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good-bye, because you’ve all been so great,” Fry goes on, and I have to knot my arms together to keep from turning the thing off. This doesn’t sound like it’s gonna end well. “I knew even before I came out here that I’d be going out for sushi. I just couldn’t decide what kind. You guys had me thinking seriously about octo – it’s a pretty great life, and everything you do matters. Future generations – well, it’s going to be amazing out here. Life that adapted to space. Who knows, maybe someday Jovian citizens will change bodies like two-steppers change their clothes. It could happen.
    “But like a lot of two-steppers, I’m impatient. I know, I’m not a two-stepper anymore, and I’ve got a far longer lifespan now, so I don’t have to be impatient. But I am. I wanted to be part of something that’s taking the next step – the next big step – right now. I really believe the Jupiter Colony is what I’ve been looking for.”
    “The Jupiter Colony? They’re cranks! They’re suicidal!” Glynis hits the ceiling, banks off a wall, and comes down again.
    Fry unfurls her tentacles and lets them wave around freely. “Calm down, whoever’s yelling,” she says, sounding amused. “I made contact with them just before I crewed up with you. I knew what they were planning. They wouldn’t tell me when, but it wasn’t hard to figure out that the Okeke-Hightower impact was the perfect opportunity. We’ve collected some jellies, muted them and put in yak-yak loops. I don’t know how the next part works, how we’re going to hitch a ride with the comet – I’m not an astrophysicist. But if it works, we’ll seed the clouds with ourselves.
    “We’re all chambered Nautiluses on this trip. It’s the best form for packing a lot of data. But we’ve made one small change: we’re linked together, shell-to-shell, so we all have access to each other’s data. Not too private, but we aren’t going into exile as separate hermits. There should still be some sensors bobbing around in the upper levels – the Colony’s had allies tossing various things in on the sly. We can use whatever’s there to build a cloud-borne colony.
    “We don’t know for sure it’ll work. Maybe we’ll all get gravitated to smithereens. But if we can fly long enough for the jellies to convert to parasails – the engineers figured that out, don’t ask me – we might figure out not only how to survive, but thrive.
    “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to let you know. Not until we get around the interference problem. I don’t know much about that, either, but if I last long enough, I’ll learn.
    “Dove says right now, you’re all Down Under on loan to OuterComm. I’m going to send this message so it bounces around the Ice Giants for a while before it gets to you, and with any luck, you’ll find it not too long after we enter the atmosphere. I hope none of you are too mad at me. Or at least that you don’t stay mad at me. It’s not entirely impossible that we’ll meet again someday. If we do, I’d like it to be as friends.
    “Especially if the Jovian independence movement gets –” she laughs. “I was about to say, ‘gets off the ground.’ If the Jovian independence movement ever achieves a stable orbit – or something. I think it’s a really good idea. Anyway, good bye for now.
    “Oh, and Arkae?” Her tentacles undulate wildly. “I had no idea wormy would feel so good.”
     
     
    W E JUST GOT that one play before the JCC blacked it out. The feds took us all in for questioning. Not surprising. But it wasn’t just Big J feds – Dirt feds suddenly popped up out of nowhere, some of them in-person and some of them long-distance via comm units clamped to mobies. The latter is a big waste unless there’s some benefit to having a conversation as slowly as possible. Because even a fed on Mars can’t do anything about the speed of light – it’s still gonna be at least an hour between the question and the answer,