reached a hand out, putting it over Murph's heart. "Thank you?" She wavered.

Murph nodded in return, not really focusing on her as she headed upstairs.

Tom wasn't in his room, he was in hers. Sitting cross legged on the floor, tracing lines in the dust. Murph came in and sat with him. Neither of them spoke for a long moment.

"Some men came in and photographed everything." Tom rasped sullenly. "Everything you ever touched is a holy relic now. Saint Murphy."

"With dad's help."

"Dad's Ghost."

"I forgave him, Tom. He did his bit, and then some. It's still even money whether or not he died trying. That's the price you pay for…"

"Saving the world." Tom sighed. "But you're not saving the world, are you, sis? The one thing you don't want to take with you is Earth."

"Tom, you fought the good fight for a long time, and nobody can say you didn't do everything a person could do." Murph said quietly. "There's nothing left to fight for here."

Tom wouldn't look at her. "There's a network of weather stations moving into the old bomb shelters. Fallout shelters are still sealed up from the Resource Wars. Even the Cold War before that. We can still…"

"Oh my god." Murph sighed under her breath.

"We can!" Tom insisted. "We can restore the atmosphere. The blight will burn out after a few more months-"

"Few more decades."

"-and the earth will be able to recover." Tom snapped. "And when those goddamn machines of yours finally fail, which they always do, then the human race needs somewhere to go."

Murph wanted to scream at him, but she just didn't have it in her anymore. Tom just wasn't going to shift. Not for her, not for Lois, not for Coop. "Tom…" She said quietly. "This may be the last time we see each other. I don't want to spend it having the same argument."

Tom nodded. "Me neither."

"Please come with us? We can use all the experts on food production we can get. No blight up there, no rot. No parasites, or dust storms…"

"I thought you didn't want to have this fight again." Tom sneered.

"I don't." Murph conceded.

"If this is the last time we speak, I want you to know, I forgive you."

"Forgive me?"

"For giving up and running. For taking my family away."

They begged to go; and they begged me to talk you into coming along; even after you gave your wife bruises. She bit her tongue before she could say it. There was no point.

"Keep an eye on Coop for me, will you?" Tom grated. "I know you can't stand him-"

"That's not why I stayed away." Murph said quietly.

"-but he'll need at least one adult he can be proud of in his life, and-"

"I'm getting married." Murph said suddenly.

He actually looked at her. "Congratulations." He said flatly.

"Thank you." Murph said stiffly. "I'd like you to come to the wedding."

"And then I'm sure you'd let me come right back to Earth afterwards."

"I'd duct tape you to something to keep you alive." Murph didn't bother to deny it.

"Then I shall have to RSVP a 'no'." Tom said stiffly. "Lois will be there. Without me."

Murph sighed, and rose to her feet, resting a hand on his shoulder for a moment, before leaning down and kissing his cheek from behind. "Goodbye, Big Brother."

Murph glanced back at the bookshelf as she went to the door, making eye contact with a self she could see.

"What's that?" Lois asked, pointing at a structure out their window. At a distance, it looked like a huge array of solar panels, but as they glided by it, Lois realized it was a structure, laid out like a grid, made of thousands of little pieces, snapped together like lego.

Getty followed her gaze and smiled. "It's our latest invention. It's a Cryo-Satellite. Thousands and thousands of people, perfectly preserved, protected from meteors by a gravity field. We're building them as fast as we can. As far as those people are concerned, they take a hard nap, wake up somewhere with plenty of clean air and food to eat.

Lois shook her head sadly. She'd never lived in a place where that was ahead. "Are you going to put me in there too?"

"That's up to you." Murph said honestly. "A lot of people have asked to stay preserved until we're ready for Phase Three."

Lois was about to ask for details on what that meant, when she noticed her son, going to pieces beside her.

Coop was crying when they got closer to the Station. Murph's eyes kept flicking back to him. Finally, she couldn't stand it, and brought the Ranger to a halt. She spun her seat around and held out her hands to Coop, who took them automatically. "You've lived your whole life in that house." She said quietly. "The farm is the edge of your universe. Your mom tells me that you made peace with what your dad was doing long ago, but it's still scary, leaving the only place you know, and going some place you don't."

Coop nodded.

Murph pulled her nephew out of his chair, and over to the window. "Look at the earth, Coop. You've seen the pictures in my dad's books, right? Well she looks a lot different now, huh?"

Coop nodded again, wiping his eyes. "I still miss home."

"Of course you do. I did too, when I first left." Murph said forgivingly. "Your father? He was born in that house, and no threat of apocalypse could make him leave it. I don't think he went more than twenty miles away from his own bedroom in his life. Me? I've been to Saturn and Back."

Coop smiled, impressed even given the situation.

"When you were born, they gave you your older brother's crib. You may not remember Jesse; you were pretty young when he died." Murph said gently. "The cradle you slept in? He had it before you, and I had it before him, and Tom had it before me. You can tell the story of our family in the crib, going back five generations. You can tell the story of our species in the earth, going back all the generations." She turned Coop around to make him look at the dead, barren planet. "But you're growing up now. Whether it's a baby's first bed, a house you grew up in, or the planet your people started on; no cradle lasts forever. Even the stars can die."

"Stars can die?" Coop seemed horrified.

"Yes, in billions of years; even our sun will go cold and collapse in on itself. But that barely mattered, because we only just barely survived ourselves; long before the sun became an issue." She made him look back at her. "And if we had all stayed in our cradle for much longer; we would have lost more than the next harvest. Even more than your dad."

"We would?" Coop wavered. "Like what?"

Murph smiled. "Like McDonalds."

In the next seat over, Lois let out a bark of laughter, despite herself.

"A bit before you time, I'm sure." Murph said to the boy. "But we would have lost other things too. Like TV, and baseball. And Mozart, and Led Zeppelin. And ice cream. And corn on the cob. And Jack the Ripper, and Audrey Hepburn, and sleeping in on Saturdays, and popcorn with butter on it; and bedtime stories."

Coop wiped his eyes, listening intently, finding meaning.

"But we were able to save all that." Murph said softly. "Most of it anyway."

"And the things we couldn't save, we remember…" Getty added. "And rebuild, one day."

"Oh, I envy you, Coop." Murph said to her nephew, feeling tears in her eyes. "I would have given anything to be living in an Age of Exploration and Expansion when I was your age. My own dad would have given both his arms to do the kinds of things you're going to be doing with your life. You're just at the start of the adventure, and you're just old enough to get a front row seat."

"To what?" Coop whispered.

Murph turned Coop around, away from earth, towards the starfield. "You know what's out there?"

"What?"

Murph smiled, watching with him. "Everything."

Lois looked back to earth. Coop sat with his aunt and looked to the stars, just watching together for a long time.

Chapter Text

Cooper needed to take a break when he read of Tom's last conversation with his sister. He flicked ahead a few pages, then a few more. Tom's last word was a year later, when he sent a message to Lazarus Station by morse code; calling for rescue at last. By the time the Ranger got there, Tom and everyone else in his bunker had suffocated.

Murph's journal included notes on the eulogy. Nobody knew Tom, but he was 'the' Murph Cooper's brother, and that meant he got a huge funeral. Murph had carefully avoided as much of the angst as possible, and used the eulogy to announce that the first O'Neil Cylinder Station was finished, complete with a circular horizon, farmlands within. Murph commanded that corn would be grown, in honor of her brother's farm.

Cooper went to the window of his rebuilt house and looked again. A circular horizon, with open cropland. The same amount of crops could be grown in half the space, given a different way of food production. But the cropland was more than psychological support for refugee farmers. It was a memorial to his son.

It was the first station built totally in space from a hollowed out Asteroid. Murph's journal said she was a little surprised, even a little uncomfortable when the Council named it Cooper Station, in her honor.

But there was a far more awkward moment to come; when she had to pick Cooper Station's roster.

"I hate this." Murph declared finally. "There are two million names, and I have to pick twenty thousand."

Getty looked at her sympathetically. "The vote was unanimous, Murph. Nobody wants anyone else to pick and choose. They want you to do it."

"Every government on the planet kept trying to get control of who came up here, right to the last." Murph complained. "If they could see me now, tearing my hair out? They'd laugh themselves sick."

Getty said nothing to that. Earth had stopped transmitting. Their scopes showed no sign of anyone moving, or any equipment working. There were rumors that one or two underground bunkers were still active, running silent. But by this point it was clear. Nobody else was going to be evacuated.

Murph leaned back on her chair, rubbing her eyes. "I hate this." She said again.

Getty came around and rubbed her shoulders. "You're missing the days in the lab, huh?"

"I am." Murph admitted. "Those were easier days, even with the stakes. It was easy to tell when you had the wrong solution. Leading The Council is just… shades of grey and judgement calls. I like math a lot more. No buyers remorse. It either equals pi or it doesn't."

Getty looked at her sideways. "You're thinking about the Tesseract." He guessed.

Murph twitched. "Two years, Gets. I promised you I wouldn't use it again; and I kept my word for two years and counting." She rested a hand over her stomach; starting to show. "And who knows what it'll do to little Eric?"

"Eric?" Getty was pleased. "You like the name? I was expecting you to fight me on it for a lot longer."

"Why? It think it's a fine name." Murph said easily.

"Is this that thing women do where they give in on something big, so that they can get their way on other stuff?"

"Y'know, for a guy who married his teenage crush, you have some pretty strong opinions on how women operate."

"I've been right, more often than wrong."

"You have, yes. But I'm not hoping to use the Tesseract." Murph promised soundly. "I just wish I was half as smart as everyone around here seems to think I am." She tapped at the list helplessly. "Who do I pick, Gets?"

"You know this is all stopgap." He reminded her. "We build a station, we get to take another twenty thousand people off ice. We find a planet…"

"I know." Murph sighed. "It's just… The implications of how we do the next part leave me cold inside. Look at the demographics. The African nations came out of the Resource Wars with more survivors, but less food. America was battling starvation worse than they were, so the divisions along ethnic, social, and religious divides are no longer an issue, since the numbers are pretty much even."

"Right, but national factors are non-existent too." Getty reminded her. "The Earth is… well, dead. There are no flags on the Stations. We aren't Americans anymore."

"Yeah, but the people who are in Cryo-Storage have skipped all that." Murph argued. "Who I thaw out and put to work first? It decides how the human race defines itself for the next generation. Everyone's a farmer, except the farms are all clean now. No blight, no dust. But the people who come back are…"

"Going to be picking up where they left off." Getty agreed. "We need engineers and pilots more than farmers."

"Right, but the only nations that were able to keep aircraft running through the age of Dust Storms were south of the equator. So, do Australian and New Zealander refugees come first? We'll need farmers and botanists when we finally land on a planet somewhere…"

Getty started rubbing her shoulders. "Okay, stop that." He teased her lightly.

"What?"

"You've been making quips about how everyone looks at you like an All-Knowing Oracle. But you're punishing yourself for not knowing everything,"

"Mm." Murph leaned back into his hands. "I hope I don't mess up the entire human race." Her lip twitched. "How many people have said that sentence, do you think?"

Getty laughed.

The whole journal was Murph's journey from brilliant student to interplanetary leader.

Cooper had already heard most of it, in bits and pieces. Information about 'The' Murph Cooper wasn't hard to find. His own name was on a memorial statue, along with Amelia's, and all the others from the Lazarus Missions.

Cooper avoided the memorial when he made his wanders around Cooper Station. He didn't like that Amelia's name was on it. She was alive, as far as he was concerned.

And he didn't like that Mann's name was right there with hers.

He hadn't told anyone about Mann's breakdown. His debriefing had been scheduled for after Murph had spoken to him. They'd accessed TARS's memory bank, and knew everything there was for him to report anyway.

The next journal in the stack was from decades later. Murph had been appointed by popular demand as Chairwoman when the Science Council became the Leadership Council; and based on Lazarus Station. Cooper Station became the HUB for all experiments that required travel between any of the quickly growing colony worlds.

"I'm exhausted." Getty yawned.

"Mm, me too."

"I have a heart murmur. What's your excuse?" He teased.

Murph yawned. "I know. What happened to that twenty two year old firecracker that worked thirty hours shifts until her own personal doctor bullied her into eating and sleeping?"

"She finally paid attention when he talked, and started looking after herself." Getty teased.

Murph's device chimed, and she groaned. "Can't they run the universe without me for a night?"

"They could, but who would want to?" Getty smled. "Heard from the twins today?"

"Heard from their teachers." Murph commented, reaching for her device. "Bell is top of his class, and Amy is…" Murph read the memo and froze. "I have to go to Cooper Station."

"Problem?" Getty asked in concern.

"Your son is messing with my wormhole." Murph rolled out of bed, hurried to the closet and started collecting things for the trip.

Getty smirked. "When did Eric become 'my son' and when did it become 'your wormhole'."

"Getty, we can't let him affect the exit sites!" Murph threw a bag at him. "Hurry! If you're coming, then get packing!"

"Y'know, you can fool the others, but you can't fool me." Getty said as they docked at Cooper Station.

"Of course not." Murph promised. "I wouldn't even try. By the way, what are we talking about?"

"You put Phase Three off for another rotation." Getty said. "I know why. You can convince the Council it's because of resources, or other priorities, or timetables; but the real reason is: You don't want anyone going through the wormhole yet."

Murph said nothing.

"That's why we're pushing relativity to the limit, trying to stop Eric from doing anything that might affect the wormhole." Getty pressed. "You still think your dad is going to finish his fall into Gargantua, and emerge from the Wormhole somehow. You don't want anyone to meet him or Brand before they do… whatever it is you think they're going to do."

Murph was notably silent. "There's still a chance, Getty."

"I agree; I'm just taking a moment to appreciate the irony. You've certainly come the long way round." He commented.

"Meaning?"

"Back when we were kids, you still watched the stars every night, waiting to see him coming in to land. You spent every day of your adolescence and early adulthood cursing his name; until you shouted 'Eureka' and thought of him more as a guardian angel than a parent…"

"And now, here I am again, waiting for him to come back." Murph nodded. "The Tesseract works, Gets. I built it, and made sure there was a pathway out of it once the job was done. I even know the job gets done successfully. He has to take the long, slow road; but he'll get there. And until he does, I don't know what happens if someone goes through the wormhole and finds him."

Getty nodded. "Well. Eric's a reasonable kid. But he'll want to know why. You gonna tell him?"

"I don't see another option." Murph admitted. She was silent a long moment. "Twenty years, I've been trying to figure out how to harness the wormhole. Twenty years. And it'll all come to nothing if I can't beat my own son to the 'on switch'."

Eric Brock was a brilliant scientist in his own right, and had spent most of his life working on Wormhole Physics. There were two factions growing in regards to the future of the human race. One was determined to clean up the earth, terraform Mars, and build a future under their own sun. The other was determined to spread the human race as far as it could go, and the wormhole was the key to that.

Murph had been keeping both factions in balance as best she could, citing the fact that sending colony ships in every direction wasn't the best use of their resources, given how much work was needed to keep their current colonies sustainable indefinitely.

Eric Cooper was apparently taking a major step in the plan to colonization of the universe, and as Murph hurried into his private lab, he had no idea why that concerned his mother.

"Mom!" Eric beamed as they came in. "And dad! Great to see you! I must admit, I didn't expect you to-"

"Shut it down." She said immediately. "You can't change the vector on the Wormhole."

"I don't plan to." Eric blinked at her vehemence. "I wasn't closing the other side, I was just creating a new path to-"

"You can't do that without shutting down the path as it currently stands; trust me: I tried for Twenty Years to give humanity somewhere else to go." Murph tried to explain to him. "The other half of that Wormhole is powered by Gargantua. If you close either end of the wormhole, then we either can't use it, or can't even find it again!"

"I already have." Eric told his mother.

"Yeah but, if you-" Murph trailed off. "What?"

Eric held out the tablet. His results were already on the screen. "I've opened the wormhole to more than twelve exit points already. This end, and the Gargantua system are still open, sending telemetry. It's no longer a bridge. It's a network." He seemed surprised. "You only just found out now?"

"Who approved this?!" Getty was surprised.

"The Science Council. I thought they'd have told you." Eric seemed honestly surprised.

Murph, however, was already onto the tablet. "Twelve exit points?"

"Only four now, some of them I closed because of the power draw. But I can open hundred more. If one of them finds another Black Hole System to tap, I can make thousands of paths."

It was at this point when parental instinct overrode scientific restraint, and both of them were flat out awed.

"This is pretty impressive, son." Getty said proudly.

"It's very impressive." Murph agreed. "But I have no idea how you'd chart the paths, or for that matter how you're directing them."

"Well, truth be told, I'm not." Eric explained. "I open a path, send through a probe, and take a reading. The first seven times, I hit open interstellar space. But then I figured out how to anchor the exit points to gravity fields. A star, a planet. I started finding planetary systems in more than thirty percent of the-"

Murph lurched forward and gave her son a tight hug. "Do you have any idea what you've done!?" She exulted. "You've done what I was trying to do for twenty years! You've found a way to direct the event horizon across the fourth dimension!" Murph hugged her son tightly, laughing joyously in a way that she hadn't done since shouting 'Eureka'.

"Heh!" Eric laughed with them. "I was hearing the Council talk about your Singularity Drives the other day. They say that the best hope for humanity might be to spread out as far as we can. They say that if we can make Black Hole power sources, we can do it to weapons too. Right now, there's only one government; one Council, but if there ever becomes two…"

"I know. Singularity weapons could rip planets apart. The next war will end humanity." Murph nodded. "I even agree with the Expansionist Philosophy, to scatter the human race across the entire universe like seeds…"

"And we can, now. I can put a wormhole anywhere." Eric gave a self-deprecating smile. "If I only knew where."

"I know exactly where." Murph said firmly. "It needs to go to Saturn, November 2019."

Eric blinked. "Um… mom. The wormhole is already there. It has been for all this time."

"That's right." Murph nodded. "And now we know where it came from."

Eric's eyes bulged. "You think… You think that I… That we…"

Getty took the opportunity to put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Eric… I think it's time we told you part of the family history. The part that your mother and I haven't told anyone."

Eric glanced around instinctively. They were alone. "Okay."

"You know your grandfather was part of the Lazarus Missions." Getty checked.

"Yeah, I know he never came back." Eric nodded. "The Missions were a failure."

"No." Murph said softly. "They weren't."

Decades passed. More Stations were built, more resources harvested.

Plans for colonizing the universe were set up. The majority of Earth's survivors were still in hibernation, huge Cryo-Satellites orbiting various planets, using the cold of space to keep their charges preserved perfectly. There was far more infrastructure to build before they could take on an extra few million people.

Several projects started up, some terraforming various places in the Solar System, some harvesting ice and metals from the Asteroid Belt. But the majority of work was about construction; building new ships, new stations, converting Asteroids into habitats. The ultimate goal was permanent habitation across different planets and systems. That would take a while yet, with little of their equipment designed around colonization.

The resources of the Solar System were close at hand, and taking them through the wormhole was a much bigger job. With a government dedicated to getting it right, a close balance between survivors and victims, and no doomsday clock, there was no rush. They were beta testing equipment and procedures carefully.

The work would be done faster, if only they had a place for the workforce. Most of humanity was still waiting to be thawed, and those that were desperate to be colonists or explorers were volunteering to go into Cryo, waiting for the Age of Expansion to truly begin.

Getty woke up and yawned… only to find his wife sitting upright in the bed, looking down at him with a sentimental smile. "Hi." He said, voice thick with sleep.

"Morning." She kissed him softly, and slid back down the bed to rest her head on his chest, like she'd done a thousand times before.

"I should get up." Getty commented, feeling pretty comfortable where he was. "Breakfast?"

She put her hand a little firmer on his stomach. "No. Stay."

"I'd love to, but I have patients…"

"No you don't. I had them reschedule."

Getty blinked. "You did?"

Murph nodded. "And I had my assistant cancel my day, too." She kissed his hand. "I decided it's time we had a day off."

"Who died?" Getty asked, only half joking. There was always so much to do that funerals and births were almost the only time they took away from work.

"That's the sort of comment that would make a less attractive woman feel self-conscious." Murph drawled.

"Well then, a day off." Getty smiled. "This is unusual."

"Mm." Murph agreed. "It almost is, isn't it?" She smiled at him. "Years ago, I told you that in a life that involves saving the world, conquering the stars, and traveling in time, being with you is still the happiest I've ever been." She kissed his face all over. "I'm sorry we don't get more time together; far from the rest of the human race."

"So am I." He said with a smile, and pulled her in closer. "And, if I recall, I responded by pointing out that there would be times when we could be together, and still save the world."

"Like… today, for instance?" Murph quipped, pushing a few strands of greying hair from her face.

Their 'days off' were few and far between; and they made the best of it.

With the afternoon to themselves, Murph went with him to the one place on Cooper Station they hadn't visited yet.

In the middle of a cornfield, with the horizon curving up over their heads, showing neat little homes, even a few baseball diamonds; the two of them walked until they reached a familiar house.

"Part of me expected you to set a match to this place when they recreated it." Getty said, walking hand in hand with his wife; right up to the door of her old childhood farmhouse.

"I came close." Murph admitted. "It was hard enough moving the Council onto 'Cooper Station' and living here." She opened the door and went inside. "Wow. They really went all out, didn't they?"

"How does it look?"

Murph shivered. "I said I would cheerfully never set foot on earth again. I haven't, in forty years. Can you imagine what it feels like, being in this room?"

"I really can't." Getty admitted. "You want to look around?"

Murph shivered. "No. Yes." She shook her head. "Dad would hate this, you know? The whole 'back to our roots' program?"

"It works, Murph." Getty defended. "I have data."

"I know it's your brainchild, and you're right: It's made things easier for every single person we thaw." She rapped her knuckles on the kitchen table, rubbed her fingertips clean of dust that wasn't there automatically. "I'm just saying, my dad wouldn't like it." She glanced over at the fridge. "But since he isn't here, shall we play house for a while before this place opens to the public?"

Getty chuckled and started pulling plates down. She was silent, and he looked over his shoulder to see her, sitting at the kitchen table, just looking at him with a watery smile. "What is it, Murph?" He asked finally. "You've been giving me that look all day."

Murph shook her head. "Do you… are you ever mad that I didn't take your name?"

"No." Getty promised. "I understand why you didn't. Your biggest asset is that brain in your head, but your strongest weapon is that name. You did your most god-like things before we got married."

"Still, I wanted…" She shook her head. "I would have taken your name, and proudly."

"I know. But it worked out for the best. We both know that there would have been a few times when the Council wouldn't have held together if not for you. The name 'Cooper' carries a lot of weight in this world. And I don't mean creating the gravity wells." He set a plate in front of her. "And it was good for the kids, too."

"Eric in particular." Murph agreed. "He never got out from under the 'boss's kid' thing; until he took the name 'Brock'."

"Besides, wasn't it you who warned me before we got together, that I'd always be 'mister Murph Cooper'?"

"I did." Murph agreed. "Did it ever bother you?"

"It meant I got to be with you for the last forty years, and have three awesome kids, and seven perfect grandkids." Getty said easily. "Plus, the whole 'saving humanity' thing. When I joined Lazarus, we were all expecting to fail. There was a joke that the last person in Lazarus Base to die would have to turn out the lights. Brand sent his daughter offworld, Jaina was raised in Philly, barely made it back in time of lift-off… I had more death certificates to sign from suicide than I had patients who needed treatment… And we pulled it off. You pulled it off. I was every bit as committed to the mission succeeding as you were. And not only did the mission succeed, I got the girl of my dreams. What's in a name, compared to that?"

Murph nodded, as though she'd just achieved a major life goal. "Good. I just wanted to know that."

"Has it really been on your mind for this long?" Getty started to ask, when Murph's Device chimed. "You have a meeting?"

"Tomorrow." Murph promised him. "Today's just us, babe."

The next day, Murph attended that meeting. She knew what it was about.

Getty had been right about Murph keeping things in the Solar System for now. As it happened, even if people weren't willing to take her word on faith, she was able to supply them with plenty of reasons to build up population and resources before attempting colonization of other solar systems….

"...And for the most part, there is no rush." Murph concluded her report, at her meeting the next day. "The Asteroids are providing more materials than we've ever had. Europa can give enough freshwater to the whole solar system. Colonial Technology and early terraforming efforts are undergoing beta testing on every globe spinning around Sol. Mars has more people living on it than Cooper and Lazarus Stations combined. And these are all important steps to take first. My EM-Generators and simple lead shielding can protect from solar radiation, but we don't really know what different gravities and different planetary conditions will have on a human body. If we cross over to Gargantua's System and find a new world that has no magnetic field, or a different atmospheric mix, who knows what will happen."

"We won't know until we go, Professor." George, Howard's replacement pointed out. The youngest member of the Board, he was often the one pushing the envelope. Murph envied him his energy.

"This is true, but here at Sol, we have limitless water, rescue craft, seeds stored in vaults just in case of catastrophe… And any one of half a billion people we can thaw out and ask for help at any time. A colony World won't have that."

George kept pace with Murph after the meeting, pleading his case. "I can't believe I have to have this argument with you." He commented. "Aren't you The Murph Cooper, hero of the Frontier, savior of the world, the original StarChild?"

"If you think flattery is going to get you my vote, George; I can save you some time." Murph told him. "You're young. You have plenty to do. All those problems I mention will be solved in the next five to ten years. It's not like the old days when every new Station was a miracle, and every new Ranger had a hundred people trying to use it first. We're pretty stable now."

"Professor, my Grandpa taught me never to rely on a machine to do everything for you." George pointed out.

"I remember. He made the same comment to me over the years." Murph hushed him, feeling a pang at the thought of Bartholomew Simpson. She had reached the stage of life where the number of loved ones were lessening, rather than growing, her grandkids notwithstanding. "Look, you got halfway there. Cooper Station is being moved to Jupiter. You can create a transfer point there, no problem."

"I know." George sighed. "It's just… infuriating to be at the point where I can build a spaceport, and not know where I'm flying to."

"The problem with Colonization is surviving past the first generation." Murph told the younger man. "The first generation has supplies, the second has to be sustainable. And the biggest risk to a long term colony is Genetic Diversity. The vast majority of our people are still frozen. We can't thaw them until we have somewhere to put them, and we can't put them on a planet until we have one that can support enough people." She checked her watch for the ninth time in as many minutes. "Like any rate of expansion or population growth, it'll start slowly, and grow exponentially."

"That's the ninth time you've looked at your watch. Am I keeping you from something?"

A few levels downstairs, Ellie was working the late shift in medbay. She had decided to give her room over to Jaina for a while, going into Cryo and skipping seven years. Jaina had barely made it off earth, but had married. With room for both of them, Ellie was thawed, having skipped more than half a decade. She'd taken a post on Cooper Station, and was feeling the urge to sleep again, and see what another twenty years would bring. But on this night, the doors opened and in came a team, hurrying a man on a gurney. "Cardiac arrest, blood pressure is 220/110!"

Ellie saw the gurney rushing past, and froze.

It was Getty.

"Daphne!" Ellie shouted.

The doctor in question came over and kept pace with her. "Yes, we know who he is." Daphne told Ellie. "I checked his chart, Ellie." She bit her lip. "Look, I'll see what we can do, but odds are-"

"All you can do is make him comfortable." Ellie said it with her. "I have to make a call."

"Yeah, right away I would think." Daphne headed into the room.

Ellie needed a cane to get around now, but she still hurried as fast as she could, pulling out her Comm. "Murph, are you-"

The door opened and in walked Murph.

Ellie was startled by the promptness, but didn't dwell on it. "Murph, here's what we know…"

"I know already." Murph said grimly. "This does not come as a surprise."

A few minutes later, Daphne came out of the hospital room, and went straight to Murph. "Director, he's resting comfortably right now, but-"

"I know." Murph shushed her. "Can we have the room?"

Ellie nodded, and gestured for the rest of the medical team to give them privacy. There was nothing to be done here, and they all knew it.

Getty tried to smile for his wife as she came in. "The things I do to get your attention."

"A little dramatic, aren't you?" She agreed, coming over to sit on the edge of the bed, just being with him.

Getty suddenly started breathing harder.

Murph winced, tears forming.

"I'm alright." Getty coughed. "Just had a bad cramp is all." He reached for his pills, took one, and his hands trembled. He dropped the bottle, spilling little tablets everywhere. "Oh… oh no…"

Murp caught his hand, and kissed it gently. The look in her eyes was nothing but love. "Shh." She soothed him, reaching out and silencing the frantic monitor. "I'm here."

Getty was turning grey, one hand clutching at his chest. "Murph… You… Yesterday? 'Just for us.' Because you knew today was... You saw this, didn't you?"

"The first time I created a Tesseract." She admitted. "You told me yourself you'd rather not know."

"I… I did." He confirmed. "But I'm sorry you had to carry this for... kofkoffkoff… so long, by yourself."

"I'd do it again." She vowed, at peace with it, crying for him just the same.

"Is there… any way?"

"The cryo-bed is right in the next room." Murph promised. "I can get you into it, have you preserved. I plan to do the same for myself soon enough. If it takes another ten thousand years for them to break the death barrier, we could yet be together again." She smiled a little. "But of course, I need patient consent."

"Well… Maybe it's not so bad, if they can't bring me back." Getty admitted. "I've… I've achieved everything I ever wanted to achieve, crossed everything off my bucket list…"

Murph kissed him softly. "I love you, Getty Brock."

"Love you, Murph Cooper."

Murph reached out and turned off the light, giving them a better view out the viewport. Saturn was drifting past the window; as the Station made it's way to Jupiter. "You remember this, babe?"

"Our first night together." Getty nodded, beyond pain now as he faded. "Don't tell the kids, but I couldn't think of a better memory to relive."

"Neither could I." She promised, heartfelt. "I've been preparing myself for this a long time, Gets. My heart will be broken when you're gone, but… Did you ever wonder how I found my way back to you, that first time through the Bulk? I could see everything in the entire history and future of the Cosmos, but I managed to hold together, just enough… It's because I had an anchor, even before knowing I needed one." She stroked his greying hair. "It was you, my love. The universe is infinite, time as well. More than a person can see if they want to live. But I could still find my way to you. It's the same way my father found me, the same way we…"

She felt him growing slack in her arms, and stopped talking, choked up.

"I'm not scared, Murph." He promised her, voice fading out.

"Neither am I. I never told you this, but… I saw it, Gets." She said quietly, almost to herself. "Across all time and space, I could see your love for me, like it had a whole extra dimension to itself. It's physical, dimensional, measurable..." She tried to smile for him. "No way that can just stop, is there?"

"Faith?" Getty asked weakly.

"Faith." Murph promised.

The two stayed together, not saying much more after that, holding each other peacefully, until he was gone.

Murph spared a glance at Saturn, out the window. The wormhole was a tiny point of light below the rings. "You see, Professor Brand?" She sniffed. "Sometimes, going gently isn't so bad…"

Reading avidly, Cooper wiped the tears away, was horrified to see half a dozen pages torn out of his daughter's journal. In their place was a vacuum sealed wrapper, made from some material he couldn't guess at. Within it was a thick, perfectly preserved envelope, with a clearly visible message written on the front.

-To Be Opened by Amelia Brand  Only
Do Not Open  for Four Hundred Years.
-Murph Cooper

Cooper grasped the sealed message in a space-age bottle in his hand, considering the implications. Brand was the one question mark he had no satisfying answer to, and he couldn't help but feel drawn to it, even a little fixated on it. He reached for the next page still in the journal, when there was a knock at his door.

It was the Administrator. "Mister Cooper? She's awake."

Cooper lurched to his feet. "How is she?"

"Resting comfortably, and asking for you."

Cooper was nervous as he came into the hospital room. He wasn't sure what he expected, but a room full of people wasn't it. Some of them were older than him, some still little kids, one of them small enough to not be sure who the old woman they gathered around was.

They all reacted when he came in. But not with recognition. He was a picture in a history book to them. They were less than that to him, though he knew these were three or four generations of his own family.

Murph's face had no trace of the little girl he'd rocked through nightmares. But then she saw him and smiled, tears forming. Just for a second, he saw his little girl again.

The whole thing suddenly seemed so surreal in Cooper's mind. So much that he almost wanted to run from the room. If they hadn't wasted so much time already, he would have. His eyes never left hers as he sat beside her bed, crouching lower beside her.

Her breathing was heavy with happy sobs being choked back; smiling like she'd been waiting her whole life for this; which she had.

"You told them I liked farming?" He heard himself say, the way he used to tease her about not eating vegetables.

Murph laughed, and suddenly he was sure. Her laugh was the same; even if nothing else was.

"It was me, Murph." Cooper confirmed, answering the one question she never could prove an answer to, not anywhere in her journals. "I was your ghost."

"I know." Murph closed her eyes, savoring the delicious thought. The last, long standing question that she'd had to answer on faith. Even Getty wasn't sure. "People didn't believe me. They thought I was doing it all myself." She lifted her arm, the watch on it, still ticking. "But I knew who it was. Nobody believed me, but I knew you'd come back."

"How?"

"Because my dad promised me."

He'd read her journals. He knew it wasn't half that simple. But if his daughter had taken thirty years to come from resenting him, to hating him, to having faith he'd be back one day; he wasn't about to argue the point. Not even a little bit. Who was he to talk about taking to long to get somewhere?

"I'm here now, Murph." He promised, holding her wrinkled hand cozily between his own. "I'm here."

"No." Murph said gently. "No parent should have to watch their child die."

Cooper blinked back tears. Tom wasn't here, and they both knew why. She'd seen what losing Jesse did to him, in a way that Cooper never could. He wanted to argue the point, but… he knew Murph didn't have long left.

"I have my kids here for me now." Murph promised him. "You... Go."

It wasn't anything like the little girl pleading for him to stay. She wasn't offering permission. She was giving him an order. This was Chairwoman Murphy Cooper, who had commanded the human race; giving her last instructions.

Cooper had only one place left to go, and thought that Murph must know it too. But he asked anyway. "Go where?"

"Brand." Murph said the name like a prayer and promise alike, and Cooper wanted to cry.

"She's out there. Setting up camp." Murph said with terrifying certainty. "Alone, in a strange galaxy. Maybe right now, she's settling in for the long nap; by the light of her new sun… In our new home."

Cooper closed his eyes, loving her so much. "Your… Your journals, they talked about how you kept people from finishing Plan A with a whip and a chair, all this time."

"You needed to go through first. Before any of us. When you're away, after i'm gone; the human race will start it's real work. But you had to go first, dad. Because you can feel it, can't you?" Murph croaked around her cracked lips. "That need. That feeling that you have to finish the journey you started with her."

Cooper, eyes full of tears, nodded quickly. "Yes. Except I don't want to leave you again."

"I know." She sighed happily. "It's the same feeling I got over that watch. That need to go home, and sit with my Ghost, let him help me solve all my problems; even when I didn't want to face the memories." She reached up and cupped her father's face. "But I had to, dad. I needed to follow that feeling. It saved the world, and now it can save you too. That would be enough."

"Not enough for a lifetime." Cooper whispered.

"Yes, dad. Even enough for that." Murph insisted. "When mom died, I was terrified of everything, and you made me feel better. But deep down, I knew it would happen to you too. I knew I'd watch you get older, slowly fading away on me, like Grandpa did. But I got to see you again, from the moment you first put this watch on." She took it off her wrist and put it around his. "To me, you're forever young. And after everything, knowing that you'll have a future, the way you gave me one? That would be enough."

Cooper bit his lip. "I don't know that she'd be real happy to see me again if I just showed up."

"Been there." Murph commented lightly, and they both laughed again. "But trust me, she'll be thrilled."

Cooper looked at her sideways. "Faith?"

"Faith." Murph grinned. "She made the close pass too. She's just gotten there recently, from her view. She doesn't even know that we survived. The last living human. You can't leave her all alone again, dad."

"I won't." Cooper agreed.

And that was the end of the argument. Cooper got the sense this was how all conversations with 'the' Murph Cooper ended, with her spelling it out with wisdom of prophecy, and everyone accepting it, even as they wept.

"I love you, kid." Cooper said seriously. "And I am so proud of you. I would give both my arms to go back and tell you that at every step of the way, but I am just… so ridiculously proud of my girl."

"As I am of my father." Murph smiled for him. "There is… a plan."

"A plan for what?"

"For you." Murph promised. "Or did you think I pulled the family together just to be sentimental?"

Cooper laughed. "Same ol' Murph."

"Emphasis on 'ol' now." She grinned like a shark; and took one hand in a deathgrip, the other pointing to the other people in the room. "Dad, this is Eric. He's going to be having his people run a few tests of the sensor grid tomorrow night. There will be a time when they'll be blind between here and the wormhole. Behind you is Coop. He's been in Cryo for the last eighteen years, waiting for intergalactic colonization to be at the stage where they need pilots. There's a lot of you in him. He'll provide you with a flight suit. Next Gen. You could live for weeks in that suit without ever taking the helmet off. Next to him is Amy. She runs logistics on Trade and Resources for the Station. She'll get TARS into position without anyone noticing."

Cooper cut her off by bursting into laughter. "Now I know how Barton felt."

Murph laughed. "Well, I remember someone smart once told me about Murphy's Law: Anything that can happen? Eventually it will. I made a career of making sure things can only happen one way."

Murphy Cooper was laid to rest four years after her father was declared AWOL with his android, MIA again. She would never tell anyone why he left after one conversation, but it wasn't the first time the human race had to follow her instructions on faith.

There were indeed statues of her in every station, every colony. The Council would never admit what was done with the body. Most thought she was cremated, scattered to the universe. Others thought she was preserved with her husband, waiting for the day when they could yet be saved; and be together forever.

Chapter Text

Amelia Brand woke up, and took in a slow breath. She could hear his heart beating before her eyes were open, and she snuggled into it a moment, as she did most mornings. She always woke up before Cooper.

With a small yawn, she sat up, snuck out from under the covers without waking him, and pulled her jumpsuit on silently. His face was sometimes more tense while he slept, and she felt for him. His dreams were more intense than hers were now. Hers had become harsh during her isolation, and had settled. He still dreamed vividly, about the things he'd seen without her.

You're here now. She told herself, and she leaned down to give him a quick peck on the cheek, before starting the morning.

It was the ninth planet they had visited since returning through the Wormhole, and the third with a breathable atmosphere. The first had been a jungle biome. This one was more alpine, with a median temperature not unlike far-northern Alaska, before climate collapse. The trees were huge, and seemingly immune to the cold.

Parked in their Ranger, the windows gave them a clear view of outside. The Endurance was in orbit, and their landing craft had been refit to make a small bedroom/workroom, and the cockpit. The rooms were divided by wall hangings, woven of a plant not unlike bamboo, courtesy of their visit to Planet Four. Their shared cots were on Endurance, but they had a large net, woven from dried vines, courtesy of the jungles of Planet One; large enough to harness them lightly when sleeping in Zero G, or stretched like a hammock for when they slept in the Ranger.

All told, they'd made a pretty good effort of being explorers. They even had some spare parts, manufactured from previously unknown minerals, discovered on Planets Two and Six.

"We really have to think up some names for these worlds, CASE." Amelia thought aloud quietly.

"Cooper told me to apply my database to create a random word generator." CASE reported. "I've provided a list of ten words for each planet we visit. Any that seem appropriate, we can amend our logs."

The Ranger was insulated against the cold of space. Even with the heaters shut down, it was more than enough to handle the snowy conditions outside. Even so, the sight of a blanket of snow made Amelia feel a slight chill. She'd grown up in an underground complex in The Dust Bowl. Snow was something she saw in old movies.

Cooper's jacket was hanging on the back of the pilot's chair, and she slipped it around her shoulders. It was a possessive sort of move, but their relationship had evolved organically, almost undiscussed; from mutual respect and basic need, to something far more than anything they'd had before.

The coffee had run out over a year before, but they'd found something with heavy caffeine properties on Planet Three, and celebrated by harvesting enough to last for a decade. Sugarcane would only grow on earth, no matter what Amelia's Biology Proofs or Cooper's Farming Experience came up with; and as yet they hadn't found anything they were willing to try milking; but the brew was something close enough to strong tea for them to continue their voyage.

Amelia checked the logs that CASE had left them, as he patrolled and worked during their sleep cycle. The snow would replenish their water supply, and they could air out the Ranger with fresh air from outside. The scrubbers would turn CO2 into Oxygen again, but Endurance was starting to smell like a gym locker between planets; so they'd figured out how to sweeten the air with native plants. Alpine trees smelled fresh and clean on two different planets.

She sat down in the co-pilot's seat, and felt something jab lightly into her side. Cooper's jacket had plenty of pockets. Enough that he often took five minutes searching them for things, much to her amusement. But when Amelia looked, she was surprised to see her own name.

It was a vacuum sealed wrapper, made from the same everything-proof preservation bags she kept her greenhouse crops in. Within it was a thick, perfectly preserved envelope, with a clearly visible message written on the front.

-To Be Opened by Amelia Brand  Only
Do Not Open  for Four Hundred Years.
-Murph Cooper

Amelia felt a thrill go through her. "Say, CASE?" She said finally. "Would you say, objectively, it's been about four hundred years since we first launched?"

"Objectively? Probably closer to five hundred now, between your close pass of Gargantua, and the time you spent in Cryo between Planets Four and Five."

"Close enough." Amelia glanced back to make sure there was no sign of Cooper waking up, and ripped the package open. "Sorry, Coop. I should ask first, but it's addressed to me, after all."

The envelope contained several notebook pages, perfectly preserved, and looking like they'd been torn out of something. After a moment, Amelia realized it was a journal.

She'd read Murph's Journal of course. The published version had been on Cooper's Tablet with most of the human race's bestseller list. Her own unauthorized biography was included, inaccurate though it was. But as Amelia read Murph's handwriting, it was very clear that these pages weren't included in any published version.

It took Amelia a few minutes to figure out where in the story these pages were; but from Context, she believed it was not long after Getty Brock had died. Murph had gone into retirement, according to the official record, but the journal pages said that she had one more mission, with her best friend Ellie...

"It was a nice service." Ellie said softly.

Murph didn't answer for a while, gazing over at the memorial. There were still people gathered around, sharing stories of Getty Brock. As a doctor, he'd changed a lot of lives for the better.

"How are you holding up?" Ellie asked.

Murph smiled. "You asking as my old friend, or as my old shrink?"

"Retired, many years ago." Ellie held her hand up, face wrinkling with the same easygoing smile she'd always had.

Murph downed the last of her drink. "Ellie, can I confide in you?"

"Always, kid." Physically, they were both old and grey. In terms of life experience, Murph actually had a year or two on her after Ellie had elected to take a Long Nap, but their dynamic had never changed since she was Murph's Friday night Babysitter.

"Back when this finally got going… You and Getty were the only people I ever told about my 'Ghost'."

"The Wormhole and the Bulk Beings are a matter of record now, Murph. Including the message they left that directed you to the Base."

Idly, Murph wondered when people stopped thinking of it 'directing her father' and started thinking of it as 'directing the ten year old wunderkind'. "See, that's my point. Even with all that. Nobody knows it was my father that got the answer to us."

"Murph, that faith in you saved the human race more than once."

"True." Murph nodded. "But there's one thing left that I have to do, and I need your help to do it. For this, I need to tell you another part of the story. Something that only Getty knew."

The two old friends found a quiet spot to sit and talk, and Murph told her everything about her Saturn mission. The Tesseract, the Bulk Space, all of it. With Getty gone, Ellie was the only other person who knew.

"I'll be honest with you, Murph. Getty told me part of that story, years ago." Ellie confessed. "I wasn't sure I believed it, but he wanted me to be on the lookout for certain signs that you didn't quite… well…"

"Keep my marbles?" Murph nodded. "Fair enough."

"You want to use it again." Ellie surmised as the story ended.

"Just once more." Murph nodded. "Getty would say no, but I'm hoping you'll help me."

"Murph, think about this for a second." Ellie said. "I'm not worried about you using a damn crystal ball, I'm worried about what happens after that. Brand hid the truth because he knew what the truth would do. When you cracked the formula, you kept it a secret because you knew the Government would take the Station off you and turn it into their own private ark. What the hell do you think future generations will do with this?"

"I know, Ellie. I have no intention of anyone even finding out that this tech even exists." Murph promised. "That's why I put such strict guidelines in for creating Singularity Generators. If I'm lucky, nobody will dare trying to open the Event Horizon further than an atom ever again."

"Then why?" She pressed. "Why use it again at all? What are you looking for?"

Long, fragile silence.

"I wanna make it right." Murph confessed finally. "I have to atone for... For a lifetime of unworthy thoughts towards the man who gave up everything for me. I have to. I just... I owe him, Ellie. I owe my dad everything, and so do you. So does every man woman and child who is alive today, or will ever be born. If I can't even give my father the credit, I can at least offer him... I don't know, but there will be something; I promise you that! I have to find some way to give my father something for all he went through; but that rather depends on when and where he comes back."

"If he comes back."

"Right. I have to know that too."

Ellie hesitated.

"I know, you don't believe my father had anything to do with any of this." Murph sighed. "I had hoped that the decades in between would be enough to convince you it wasn't a dream…"

"Murph, I don't know if it's a Bulk Being posing as your dad; or your own brilliance needing to forgive an old pain, or if you just hallucinated the whole thing and hit the jackpot. At this point, it doesn't matter."

"Well, I am certain." Murph said firmly. "I just don't know how to prove it to you. So I'm not asking for you to agree, just to trust me."

"Faith?" Ellie quipped.

It was such a 'Getty' line that Murph felt her heart ache. "Faith."

"Murph, do you even have an Anchor? From what Getty told me, the first Tesseract nearly drove you mad. The second Tesseract you built around your childhood bookshelf. What, of your father's, do you have left? Because as I understand this, to follow his timeline, it'd have to be something he took with him, and we can't get to any of those things."

"You keep thinking of time in a straight line, El." Murph insisted, not for the first time. "If my father ever, and I mean ever, in the whole of the future, comes back? All I need is something that I have, that he'll want. Something he'll keep with him."

There was only one item in the universe that fit that description. Murph was wearing it on her wrist.

"I can't believe you talked me into this." Ellie groused. "I'm amazed The Jesse still flies after this long."

"Technically, it doesn't." Murph told her. "That's why I was able to get it back for this. She'll hold together for one more trip. If anyone asks, we're just revisiting a few old memories of Getty." She turned to leave the control room. "Remember, emergency off-switch on the left. Emergency Eject on the right."

"I'll try not to get them confused while you're in there." Ellie drawled.

At the point between Saturn and the Wormhole, Murph stepped into the Tesseract Chamber and started it up, one last time. The feeling of reality melting came back, and Amelia rode it out until the Tesseract formed... around her father's watch.

She could see the entire timeline of it, just as she had her old bedroom; from the moment it was put together, to the moment it sat on a shelf in a store, the moment someone had bought it. She saw her father, first wearing the watch.

"God, he looks so young." Murph breathed. This was her father before he'd ever met her mother. Before he'd even-

-joined NASA-

-And suddenly she was there, watching her father prepare to take a test flight over The Straits.

Murph had resolved that she couldn't interfere, but then she saw a face she'd never expected.

John Brand.

Murph was reaching, even before she realized she was doing it. All she had to do was whisper the formula to Brand, and her father would never have to leave at all, and humanity would still be saved and-

-suddenly she was in her father's pilot's seat, with him-

-What the?!-

-Her father was shouting "Mayday! Mayday! Guidance failure, I have no attitude control!"

Murph wrenched herself back from the Moment, returning to the Tesseract. The first thing she did was check the later instances, as the timelines folded and expanded around her.

And then the 4-D space closed down again, and she was back on the floor, gasping.

The hatch swung open, and Ellie came running in. "Are you alright?" She demanded. "Your vitals spiked like crazy for a minute there."

"I screwed up." Murph admitted, pushing the hair out of her face. "Gets was right. God doesn't play with dice."

"Um… Actually, that was Einstein."

"Whatever." Murph sighed hard. "It was me, Ellie. I did it."

"Great! Are we done?" She said hopefully.

Murphy swatted her. "When I was a baby, dad was a test pilot for NASA. He was the first to fly a Ranger Prototype. There was a sudden Gravity Anomaly on his maiden flight over The Straits; which crashed him. They say it was his reflexes alone that kept him alive, but it put him out of the program for life. Until we found the Lazarus Base. I was… I was looking at the timeline of that watch, and I saw Professor Brand. I thought that if I could reach out and communicate with him…" Her face went grim for a moment. "Or at least reached out and slapped him hard in the throat…"

"It was you." Ellie breathed. "You were the gravity anomaly that crashed your father that day."

"Another Mobius Loop. Long before I ever met my 'ghost', I was the one haunting dad." Murph nodded. "It was a mistake. I'm sorry." She fought to stand. "Put me back in."

Ellie didn't move.

"I mean it. I didn't see what I needed to see yet."

Ellie just looked at her. "Murph… I love you so much. You know that, right?"

Murph felt her heart twist. She was leading up to something she wouldn't like, and they both knew it. "You want to stop me, don't you?"

"Murph, when Getty collapsed, you were coming in to see him before I had the chance to call you. You didn't even ask what the prognosis was. Why do I think that you already had the answers to these questions?"

Murph said nothing.

"Getty made the comment once that you didn't even negotiate about what to name the kids. Twenty seconds, it was sorted. Why do I think you already knew?"

Murph still said nothing.

Ellie bit her lip. "Do you know when I'm going to die, too?"

Murph jumped, surprised by the question, but she didn't answer.

Ellie nodded, unconcerned for himself, openly scared for her. "See, this is the problem. Every time you start up this machine, you commit to a possibility that just wouldn't have you trapped otherwise." She held up a hand before Murph could argue. "You feel that you need to repay your father, I get that. But if he were here right now… If he'd had the chance to know the exact time and date of your mother's death, would he want to know? I still don't know what repeated trips into Bulk Space does to a person, but I know that even looking at the future is changing things for you dramatically."

Murph sighed. "You're right." She said simply. "And I've held onto this crystal ball too long as it is. This is something we're not ready for yet. I promised Getty I wouldn't use this thing again, and I kept that promise to his dying day."

"And arranged this trip before the funeral was even finished." Ellie pointed out.

"Ninety percent honesty should be enough for anyone." Murph said stubbornly. "The point is… I spent decades knowing the moment I would lose Getty. I married him as fast as I could. Would we have had more time together, or less, if I hadn't looked?"

"I don't know." Ellie admitted.

"Neither do i, and that's saying something." Murph gestured. "I don't want to know, I need to know. So I'll make a deal with you, Elle… Let me finish this… and I'll never use it again. Just to make sure, we'll detach the chamber and throw it into Saturn as soon as I'm done; and I'll give my retirement to the Science Council before we get back to the Station. I'll never fly a ship again."

Ellie felt her jaw drop. "Just like that?"

"It's an awesome feeling to know what your life is for, hon. I've set something bigger than myself in motion, and the kids can carry that torch for a long time to come yet." She looked to Ellie, beseechingly. "One last time." Murph said softly. "Let me be extraordinary, one last time."

Long moment.

"You are always extraordinary." Ellie promised her, and reset the machine. "Always."

Stunned at the story, Amelia looked at the wristwatch in question; on her wrist. Cooper had taken it back from Murph when they'd reconnected, or so he'd told her. He'd had the works inside repaired, and it still worked, even after visiting six planets. He'd given it to her when her own broke on Planet Three. If she'd known the history behind the watch, she would have been far more grateful.

"Murph created the Tesseract." Amelia breathed. "A point where time didn't have any meaning, and past and future can overlap." She rubbed her forehead in awe. She and Cooper had theorized something along those lines, believing Murph had entered the Tesseract herself at some point, knowing to send her father to Edmund's Planet as a result. They had imagined some far-future generation of humans engineering a Bootstrap Paradox to save their species. But given how a Tesseract could exist outside of time completely, it could have been anyone for billions of years… and it had only taken one generation.

Amelia took the watch off her wrist and looked down at the face of it. "Did you see me too, Murph?"

The Tesseract formed around her father's watch; and Murph followed the kaleidoscopic path to where she had left the watch behind on her shelf, gathering dust for twenty years, to the moment she picked it up and noticed the second hand was twitching.

And then she turned away from the past, and looked to the future.

She saw the watch on her wrist, and what she did for the next ten years. She saw the moment she took the watch off, and put it in a box of personal effect... and the moment she put it back on, two years later, as she was carried on a gurney into a ship.

She saw her father, and wept with happiness. he hadn't changed a bit.

The first thing she did was show him the watch.

She saw her father going to Amelia Brand. She saw the moment they reunited, Amelia dumbstruck by the thought of him alive, and neither of them being alone any more.

She saw them holding each other against the cold desert night, and then against the loneliness. She saw them laughing over dinner, exploring their new world, sitting around the campfires they made.

She saw them rebuilding Endurance, and flying back to the Wormhole, hand in hand…

And despite herself, Murph looked closer at that one.

The new cockpit of Endurance was warping and wheeling as three dimensions became elastic. Her push into the border between The Bulk Space and the three dimensional universe made her visible, in a sense. A single line of light, as though two mirrors met.

"Was that you!?" Amelia demanded of Cooper, holding his hand.

"No, I don't think so!" Her father called back.

Murph didn't know for sure what they meant by that, but pushed, just a little further, and found herself hovering over the point where Amelia Brand and her father were holding hands tightly, even as the Wormhole carried them away.

Her father stared right at her, even through the shimmering curtain that split them apart. "Murph!" Her father cried out in understanding.

Murph shivered. Her father knew it was her. Which meant he must have learned of her involvement with the Tesseract at some point...

"I promise, Murph." Amelia said softly, so that her father couldn't hear it. "I'll take care of him."

Satisfied, Murph started pulling back; leaving the wormhole-construct, returning to the Tesseract, which started to close down around her.

Murph opened her eyes, gasping for air. Distantly, she could hear Ellie shouting, waving a pen-light in her eyes, trying to get her to snap out of it.

Murph rode it out, letting the world settle back into three dimensions. Part of her was starting to hate that she had to live in three dimensions only.

But it was worth it.

She knew what she had to do.

Murph kept her promise. The Tesseract Chamber was thrown into Saturn before they headed for Jupiter.

"So. What now?" Ellie asked.

"Jaina is still on Cooper Station?" Murph said quietly. "I'll need her to give me a workup."

"Why?"

"Standard procedure, when someone my age prepares for a long-term sleep in a Cryo-Bed."

Amelia Brand was awed by the thought. She and Coop had spent hours theorizing, wondering about the Bulk Beings who had created the time loop, the Wormhole… Cooper hadn't read these pages. He only knew half of what his daughter had done for him. For both of them.

There were still a few pages to go, and Amelia was almost scared to look.

She was getting quite misty over the love story of a girl she barely knew. Cooper had told her about the reunion with Murph, so she knew how this story ended, but the next loose page from the journal seemed to be from a different volume, and Amelia realized quickly that it was easily another five or six years after Murph went through with it.

"So, you finally decided to join the Methuselah Club?" Ellie said, as Murph changed into the usual cryo-smock.

Murph scoffed. There were some people taking advantage of the new Technology. Some preferred to stay in hibernation until there was a planet to go to. Others wanted to stay under until someone had conquered death completely. The Terraformers in particular, working at Mars and Europa, with projects that would last centuries, used Cryo-Beds to sleep ten months out of every year; letting things run on without their direct involvement. Others took small ships and accelerated as fast as they could, letting relativity near the speed of light do the same thing as a Black Hole's gravity, speeding the decades around them.

Murph had no interest in either. She had a particular reason in mind. "You could do it too." Murph offered. "Both of us, tearing up the future."

"Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of living forever." Ellie said quietly, leaning heavily on her cane. "But Jaina won't do it. She refuses. I don't know what her objection is, but it puts me in a bind, because…"

"Because even if you sleep until someone cracks immortality, you'd have to live with whatever you woke up to. Or without." Murph agreed. "I have a dozen grandkids, Ellie. Believe me, I understand."

Ellie hesitated.

"Say what you want to say." Murph directed her.

"Why are you doing it?" Ellie asked. "When Getty died, I worried that you might withdraw again, and now… I won't go into cryosleep because I dread the thought that I might wake up to discover that I've outlived my daughter. Why are you doing it, if you feel the same way?"

Murph turned to her, giving her full attention to her friend. "Back when it started falling apart, I told myself: No more nights off. At the time, I'd taken about one night for drinking games with you and Gets. You thought I was obsessed, and I was. But it wasn't because I was afraid to do anything else with my life, or because I was too scared to look at what was missing in myself. I was obsessed because… I had a promise to keep. One that I made my sole devotion. When I cracked it, I suddenly felt like my world opened up to all the things I never gave myself time for. You and Getty were at the top of that list. And we did good, didn't we?"

"We did amazing." Ellie promised her. "You did amazing."

"Well, it's sixty years later now. My kids are all grown up, and so are my grandkids. The Station is finished, the human race is as safe as I can make it, and the Council seems as stable as any government can be. Little by little, all those things I hadn't done yet have had the books closed on them. But there's still one thing left that I haven't gotten finished, and I'm as devoted to finishing it as I was all the other things." She put a hand on the Cryo-Bed. "And I won't get there on my own. So I have to sleep, until I can finish my last mission... and give my dad the future he deserves."

Ellie looked at her, on the point of tears. She could have said it, but she didn't have to. They were not young women any more. Murph had left no specific date to be taken out of storage. Ellie would almost certainly not live to see the moment Murph emerged.

And they both knew it.

Murph leaned in and gave her old friend a close embrace. "Did I ever thank you, Ellie? For being the big sister a little girl needed? Or for being the girlfriend a work-obsessed teenager needed to keep herself even? Or for being the surrogate mom that a young woman dealing with first love could turn to? Or for being the experienced teacher a young mother desperately needed? Or for being the best friend a person couldn't live without?"

Ellie sobbed on her shoulder. "I love you, Murph."

"And I love you." Murph promised. "Now, you should go. I don't want your last memory of me to be this damn body bag zipping up over my face."

"Yes'm." Ellie promised and hugged her again. "I'll take care of these instructions regarding your personal effects. You're sure you don't want to send anything to your kids?"

"I already have. The journals stay sealed and preserved. He'll be back for them one day."

"If you say so... Cap'n."

Ellie didn't believe Joe Cooper would ever return. But it Murph wanted to wait out the universe in cryo, that was fine with her. A lot of people were doing it, and Murph deserved to see the future on her own terms. Murph scribbled the last of her message into the journal, and put it in the storage bag. It would be sealed away and preserved against time, no matter how long it took.

Like me. Murph thought, as she lay back in the cold water. See you on the other side, Dad.

Amelia Brand read all this with a sentimental smile. The last page in the envelope was a letter, addressed to her.

Dear Amelia,

You can see why I removed these pages before my dad could read them. He wasn't ready for them yet. But the last time you and I spoke, I was a pre-teen kid, being paid off in cookies by grandpa to find a girlfriend for my dad. I think it's time we had us another chat.

First, you may be wondering a few things; so let me answer them: No, I didn't tell dad to come back for you because I saw it in the Tesseract. I've been wondering about the difference between fate and foresight ever since I picked up my father's dusty watch. I can tell you one thing for sure: He would have come after you the second I died. There was nothing for him here in Sol, (I made sure of it; or did you think I told them he liked farming just to be funny?) and forcing him to wait out the rest of my life would be cruelty. I just gave him permission to go AWOL without having to wait for my funeral. It was merciful for all three of us.

Secondly: No; I didn't hurt Wolf. I know it's been on your mind ever since you found out that the 'gravity anomaly' that crashed my father's test flight was me. Alternate timelines are a possibility, with the ability to see beyond linear time, but I was creating a Bootstrap Paradox, and I didn't alter things. For all my ability, I dared not Play God that much. I'm sorry for his loss, but I'm not sorry that you and my father found each other. I hope you can forgive me for not mourning a man I never met.

Third: I want to say I'm sorry. I thought some rather unkind things towards you in my youth. When I found out your father lied about Plan A, I hated you so much, just for being his daughter and flying away with my dad. That was a terrible thing for me to think, given that he fooled us both. I'm sorry for all the angry words I sent across the galaxies to you and my dad. I hope you can convince him that they were spoken in misinformed anger. You've done tremendous things, and followed your heart above your head without ever showing naivety or foolishness. If I could live my life over again, I would have followed your example over that of your father's.

Fourth: Everyone who knows about the Tesseract has asked me the question at some point, except for Getty. I have never told anyone what the future holds for them. In a way, knowing the way my story ends has made the wait interminable. But I'll promise you this much, Amelia: It all works out. Not perfectly, of course. You two will bicker, and you'll make up, and you'll see incredible things. Some days you'll feel so isolated with just each other that you'll want to stop. Some days you'll be so glad to have each other all to yourselves that you'll fly faster just to keep the rest of the human race from ever catching up.

But you'll be happy, and you'll see so many places that nobody has ever seen. You'll put the first footprints on planets that we can't even see from Sol. You'll plant forests that grow for our great-great-grandkids to walk in. You'll be the first to taste the fruits of far distant jungle vines. And you will love each other so much.

A better ending I cannot imagine, or wish for my father, or for you. I hope that it's enough to make up for the years and family that you lost.

One last thing I want you to know: You were right.

Love isn't something we invented. It's observable, powerful; and it's the most meaningful thing ever created. It's even measurable, in a way that linear time and three dimensional space can never be. I know, because I've seen those higher dimensions, and I could actually perceive it, transcending time and space like a tether, keeping me with Getty when I had no anchor. I could see it drawing my father back to me, and me back to him. I could see it, connecting you to Wolf, and dad to mom, and you two always to each other.

You're wondering how I know about that wonderful little speech you gave on Endurance. Believe me, I know more than just that.

We didn't invent love. It predates us, even in a cosmos that exists outside past and future. Poets understood this long before I ever walked the world of Bulk Space. Getty thinks it's proof of God, that love can transcend galaxies and centuries; and life and death. I hope he's right; because I love him even now, when he's gone.

Thank you for everything you'll do for my family.

Love, Murph.

Amelia folded the letter carefully, and slipped it back in it's protective sheath, before she put a kiss to it, and tucked it away again, feeling quite misty-eyed.

"Hey." A voice said from behind.

She smiled back at Cooper as he came over. She rose from her seat, stepped to meet him halfway, and put her arms around him tightly, pulling him in for a tight hug. She held him like she would never let go; and when she finally did pull back, she took his face between her hands; and gave him a slow, thorough kiss. Then she pulled back like she had done so every day."Good Morning." She said, heartfelt.

Cooper flushed. "What was that for? Tell me, so I can do it more often."

"I'll tell you about it later." She led him over to the windows. "Storm broke overnight. CASE has harvested the snow for us, and is running it through all the tests he can think of, but I don't except any surprises. Water is a surprisingly easy compound to purify here."

"Stuff of life." Cooper murmured and put a kiss on her shoulder. "So, what shall we do today?"

"I think it's time we put the plaque down." Amelia said. "We've been watching the weather, and this spot seems to be high enough it won't be buried under eighty feet of snow. Watermarks say that when the thaw comes, it won't be washed away, either."

"Mm." Cooper noted that she was wearing his jacket. "It's probably, what? A balmy 15 below celsius?"

"About. Weather report from Endurance predicts it'll get as high as eight below, before daybreak." She yawned. "Though a fifteen hour day/night cycle is hard to get used to."

"Nice place to visit, but I'm not sure I'd want to stay much longer."

"Oh, I don't know. Remember we used the tent canvas to make a bathtub? All that snow out there, and a fireproof survival tent, I reckon we could make a passable sauna if we wanted."

"Tempting, if only because we've been parked a week and couldn't fit a shower into the Ranger." Cooper chuckled. "Alright, we'll collect the last of the core samples, pack up the weather stations, and lay the Plaque." He peered out the windows. "Any word on the Grendel?"

"Well, if you mean that shaggy half-bear-half-moose thing that was sniffing around, I haven't seen him this morning." Amelia told him, and presented him with a second steaming mug. "But don't go out without CASE."

"You either."

As they had on every other planet they visited, they had machined a plaque out of copper, and produced a beacon. Solar powered, and with no moving parts, the Beacon could do nothing but be detected by any ships that happened to come into orbit.

Cooper carved just enough space for the beacon's delicate wiring in a large rock formation, and Amelia bolted the Plaque over it protectively.

Here Explorers From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon This World.
Joseph Cooper and Amelia Brand, Project Endurance. July 2459.
We Hope Not To Be The Last.
"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."

Included with the Beacon was a copy of their logs, some observations of the local stellar area, the planet's climate, and other observable phenomena. They had parked Endurance in Orbit for a year while they slept in Cryo, before emerging to make a surface exploration. If others caught up, they'd have a lot of useful information to work with. They'd planted just such a repository on every world they'd visited.

"You think anyone will find these things, Coop?" Amelia asked, not for the first time.

"Eventually. The Wormhole is a construct. Someone thinks these places are worth looking through. We just happened to get to them first. I saw the Program. It could take centuries for the rest of humanity to catch up. And when they do, they'll have information to work with waiting for them, thanks to a pair of plucky pioneers."

"Plucky?"

"What, you don't like plucky?"

"Plucky isn't… cool enough.."

Cooper grinned. "It is when we do it."

Brand laughed. She was laughing more and more often lately. "Let's go back inside." She told him. "There's a story you should probably hear."

They went back to their Ranger, getting ready to take off again, and dock with Endurance, making their way to the next horizon, hand in hand.

Chapter Text

Murphy Cooper was laid to rest four years after her father was declared AWOL with his android, MIA again. She would never tell anyone why he left after one conversation, but it wasn't the first time the human race had to follow her instructions on faith.

But long after the funeral, in another galaxy, in a System orbiting a huge Black Hole, a large Space Station gilded slowly across the darkness, into orbit of a planet that was once called 'Edmunds World'.

Eric Brock was older, hair starting to grey, monitoring from the Bridge, as his son Jesse was the first one to land the scout Ranger and plant the flag of the Council on a world that was once called 'Edmunds Planet'.

"Gravity and Atmosphere is good…" Jesse called back. "We were right about that beacon. It's faint, but it's definitely sign of construction; but just barely."

"What do you mean, barely?" Eric called to his son.

"Well, there are foundations here that look like the old Survival Habitats, but the foundation is all there is. The actual sections are gone, save for the anchor struts."

"Storm damage? Erosion?"

"No, the sections are intact. The rest of the Hab simply isn't here; like it got taken away." Eric reported. "I'm following the beacon."

"Remember, even if she never tried Plan B, there may be multiple survivors in Cryo if their equipment survived this long." Eric reported. "That forest could have sheltered the area from a lot of the weather."

"By the way, does this forest seem strange to anyone else?" Jaina ran a hand through her grey hair, and adjusted her glasses as she checked the readouts. "The trees are all young, by all appearances; and the rest of the planet is desert at this elevation. All the rest of the life is concentrated in the canyons."

"Yeah, all of it." Eric agreed, and switched the comms off. "You really think this is going to work?" He asked Jaina quietly. "I mean, air and water are great, but we need more than just a viable place to live. This isn't a pit stop, it's a colony. The O'Neill Cylinders are way more popular with the thawed refugees, and… There are only a few hundred people on board. Barely enough for sustainable genetic diversity, even without anything going wrong."

"I know, it's a bit of a Hail Mary play." Jaina said tiredly, wheeling herself over to Eric. "But if we can convince people that this place is liveable, there are still enough folks who will make the trip, just to be on a planet instead of a station. It's inherent. Primal. A bird will always fly, a human will always put down roots. There's always going to be more love for a natural place than an artificial one. It's why we put so much work into making the Stations feel like suburbia."

Eric scoffed a bit at that. "Yeah, I guess so." He glanced back at the beacon. "You really think there's a chance we'll find Edmunds, or Brand, or even Cooper?"

"He could have made it. Gravity Drives can make this trip easily enough. If we can get a station here, he could certainly get a Ranger. It's just a question of… well, what he'd find."

"I found something!" Jesse called on the Comm. "It's the Cryo-Sleep Chamber. It's still functional, but…"

"But what?" Eric called, excited to learn for sure.

"Well, good news/bad news… There are no long lost astronauts here."

Eric deflated. "Well, it was a longshot to begin with. And the good news?"

"I think we've got a solution to the Genetic Diversity Problem that Jaina was so worried about. There's a 'population bomb' here, perfectly preserved."

Jaina sat up immediately. "Embryos? How many?"

"Thousands, looks like." Eric reported. "Hang on, I'm checking the logs."

Eric and Jaina traded a look. They had played with the idea of bringing their own 'Population Bomb' with them for colonization, but nobody wanted to donate genetic material for a generation they wouldn't see, now that future generations were a sure thing again. But now...

"Thousands of embryos." Jaina breathed. "Endurance was carrying a Plan B package, last reported intact, going with Brand when she aligned for planetary transit." She covered her smile. "If they made it, that would solve everything! We could raise thousands here!"

Eric leaned back to the Comm. "Son? Those records? Who left them?"

"Well, there's an old series 148 Android here, currently inactive. According to the Chamber's Logs, he detected a power failure in one of the Plan B containers. His job was to protect the human crew; so I guess the embryos qualify." Eric reported. "Looks like he pulled his own power core to get the cryo-bed working again."

"And he's been standing there beside it, shut down, for who knows how long." Jaina finished. "Which android is it, Jesse?"

"Paint's faded, but it says 'TARS'."

"Cooper's Droid!" Eric beamed. "So, we just solved one of the biggest hypotheticals of the last four decades. Cooper did make it here!" He keyed the Comm. "Jesse, bring the android back to the Station. If we can access his memory files, we'll have the answers to a lot of questions."

Jaina was smiling too. "I think I can guess where the rest of the hab went."

"Oh?"

"A story my mother once told me, right before she died." Jaina waved him off, her smile giving her face more wrinkles. "I was hoping for a happy ending."