[ He shrinks away stiffly and shakes his head, feeling numb and slow at her fervor, over something he doesn’t have the full story on, as usual. But this time Simon is the one to break the eye contact, looking straight ahead at the creek in front of them. ] Nothing. Never mind.

[ So the upload didn’t work. That must be it, if everyone else is okay. The sinking, bitter feeling is there, but it’s remote, blunted by being here, having alternatives instead of the manic desperation of having one single uncertain thing to look forward to.

He picks at the spiraling metal growths on his palms, hunched over with his elbows on his knees. She’s probably right — when he hears things he doesn’t like, he doesn’t tend to react super great, but there’s a long pause before he can rally back somewhat from his surprise at her frustration. ] I was going to have them do it so I wouldn’t have to go back to PATHOS-II. There must be something else I can ask them to do. Maybe they can help the people the WAU’s got down there.

[ You’d think there would be a lot of things Hathaway could do for their Earth, but the no time travel and no resurrecting the dead rules are actually huge roadblocks. ]