ByteMe: when they get here we’ll have to turn AIDAN on anyway or we’ll have no defense grid

Zhang, B: at least this way we’ve got something we can really throw at them

Zhang, B: they revoked lover boy’s flight status, right?

ByteMe: yeah why?

Zhang, B: the pilots can buy us time if they have to, but they’ll need to get real close to the Lincoln to hit the sensor arrays and plant this thing. Gonna be a lot of warlocks between them and the goal line

ByteMe: he’s decked. He’s safe. let’s get to work

Zhang, B: i’m going to need more stims

ByteMe: those things will kill u, u know

Zhang, B: anyone ever suggest you go into comedy?

ByteMe: surprisingly, no

Mason, E, LT 2nd: i was just thinking

ByteMe: <insert joke here>

Mason, E, LT 2nd: ok

Mason, E, LT 2nd: how about “i wondered what that noise was”?

ByteMe: i feel like I’ve used all the good ones over the years. I’ll give it some thought and get back to you with a good takedown

ByteMe: u okay over there?

Mason, E, LT 2nd: yeah. just thinking

ByteMe: do you plan to share with the class, second lieutenant Mason?

Mason, E, LT 2nd: wuz thinking about the 1st time i kissed u

ByteMe: u should be thinking about the next time you’re going to. when we get out of this.

Mason, E, LT 2nd: 1st time i walked you home after all those games you came to

Mason, E, LT 2nd: goddamn you looked beautiful

ByteMe: … are you defective?

ByteMe: u walked me home approximately one zillion times before you kissed me.

ByteMe: and I can back that figure with Science

Mason, E, LT 2nd: science?

ByteMe: I was counting

Mason, E, LT 2nd: ahhhh

Mason, E, LT 2nd: no

Mason, E, LT 2nd: i meant the 1st time i kissed u in my head

ByteMe: … wut?

Mason, E, LT 2nd: yeah. i had to work up the guts to actually DO IT. So i practiced in my head. every time i walked you home.

Mason, E, LT 2nd: you were pretty good, in case you were wondering

ByteMe: you never told me that, the whole time we were together.

ByteMe: i mean, I’m not usually the kind to sit around and wait to be asked out, and wait to be kissed, but you were just SO hard to read. And you were a giant jock. I thought if you knocked me back, the whole school would probably know about it. so I just kept watching stupid geeball games and trying to figure u out.

Mason, E, LT 2nd: lol how is walking you home approximately one zillion times hard to read, grant? why’d you THINK i was there?

Mason, E, LT 2nd: YOU ARE SO BAD AT THIS

ByteMe: so I’m bad at it. I can’t help my natural disability. you’re the one who chose to hang out with me.

Mason, E, LT 2nd: chose? no.

Mason, E, LT 2nd: no choice whatsoever

Mason, E, LT 2nd: <3

ByteMe: you think you’re so smooth

ByteMe: and you goddamn are

ByteMe: drives me nuts

ByteMe: <3

Mason, E, LT 2nd: i should’ve just kissed you right away instead of being scared

Mason, E, LT 2nd: all that time i wasted

Mason, E, LT 2nd: all the times i could’ve showed you how much i cared

Mason, E, LT 2nd: and i just let them slide. like we had all the time in the verse

ByteMe: we did. and I know you do, Ez. and I was just as bad, spending all that time arguing about u coming off planet with me when we could have been talking about bigger things.

ByteMe: we could have been together after college, if that’s what it took.

Mason, E, LT 2nd: i don’t think that would’ve happened

ByteMe: …

ByteMe: you really mean that?

Mason, E, LT 2nd: it’s not that I wouldn’t have wanted to

Mason, E, LT 2nd: but there’s a reason why my dad and I were on a tiny outer rim snowball like Kerenza, kades

Mason, E, LT 2nd: and a reason why I wouldn’t leave

Mason, E, LT 2nd: even to be with you

ByteMe: so. Confession time?

ByteMe: does this reason have a name?

Mason, E, LT 2nd: leanne

ByteMe: ?

Mason, E, LT 2nd: but my dad just called her the psychopath

Mason, E, LT 2nd: I called her mom

ByteMe: wait

ByteMe: You’re telling me the reason we had all those screaming fights, the reason you refused to leave kerenza, the reason you wouldn’t even entertain the IDEA of coming to college with me

ByteMe: was your mother?

ByteMe: your dad moved to kerenza to get away from your MOTHER?

Mason, E, LT 2nd: not to get away from

Mason, E, LT 2nd: to hide from

Mason, E, LT 2nd: you wouldn’t understand

Mason, E, LT 2nd: she’s just

Mason, E, LT 2nd: she’s just not a nice person, kades.

Mason, E, LT 2nd: she’s bad news. works for some bad people

Mason, E, LT 2nd: and I don’t want to spend what might be our last conversation talking about her, ok?

ByteMe: …

ByteMe: ok

ByteMe: but we’re not done yet. And you can be damn sure we’re talking about this more when i get us out of this

Mason, E, LT 2nd: the lincoln is 24 hours away, kady

Mason, E, LT 2nd: we’ve got one day left

ByteMe: you have no idea how much i can do in just one day

Mason, E, LT 2nd: a fully equipped BT Dreadnought carries a complement of 94 warlock class fighters

Mason, E, LT 2nd: 24 capricorn-4 10.8 megaton nuclear warheads, plus another dozen 50mt goliath shipkillers

Mason, E, LT 2nd: and a defense grid you couldn’t fly a spitball through