Pause.
“The Blackstar Collective isn’t waiting for the full storm cycle. They’ve got advanced shielding. Forty-eight hours, maybe less, before they arrive at these coordinates.”
Another pause. Mother must be talking.
“No, I’m not staying to face them. I won’t let them hurt the people here. I’m prepping the Rolling Pin for emergency departure as soon as I can get through the storm interference.”
Pause.
“Don’t argue with me. The terraforming specialist has an eight-year-old daughter. I’m not dragging them into my mess. I’ll run, lead the collectors away, figure something out once I’m clear.”
Another pause. Longer this time.
“I know what I’m doing. Just... if something goes wrong, make sure they know it wasn’t their fault. That they tried to help.”
The comm clicks off.
Silence.
Then a sound that breaks my heart: Dove crying. Quiet, hitched breaths trying to stay silent.
I press my hands over my mouth, tears streaming down my face.
She’s leaving. Really leaving. In forty-eight hours.
Before Papa gets to keep her. Before we get to be a real family.
“Pickles,” I whisper, voice shaking. “She’s leaving. She’s running away to keep us safe and I don’t know how to fix this!”
“Small person,” Pickles says gently. “This is... highly suboptimal.”
“What do we do?”
Silence. Pickles is thinking.
“We require a Phase Three,” he finally says. “One that addresses the root problem rather than the symptoms.”
“What’s the root problem?”
“The debt. The collectors. The threat forcing her to choose between her safety and yours.”
“But how do we fix debts? We’re just a small person and an AI!”
“Correction: we are an exceptionally intelligent small person, and a military-grade AI core with extensive tactical planning capabilities and access to significant networks. The Terraforming Specialist has considerable financial reserves from his previous position. And Mother Morrison has contacts across the galaxy.”
Hope flickers in my chest. “Papa has money?”
“Substantial savings. I calculate he would gladly redirect those funds if it meant securing your happiness and his own.”
“So we tell him?”
“We orchestrate circumstances that encourage solutions. And we contact external allies. However, we must act quickly. Forty-eight hours is insufficient time for subtle manipulation.”
I wipe my tears, my markings pulsing with determination.
“Operation Family Completion Phase Three?”
“Precisely. I have already begun preliminary contact with external resources.”
