It took us far longer to get through the Museum than I thought possible. Not only were two of the exhibits based upon Issi’s favorite things, or at least what she was obsessed with lately, but almost every exhibit was designed to be interactive and engaging for someone her age.

  Over the next few hours we climbed up several climbing walls, went to a pool to learn the frog stroke, paddled a boat, and even buried multiple treasures. By the time we left the building, it was late in the day, and the sun was low in the sky.

  The outing was worth it, though. It was the first time I’d ever seen Isabelle use up her seemingly boundless energy. Her enthusiasm had us bouncing from exhibit to exhibit for hours, trying absolutely everything the museum had to offer. She refused to leave right until the very end, which meant we could only leave after she fell asleep in Bob’s arms.

  It even managed to keep me from thinking about that titanic death moon hurtling towards the earth, at least for a short while.

  “Nyx, I haven’t seen any messages come in. Did Spark send me a meeting invite yet?” I asked. “Considering the recent developments, I think it’s a good idea to try and wrap up our business here in Indianapolis as soon as possible.”

  Her AI and I arranged for you two to meet tomorrow at eleven AM. Even though Spark is obsessed with her projects right now, she’ll crash out sometime tonight and be fully refreshed for the meeting tomorrow.

  “You know, it’s scary that you AIs know us well enough to be able to predict when your host would not only pass out but also recover,” I muttered.

  We need to be attentive; otherwise, you might end up doing something like passing out in the middle of battle or, even worse, a busy street. You know how embarrassing it would be if the other AIs found out our host died in a traffic accident instead of combat?

  “Your concern for my well-being is touching,” I grumbled.

  When we arrived at the truck, I pulled open the back door so Bob could gently slide Issi into her seat. She didn’t stir even when I jumped in after the duo and fastened her seatbelt. She must have been truly exhausted.

  With Issi secure, I slipped into the front seat, started the truck, and slowly started driving back towards the carrier.

  “Bob, what would you do if the Antithesis hijacked the moon and threw it at the planet?” I asked, trying to fill the quiet.

  The bear tilted his head to the side, brought a hand to his chin, and sat there in silence for several seconds. “I’d probably punch it,” he finally said.

  “Thank you, Bob…” I sighed. “I don’t know why I even asked.”

  “I’d have to punch it a lot,” the bear continued, ”like twenty or thirty times, but I think I’d get it eventually.”

  “Yeah… let’s call that plan B,” I muttered.

  “They haven’t really taken over the moon, have they? Because if so, I volunteer to go up and wallop them,” Bob declared loudly. “I’ll get rid of them before they can throw the moon!”

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  “Shhhhh… Keep it down, Issi’s sleeping. It was only a theoretical question. They’re not on the moon,” I hissed at the bear, before muttering, “At least not on our moon,” under my breath.

  “Well… I’ll always be ready if they do!” Bob said, much more quietly.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied.

  The two of us didn’t speak for the rest of the trip. I was too absorbed in my thoughts about the oncoming crisis and Bob… Well, he was probably busy imagining himself punching Antithesis.

  As we pulled into the hanger, the first thing I noticed was that Jane’s new SUV was back in the hangar. I shouldn’t have been surprised, since we’d been gone for most of the day, but I was.

  After setting the truck down, I slid into the back and undid Issi’s seat belt. The little girl moved slightly and murmured ‘Froggies’ in her sleep but thankfully didn’t wake. I chuckled quietly, lifted her up, and passed her to Bob, who had already stepped out of the truck.

  “Please take her to the residence,” I whispered. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Okie dokie,” the big bear replied before wandering off, cradling the girl.

  I waited until he wandered off before jumping down from the truck. “Nyx, any word from Charlotte yet?”

  She said she’d call you directly once the Family made a decision, and I haven’t been screening your calls. I can only assume they’re still discussing the issue.

  “Well… they should discuss faster,” I grumbled. “It’s not like we have a doomsday scenario in the shape of a moon hurtling towards…”

  My augs rang, indicating an incoming call, and before chiming twice, I’d already picked up. [Hello?]

  [Evelyn,] Charlotte acknowledged wearily. [So it turns out you can answer your calls promptly.]

  [Well, this morning I was on vacation and didn’t know the fate of the world was at stake,] I replied. [Did the Family figure out what to do about the moon?]

  [Yes and no. Almost everyone who attended was a proxy for someone who went to Mars, and everyone had different ideas on how to handle the issue. The most popular suggestion was to build a giant railgun and shoot the thing,] Charlotte replied.

  [That’s the best they could come up with?] I asked. [That sounds like something I’d come up with!]

  [It’s a railgun several hundred meters long and able to fire rounds the size of a delivery van,] Charlotte replied. [Something capable of actually damaging a celestial body of that size.]

  I blinked. [That’s a big gun.]

  [A very big gun,] Charlotte muttered. [There were several other suggestions, but that seemed to be the most reasonable one.]

  [So… what do you need me to do?]

  [We have a couple choices. You can head up to Montreal and try to assist with the project. You might be able to find something to do up there, but it sounded like they already had all the catalogs and points they needed to set up the weapon.] Charlotte reported. [We could try and assemble our own solution… I’m unsure if with your travel time and the combined points of the Class IIIs around the city we could actually put anything effective together in time. Or, my personal preference, you head back towards the city so we can start fortifying.]

  [What the fuck will that do?] I grumbled. [If that moon hits anywhere near us, there won’t even be a city to protect.]

  [We wouldn’t be fortifying in case the moon struck near us. We’d be fortifying for the fallout. No matter what we do, we won’t be able to completely stop Phobos from hitting the earth; it has too much mass. All we can do is break it up to minimize the damage. There’ll still be pieces of Phobos raining down over the entire planet. We need to create a response plan to deal with it,] Charlotte said.

  [You have to be joking,] I groaned. [It’s literally going to be raining Antithesis across the entire planet.]

  [And I, for one, would like to be prepared. Out of everyone I know, you have the best setup to react to, contain, and eliminate these pockets of Antithesis as they pop up, so I’d like to have you here when the shit hits the fan,] Charlotte said.

  [And that’s better than helping destroy Phobos?] I asked.

  [There’s no point in destroying Phobos, only to lose the planet to all the Antithesis that survive planetfall. We’ll let someone else deal with the big problem, and we’ll handle the cleanup,] Charlotte said.

  [I guess that makes some sort of sense…] I muttered. [Do we have an estimate on when they’ll make planetfall yet?]

  [More than a week. I can’t give you any more than that. Do you think you can get back in that time?] Charlotte asked.

  [Easily. I should be able to make it in about three days at max speed,] I replied.

  [Good. I’ll get everyone else up to speed and start working on some contingency plans. Hopefully the big guns will chop that big rock into small enough pieces that we won’t have anything to do, but if not… we’ll be ready,] Charlotte declared. [I’ll see you in a couple days. Have a good trip.]

  [See you,] I replied, before cutting the connection.

  “So even if we manage to stop the moon, we’ll have another global incursion? Wonderful,” I muttered tiredly as I leaned against my truck. “I guess I’m going to have to tell everyone the vacation’s over.”

  This arc features Spark from 'A Spark of Sylvan Flame' - Go give them some love!

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