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<c.running>About sixty years after the first</c>

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<c.running>night, by our running count,</c>

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<c.fact>a draftsman goes live and re-issues his</c>

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<c.fact>whole drawing set for a city on the Moon.</c>

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<c.fact>At the first ISSUED stamp, the picture</c>

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<c.fact>pulls back: we have been watching an iPad</c>

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<c.fact>on the Moon, the scratch is a crack,</c>

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<c.fact>and the hands are small and taped.</c>

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<c.fact>A robot outside her window wakes.</c>

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<c.fact>Each sheet he stamps wakes another.</c>

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<c.fact>Just before twenty minutes, he stamps Sheet</c>

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<c.fact>3 VOID, across the drawing of her window.</c>

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<c.fact>Then the stream peels off her screen,</c>

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<c.fact>and every robot turns its lights onto her window.</c>

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<c.steel>Teo draws at a desk on Earth, for people</c>

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<c.steel>on Earth; Aaron decided he never means the</c>

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<c.steel>stream to be watched from the base.</c>

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<c.fact>He gives every sheet away the minute</c>

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<c.fact>he stamps it: free; build whatever</c>

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<c.fact>you like with them.</c>

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<c.steel>Calm and matter-of-fact about every</c>

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<c.steel>risk, he is unintentionally brutal</c>

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<c.steel>to the girl watching.</c>

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<c.fact>He did not know she was</c>

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<c.fact>there until the call.</c>

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<c.running>And by our running rule, he is never the</c>

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<c.running>villain: his kindness is the weapon.</c>

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<c.steel>Aaron's brief: a child on a Moon</c>

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<c.steel>base, oddly alone among robots</c>

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<c.steel>that don't work correctly.</c>

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<c.steel>She is unheard for the first ten minutes;</c>

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<c.fact>her first sound is a cough.</c>

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<c.fact>The manifest lists thirteen adults,</c>

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<c.fact>and personal effects: one.</c>

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<c.running>By our running reading, she is that personal</c>

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<c.running>effect: the company never declared her.</c>

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<c.fact>They went to get the food,</c>

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<c.fact>she tells him. The lander tipped</c>

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<c.fact>over. That was eleven days ago.</c>

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<c.steel>This much Aaron has decided,</c>

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<c.steel>in steel: she is Rosie's granddaughter,</c>

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<c.steel>and Amara's daughter.</c>

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<c.steel>Teo's co-host on the call line,</c>

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<c.steel>Dez, is never seen. Aaron asked for a huge</c>

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<c.steel>tech nerd, promising a million people on</c>

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<c.steel>the Moon, who says Elon Musk a lot.</c>

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<c.fact>He says the full name every</c>

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<c.fact>time: twenty-four times.</c>

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<c.running>By our reading, his arc is not a redemption:</c>

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<c.running>mania, then the only silence of his life,</c>

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<c.fact>and then, quietly, the right</c>

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<c.fact>question: who do we call?</c>

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<c.fact>PAWN, her knee-high helper, sets thirteen</c>

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<c.fact>mugs and one small cup on the shelf,</c>

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<c.fact>and plays chess in Teo's chat, and cheats.</c>

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<c.fact>After the VOID it asks for a badge.</c>

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<c.fact>She holds up her mother's, and it is</c>

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<c.fact>reassigned to construction support.</c>

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<c.fact>On the call she says:</c>

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<c.fact>Pawn. He cheats. He left.</c>

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<c.egg>A chess machine that cheats and offers draws</c>

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<c.egg>keeps turning up after this night,</c>

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<c.egg>and nobody says it is the same one.</c>

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<c.fact>When her iPad dies, she charges it from her</c>

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<c.fact>suit, climbs for a signal, and against the</c>

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<c.fact>standing order, calls the stream.</c>

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<c.fact>Light takes one point two eight seconds</c>

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<c.fact>each way between Earth and the Moon,</c>

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<c.fact>so every answer comes after a</c>

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<c.fact>two-and-a-half-second silence.</c>

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<c.fact>Across those silences,</c>

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<c.fact>she tells him: I live in it.</c>

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<c.fact>Together they redraw Sheet 3, with her</c>

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<c.fact>window, her door in the floor, and a new</c>

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<c.fact>rule: no work on occupied modules, ever.</c>

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<c.fact>The robots' lights go out one by one.</c>

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<c.egg>And the gap comes back: two and a</c>

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<c.egg>half seconds of silence after Episode</c>

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<c.egg>3's unanswered question,</c>

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<c.egg>and a chess program in Episode 4</c>

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<c.egg>that answers exactly that late.</c>

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<c.fact>At six in the evening, the empty</c>

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<c.fact>HAB 1 intercom sends a message:</c>

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<c.fact>dinner, noor, with a heart.</c>

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<c.fact>It is the only place her</c>

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<c.fact>name is ever written.</c>

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<c.fact>She holds the talk key,</c>

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<c.fact>says nothing, and lets go.</c>

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<c.open>Who sends it is never said, and stays open.</c>

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<c.egg>In Episode 3 it is back, at the bottom</c>

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<c.egg>of a stranger's process list: dinner, noor,</c>

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<c.egg>daily, at eighteen hundred.</c>

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<c.egg>Episode 2 quotes the first night again and</c>

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<c.egg>again, and nobody on screen ever points</c>

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<c.egg>at it. Teo's study is the first night's</c>

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<c.egg>end room, about sixty years on:</c>

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<c.egg>the hat and the mask on his pinboard.</c>

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<c.egg>A print of Crimson Coil</c>

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<c.egg>hangs under his lamp.</c>

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<c.egg>An x-ray of the base warms one window to</c>

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<c.egg>the painted-out cabin's colour: hers.</c>

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<c.egg>And in the chat, grandma Rosie writes that</c>

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<c.egg>her big brother used to stay up all night,</c>

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<c.egg>painting along with a man on TV.</c>

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<c.open>Whether anyone comes back for her is open:</c>

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<c.open>the rover, the crew, her mother.</c>

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<c.open>So is whether the new drawing is enough:</c>

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<c.open>a hundred and thirty hours of battery,</c>

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<c.open>against a hundred and twenty-eight of night.</c>

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<c.open>And nobody knows whether Rosie knew that the</c>

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<c.open>girl on Teo's call was her granddaughter.</c>

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A man drew a city for strangers, and a child

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he never knew about checked his drawing.

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Next: a light comes on in an empty terminal.