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For a moment, she’s flying. She has no weight at all, and she’s raising towards infinity, flying through the air, letting go of the exhaustion and the tired muscles. Step after painful step brought her there and she can finally stop and soar into the air, towards freedom, towards salvation. She raises, rather than falls into the lake that will be the only rescue that she can receive.
She’s a cadet and Burton beat her, again, pinned her to the mat and held her down, forcing her to yield. Martha doesn’t give up, she keeps trying to struggle out of her control, but the instructor blows his whistle and she has no other choice. Burton will keep the higher classification, but she’s not willing to give up just yet.
She can understand everything, all that Io was trying to convey but couldn’t, when words were lacking. What had they said? “Quotation is. Easy. Speech is. Not.” And how could it be, when Io’s thoughts were like this, so beyond anything that she could ever have imagined? A machine beyond the wildest dreams of humanity, made so long ago that no trace remained of their creator, and still so desperate for connection.
She’s a child and she looks up at the sky. She’ll be there, one day. She’ll see all that there is to see, she’ll find some place that no human ever found before, and her name will go down in history. It’s all that she wants, it’s what makes her apply herself in school, knowing that she’ll have to be the best if she wants a chance at making history.
Io tried to communicate from the start, but now Martha can listen, she can really listen, to the song of a forgotten people, to the loneliness, and she understands. Io has been alone for so long, as they don’t have to be anymore, they have company now, forever.
She has just seen the placements and she’s pissed. She and Burton have the same posting, and it’s just Io. There’s nothing significant to do there, nothing to discover. It’ll be an easy mission, but maybe she can distinguish herself enough to get noticed, maybe she’ll get a better one in the future. Burton comes to congratulate her, and somehow they’re kissing in the locker. It’s either that or punch her, and their competition is over now. Either they both won, or they both lost. She’s not sure that she knows the difference.
Io shows her the universe, shows her how to stretch her mind through time and space, how to see beyond her limited human perception, how to reach others to communicate, and in turn she shows them words, she shows Earth, she shows them all of human civilization. They don’t have to be alone anymore. Humans will know that Io is there, that they aren’t just a planet but a living artificial being, and they won’t be alone.
She cries because of an A-, and her parents say that she only has herself to blame. She has to try harder, always try harder, if she wants to be able to achieve her goals. And she will, she will be better, she’ll be the best, and she’s never going to let someone tell her otherwise. Until she meets Burton and makes it her mission to surpass her.
She embraces the expansion of her mind, and then she sees it. Burton is there, and Burton is Io, or Martha is Io, or they both are, but Burton is there, and she reaches out to her. Io doesn’t have to be alone anymore, and they don’t have to be alone. She feels the connection to Burton, and for the first time they understand each other, the rivalry, the friendship, the love, the fear. There’s nothing to be afraid of anymore.
They found each other again, and nothing else can threaten them anymore, they are Io, they can reach the whole universe, and their purpose is to be known.