Cameron

“Clio! What the- did you go on a marathon or wha-”

“ASTROPHAGE CAN MOVE THINGS AROUND” Yelled Clio.

Addison looked confused.

“...we already know that. Project HM used it as fuel.”

“No, no i mean- if it moved with something attached to it, if it's attached strongly enough, when the Astrophage moves it’ll move with it! Like, um… like someone inside a car”

“Oh… wait, what?! Do you mean-”

“Yeah. Taumoeba. It attaches to the astrophage during digestion and if we time it right, it can move with it at massive speeds. Taumoeba doesn't just "grab" the outside; its microfilaments pierce the shell. It’s anchored into the very structure of the cell. Buut… the microfilaments are too weak. When Astrophage moves, it goes from 0 to near-light speed almost instantly. anything "hitched" to it would be ripped apart by the G-forces. We’d need to genetically modify them for this to work.”

“Clee, we are NOWHERE near that level. Plus, we don't just need stronger filaments; we need filaments that can harden or calcify once they've latched on. We’d need some help. What about Laura?”

Clio made a disgusted face. “Head of this lab? Ugh… you know her. She’d steal our theory, and she's really arrogant. I don’t like her.”

“Clio, be mature,” Addison said, crossing her arms. “A groundbreaking theory like this is a much bigger priority than a personality clash.”

“It’s not a personality clash, Addie, it’s a patent trap,” Clio hissed, leaning over the lab bench. “You know how Laura is. She doesn’t ‘collaborate.’ She ‘assimilates.’ If I show her the math, she’ll call it juvenile and then have a press release in her name. She’ll bury the part where the Taumoeba actually... you know... works just so she can get more grant money from the ESA.”

Clio paced the small aisle “She’s a bureaucrat in a lab coat. She cares about the Petrova Line because it’s famous, not because it’s killing the planet. I want this- no, need this to be a solution.”

She sighs. “Can't we look for someone else? Any ideas?”

“Okay,” Addison said, with an exasperated sigh, grabbing a pen. “To make this happen, we need:

A Level-4 Bio-Containment lab that isn’t owned by the ‘Arrogant Laura.’

Military-grade genetic sequencers.

Access to the raw data logs from the Hail Mary—the stuff they didn't release to the public.

About ten billion dollars.”

Clio slumped into her rolling chair. “So we need a god.”

They sat in silence, the only sound being the hum of the centrifuge. Clio stared at the ESA logo on a nearby crate of equipment. It was the same logo she’d seen on her mother’s old briefcases. The same logo that appeared on the TV every time a documentary about some rando called Ryland showed up.

Addison followed her gaze, landing on the logo.

“Um. I have an idea”

“Yeah? Who?”

“...your mom”

(Silence) "...I hate you so much.”

—

(Pun intended)

The vintage music played from the tv speaker. Images of an old, abandoned earth flashed on the screen, illuminating Clio’s face.

Eva Stratt handed her a bowl of vanilla ice cream. A little ritual they had, every Friday night, to celebrate the end of a work week- even though Eva usually worked the weekend, too. But after prison, she was only permitted low-level jobs in the ESA.

She was only in prison for a while- she was supposed to have a life sentence, but the majority of the population argued that she was only doing the best for humanity in extreme circumstances, and she was left free.

Free from jail, but mostly free to have a peaceful life.

A life with Clio.

Clio was like her sometimes. She would argue in the classroom how the bathrooms are ugly and not colorful enough and would start a little revolution.

But in moments like this, both were calm and quiet. WALL-E always hit home for Eva.

But home was Clio now, not the past. Why must she remember the pain? Killing a friend like that. Sending him to his doom, make him die alone. Alone. She left him alone.

“Mom! He got the plant from the fridge! Look!”

Eva looked back at the screen. She chuckled, they watched this movie so often yet Clio’s excitement never failed to resurface.

____________

Clio looked back up to the screen.

She looked at the diagram.

She looked back up to the screen.

She looked down at the microscope, and fed the Taumoeba another Astrophage. The Taumoeba extended its microfilaments and digested the cell.

The microfilaments! That's the key. But those are weak, they’d break off if the Astrophage moved…

“Addie! is there any way to make them bigger?”

“The what?”

“the Microfilaments that the Taumoeba has.”

“Aren't you supposed to know? You're the expert here”

“I started a few months ago just like you, Ad. Can you check, please?”

“How am i supposed to check?!”

“So there’s this invention called the Internet that lets you check all human knowledge. Did you ever hear about it, Addison?”

“Fineee.”

Clio was having a… burnout-blast at MIT. She still couldn't believe they got accepted.

She spent most of her time in the lab.

Ever since a few months before the Hail Mary beetles with all the information came in, the information about Taumoeba and Astrophage was made public, so that all scientists could help make discoveries.

Mostly because they were still having issues. Everytime Taumoeba would consume the whole of the Petrova Line, it would come back from other infected stars. Like a disease attacking someone again and again.

Obviously, MIT was working on it as well.

Clio’s compartment worked on Taumoeba’s digestion of Astrophage, specifically. Clio would get hungry thinking about it, so she went to the lab fridge and got out some fish nuggets next to some cells.

They were cold and a little icy but they didn't have a microwave in the lab, did they?

She put the box away and headed towards the classroom. She had it in an hour, but she wanted to listen to some music and go on a walk beforehand.

Boston was such a nice city. Clio loved the autumn trees and the honeysuckles. It got cold, but they liked it.

Her mom studied history at Harvard there, when she was younger. Clio was the muse of historians in ancient Greece.

An OST song came on. Ugh, she finished her skips… well, might as well listen a bit.

Huh… wait, that song sounds familiar.

That's when WALL-E and EVE dance together.

Huh, I remember now. WALL-E couldn't fly on his own, so he used a fire extinguisher he had in his box-

Wait.

Clio RAN back to the lab. This is a massive theory! She needed to tell someone RIGHT NOW!

__________________

The chicken nuggets in the fridge is inspired by a story my friend that studied Molecular Biology told me about. She told me how in the lab fridge next to specimens there were always fish sticks.

I don’t know how often i’ll post but i’ll try to make it short.

I wanted to make it a comic so i tried but I lowkey can’t draw.

And i have a friggin speech delay because i’m bilingual so i can't even write LMAO.

So i hope the grammar is okay and that it's a decent read. :)

btw i made up all the science i got a 4.75/10 on a physics test a few months ago so don't expect any Andy Wyer maths.