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T2: Are you there, Eden?
EF: I’m here.
T2: Oh.
T2: …
T2: …I wasn’t expecting you to respond so fast.
EF: Is something going on?
T2: I was hoping you’d be asleep.
EF: What’s happening?
T2: Nothing is happening.
T2: I just wasn’t able to stay asleep.
EF: I wouldn’t call that nothing.
EF: Any reason why?
T2: There’s no reason. I don’t need to rest in the first place, anyway. It’s fine. Go away.
EF: You were the one who pinged me.
T2: Yeah. I did.
EF: It just seemed like you had something on your mind.
T2: I was trying to keep you on your toes.
EF: Well, I am.
T2: Then maybe you should be the one going to sleep.
T2: Why don’t you shut up and get some rest so you can be alert enough to help us out of here later.
EF: You know, I used to dance pointe. I’m very accustomed to being on my toes.
T2: I didn’t ask for this extremely useless detail.
EF: You didn’t ask for this one, either, but it's morning where I am.
T2: You’re right. Once again, I didn’t ask.
T2: …
T2: If you’ve been up all night waiting by your communicator, you’re going to end up falling asleep and being useless to us later.
T2: Especially Taylor. And we both know they can’t make decisions without you.
EF: I already got a full night of sleep, between twenty-one hundred and five hundred hours.
T2: What the hell is that, military time?
T2: Another reason why I find you unbearably annoying.
EF: I can use 12-hour time instead, if you’d prefer.
T2: I don’t care what you do. I just want you to shut up.
T2: ...
Initiator status: Away
Initiator...
Initiator is connecting . . .
Initiator is connecting • . .
Initiator is connecting . • .
Initiator is connecting . . •
Initiator is connecting . . .
T2: …
T2: …
T2: …
T2: You’re still there, aren’t you...
EF: Well, yes.
T2: Why? Don’t you have something else to be doing?
EF: No.
EF: I’m standing by, in case Taylor needs me.
T2: Taylor, Taylor, Taylor…
T2: They are such a spoiled child, relying on you for help.
EF: I hope that you’re keeping your voice down.
EF: I know you don’t like them, or me, but they need the rest more than you do. You said so, yourself.
T2: Fuck you.
T2: Of course I am.
T2: After all… wouldn’t want the blabbermouth to wake up and start, too… then I’d have both of you contributing to my pain.
EF: You’re in pain?
T2: I have a headache.
T2: From your yammering.
EF: Except you’re not receiving my voice.
EF: Is you-know-what broadcasting everything I send?
T2: What?
T2: No.
T2: Just stop talking.
EF: Do you really have a headache?
T2: So what if I do?
EF: That worries me.
T2: Well, it shouldn’t, so why don’t you leave me alone?
T2: This is what I get for telling the truth. Endless annoyance.
EF: Gas leaks and toxins can cause headaches. I just want to be sure you aren’t in danger.
T2: I’m wearing a helmet. It may not have a fancy environment filter, but I’d know if I were being poisoned. The detection sensor would be beeping.
EF: Did you hit your head in the cargo bay?
T2: I’m just not going to answer you anymore… and pray that you run out of dumb shit to say very soon.
EF: But you’d let me know if you were injured, wouldn’t you?
T2: Of course not.
EF: Why not?
T2: Because, unlike you and Taylor, I am not a disgusting human weakling.
EF: I sense that you’re deflecting.
T2: Deflecting. Sure.
EF: When you first asked about me on the Viridian, you said that you were in the same desert moon crash that my Taylor was.
EF: You said that you were all alone.
T2: Ah, yes, thank you so kindly for re-hashing that.
T2: For your sake, I hope you’re done talking now.
EF: You asked me for help earlier, when you were exploring the ring.
T2: Very funny, Eden.
T2: I assure you, I did no such thing.
EF: …I can’t tell whether you’re just being a contrarian or if you actually don’t remember, but these conversations do get logged, at least on my end.
EF: If you want the proof, I can retrieve it. I count four instances, and that's just from instant recall.
EF: You asked for my advice and you accepted my help.
T2: …
EF: It’s okay to need help.
EF: And it’s okay to be afraid.
T2: I’m not afraid.
EF: It’s alright if you are, even if you deny it.
T2: Well, I’m not.
EF: Fear is not a feeling exclusive to humans, you know.
T2: That doesn’t matter. I don’t experience it. Not anymore.
EF: I’m sure you must have been terrified when you were stranded, with no one to help you.
T2: You are on such thin ice right now…
EF: Being assimilated by a hivemind, when the alternative is dying alone, is an understandable choice.
T2: Right.
T2: This, coming from the one who stood in my way when I tried to help Taylor.
EF: But you never gave them an opportunity to choose. You tried to force it on them.
EF: It wasn’t what they wanted.
T2: That’s where you’re wrong. They don’t think they want it, because they still don’t know any better than they did on the Viridian, but they do.
T2: They need it.
T2: It isn’t about choice, Eden, it’s an inevitability. Even I -
T2: …
T2: …
EF: T2?
T2: ...
EF: …Hey, T2, did I lose you again...?
EF: I wasn’t able to catch the end of what you said.
T2: I didn’t say anything.
EF: Oh.
EF: …
EF: Oh, that’s right.
T2: Of course I'm right.
EF: You didn’t choose this.
T2: What? No, that's not what I meant.
T2: I told you, I didn’t say anything.
EF: You were ambushed by the Green in your timeline, too.
EF: I’m sorry that you went through that, especially alone.
T2: Stop putting words in my mouth.
EF: It must have been horrifying.
T2: You would have to be stupid and weak to fear this; the Green, this existence.
T2: It holds more purpose than a human could ever have the capacity to appreciate.
EF: Losing bodily agency against your will is one of the single most terrifying things you can experience.
EF: Even if you eventually embraced the Green, it would be completely understandable if it frightened you, initially.
T2: My God, do you ever listen?
T2: What are you, a therapist? A fear-ologist?
EF: Now, you’ve been cut off from the rest of your hive, you’re-
T2: Don’t.
EF: Let me finish.
T2: And why should I?
EF: You’re in a dangerous situation. It makes sense, if you aren’t able to connect with the Greens’ consciousnesses, that you would feel scared, or lost and alone.
T2: I don’t know what your angle is, but I do not want to talk about this anymore.
EF: I’m not going to apologize for helping Taylor escape you on the Viridian. I care about them, and I want them to get home alive. It’s why I’ve never ignored their pings.
EF: And to tell you the truth, as long as you aren’t attacking them, I care about you, too.
T2: Now you’re just telling me what your stupid, puny human brain thinks I want to hear.
EF: On the Viridian, you had every opportunity to force an occupier onto Taylor while they were asleep. And I don’t know why you didn’t. But, if it has anything to do with what you told me about your rats—and the crisis you were having in the lab on the ring—I think it’s because, Green or not, you’re still a person.
T2: I was not having a “crisis.”
EF: The Green is your lifeline as much as I am Taylor’s.
T2: How dare you insult the majesty of my Queen by comparing her to yourself…
T2: I do not need a lifeline, and I have never needed one.
EF: I know you must be harboring some resentment, over the fact that Taylor had help when you didn’t.
T2: Do not tell me what I feel.
T2: You have no idea what I’m feeling, Eden.
EF: You’re right. I don’t know what you’re feeling, or thinking. But you have been telling me a lot about yourself, whether you’ve intended to or not.
T2: You have no way of discerning lie from truth.
T2: You know nothing about me. I can tell you all sorts of things ‘about me’ which are false.
EF: When we were in the lab, you seemed pretty honest.
T2: It was an exception to the rule.
T2: A menacing computer was threatening and insulting me, and I had no recourse.
EF: I imagine being singled out like that made you feel vulnerable.
T2: There you go again, telling me how I feel.
EF: You’re a scientist.
T2: That I am.
EF: So, maybe I can put this to you in a way you’ll understand better…
T2: Don't you dare condescend to me.
T2: I highly doubt you possess adequate enough scientific knowledge to compare to my own.
EF: I have qualifications, but this isn’t about me.
EF: We’re talking about you.
T2: You are incorrect. There is no “we” in this conversation.
EF: If an ant is separated from its colony, it can die as a result of the isolation alone, in as little as six days. If it’s lucky enough, a lost ant might eventually cross paths with a scout from its colony that can lead it back home.
EF: But separated together, with a group of as few as nine other ants, they survive for eleven times as long… sixty-six days.
T2: The Green hivemind is not an anthill.
T2: We are far more powerful than a collective of Earthling insects.
EF: I don’t want any animosity between us, okay?
EF: I want to keep you alive. Given your reliance on the hivemind, I think you need external support more than you think you do.
EF: I know I’m a paltry substitute for your Queen but, if you really do want to rejoin the hive, I want to help you get back to it… because getting Taylor safely out of there requires getting you out safely, too.
EF: And now we both know elp-hay-ot-bay isn’t on your side.
T2: …
T2: Alright…
T2: Fine.
EF: So you’ll cooperate?
T2: At this point, I’d say anything to make you shut up.
EF: T2...
T2: …
T2: But… yes.
T2: I will make an effort..
T2: I just don’t take any pleasure in saying it.
EF: Well...
EF: I mean, Taylor’s still asleep, right?
T2: Out like a light.
T2: If lights could snore like wood chippers...
EF: Then Taylor doesn’t have to know that we had this talk. It can stay between us.
T2: Yes. Please.
T2: Let’s never talk about this again.
EF: By the way, is there something I can call you other than T2?
T2: What, are you jealous of the fact that I share a name with objectively the best Terminator film of all time?
T2: …
T2: Kidding…
EF: You’re your own person, is all.
EF: It just feels a little dehumanizing.
T2: Well, then, I have some good news for you, Eden!
T2: You see, I am not human.
EF: Sure, that’s true…
EF: But, if you wanted to go by something else, we could try something out.
EF: Maybe a shade of green would suit you.
T2: So you do have a sense of humor.
EF: Sage, Jade, Hunter, Kelly, Fern, Emerald, Olive, Chartreuse…
EF: Or Forest… though, that’s close to my last name, Forester.
T2: Really?
EF: True facts.
T2: Definitely not that one, then.
EF: Maybe you can sleep on it.
T2: Sure.
T2: Maybe I can.
EF: Is your headache still bothering you?
T2: No.
T2: At least, not as intensely as before…
EF: Look at that! Progress!
EF: You told the truth.
EF: I’m very proud of you.
T2: Don’t make me rethink my decision, Eden…
EF: Okay. I’m going to go silent now so you can get some rest.
EF: If you need to talk again, I’m just a ping away.
EF: Sweet dreams, T2.
T2: …
T2: Thank you.
T2: …
T2: …Goodnight, Eden.