Gregory couldn't understand why snyone would risk everyone's lives, for the freedom of a few people. Even he knew that it was wrong to hurt innocent people, even if it meant that a few had to die. That was what sacrafice was about.

Indignation and anger flooded through him. He tried to keep his voice calm to hide his frustration. "You bargain with all our lives? You must not be a good person. You just like abbies in this city." He didn't shout, just voice what he felt about someone who was trying to do what she did.

He paused for a few seconds to collect his anger and process the lastest message from Doug.

"Yes...I mean no. He not abbie like those in city. He is good, like me. We protect regular people from abbies." He didn't want to tell her how many, just yet. She was still too antagonistic to be trusted. "We set meeting with him?"

"Yeah. You're doing a fantastic job protecting people," Ashley snipes. "Keep patting yourselves on the back for being 'good' while you're shaking hands with the ones that are 'bad.' Seems to me you use those words a lot, but don't have any idea what they really mean."

She shakes her head and sighs.

"All right...I'll meet your friend. Not like I have a lot to lose. Set it up. I'll wait somewhere around here. Just you and him, no one else. If I see anyone else, I won't come out."

From the shadows, Gregory furrowed his brow in consternation. Why was she being so difficult? She didn't know about what they did for Newborough. She probably didn't even think a place like it could exist.

He sighed, then spoke from the shadows. "I go get healer for you to meet. He nice man. He will come when he can."

Sending to Doug her requirements for a meeting. * She will meet, but only with healer and me. She will wait here. I bring you to where she is.

Gregory begins to move back towards where Doug, Anna, and Raider were meeting with Squiddy and the Abbies.

Doug sends to everyone,

*Anna isn't bullet proof, no way to we send her to deal with a group of baselines who think all novas are abbies. Raider is busy. That leaves me.*

Approximately eight hours later, night has fallen over the city bathing the ruins in darkness. The new moon displays but the thinnest sliver of silvery white in the sky and overhead the stars shine, twinkling in the cold darkness. The luminescent band of the Milky Way stretches across the sky. Perched on the roof Raider stands next to his brother, Courier, and Anna, buffeted by chill winds they look into the sky, staring at the object that will be their destruction if they do not stop it.

Haley’s comet appears as little more than a bright fuzzy star in the sky. Courier straightens from the telescope, having taken his first look at the ball of rock and ice that may yet wipe out life on earth.

“You see now, this is greater than any of us. It may yet prove to be greater than all of us.” James sounds resigned; he has laid bare his efforts and plans to Raider who in turn has filled in Anna and Doug as best he could. The first rocket was to have sent a man up to activate one of the weapons platforms, to determine what weaponry was available and, if possible, launch them on a long arc trajectory. Raider had found that their second launch facility was located far to the south, in what used to be the state of Texas. According to the computer systems that rocket was still a month from completion and even if it launched on time would only reach the comet with a month to spare.

“So brother, do you have anything to add?”

****

Huddled within the burned out remains of a building near the Tower Gregory sat alone and waited. He was to bring Courier to meet Ashley, in the hope that he could convince her to stop their continued sabotage within the city. Of course at the moment he was bored, stuck waiting for the Doug he could do little but start up into the sky at the bright light that he was told would destroy the earth if it was not stopped.

****

Ashley inched closer to the fire, the wind whipped sparks and smoke into her face but at least it was warm. Her butt was cold from sitting on the ground, and her toes and fingers were hovering just above the point of total numbness. She sat and waited for Gregory, because somehow she believed that he and his friend might be the salvation of her people. She reached out and grabbed the rat on a stick out of the fire, inspecting it for doneness and sighed and began to eat, at least it was warm.

****

Millions of miles away a peanut shaped ball of rock and ice tumbled through the aether. The energy of the sun pounding into it vaporized water, hydrogen, and methane producing jets of dust that trailed out behind it. Long ago this object had been a sight of awe at the beauty of the universe to the people of earth. Before that it was heralded as a harbinger of doom in the primitive cultures before recorded history. It’s trajectory manipulated the comet now mindlessly sought to fulfill its ages old destiny and bring ruin and death to the earth.

Anna watched the star which brought her into this situation. At least she was with people that tried to do something about it. Back in Germany she was sure that no one could had the means to prevent from crashing it on earth. She squinted eyes trying to estimate the size of the comet.

"It does not look dangerous from here... almost beautiful.", she said knowing that even a small quarter of it would cause enough destruction that it could wipe out all life on earth. "I would sacrifice myself if I can stop it crashing on earth."

It was cold, but it didn't bother him. He did wish he could remember where he left his clothing, it would make sitting on the ground more comfortable.

As the night wore one, Gregory found himself staring at the comet. He wondered how something so small could endanger everyone. The others seemed to think it would, and that was a good enough explanation for Gregory. Doug had explained that it got bigger the closer it got. Still, it couln't be THAT big.

Gregory sent to Doug: * She is out there waiting. She has made a fire. I will meet you near metal door you went in. Then I will take you to her.

Doug sends to Raider and Anna,

*Time to make an excuse and then go see what Gregory has found.*

Doug says,

"It's frustrating and too big for me to smash. Well, since I can't deal with that, so I'm going to go deal with something else. Somewhere around here there must be someone looking for a fight. Those idiots from this morning if I'm lucky. Unless someone has objections..."

Unless James says something important Doug floats up and zooms off, *not* towards where Gregory is, just up and in sightseeing mode. After he is out of sight and behind a building he goes looking for Gregory.

Raider nods to James in a thoughtful way. He ignores Doug's exit, but sends, *be careful, I can't afford to lose you.*

Once Doug leaves the room he says, "There are two things I can do immediately that may be of some use. The first depends on whether or no you have a nova capable of surviving space that can fly really fast, or that we can fit into an environmental suit?" Without waiting for the answer he adds, "The second is that I can visit the weapons platforms now without waiting a month for the rocket to be done. If there is any power left and any weapons I can prepare them for launch. No need to waist a month. The first however, will determine where we send the missiles. Anna here may be able to effect the comet, but in order to get her to the comet I need someone that can help us match velocities. It doesn't do much good for me to teleport into it's path only to have it zoom past. We need to get onto it to be of any use."

Gregory sees Doug heading out to look for him and he moves to intercept. He keeps his eyes peeled for others who might be following. When he gets to him he says: "Follow me. I take you to her."

He begins to move to where Ash and her friend have camped.

Thirty minutes later Courier and Gregory arrive at the meeting location. The area is secluded and quiet, Ashley is either not yet arrived or hiding, likely the latter. From her position within the ruin Ashely sees Gregory arrive with a large man, a man clearly built for strength.

*****

On the rooftop James peers through the telescope once more, scanning the heavens and occasionally looking at a notebook. "There! Ok there it is, that is the platform we belive is still functional." He straightens and looks at Raider, "Take a look, if you think you can launch those missiles now, that would certainly help move the plan forward."

He glance at Anna and asks, "I don't suppose you can control the weather can you?"

Raider peers through the telescope at the weapons platform trying to get a good enough view to teleport there. After a couple minutes he is pretty sure he's got a decent look. "It might take a couple jumps, but I should be able to get there tonight and take a look around. I need a little rest first though to make sure I'm fully juiced to make the attempt. Do you have some rooms that my guards and I can use?"

He sends to Doug, *Doug, I need to head up to that platform, but I don't want to leave Anna alone here. I'll drop her off at the campsite before I go. Pick her up there if you don't mind on your way back."

Once they are shown to rooms Raider will teleport Anna to the cave before jumping to the platform, which he will do in ghost-form in case of automated defenses.

Doug shifted his eufiber from it's black 'kill/intimidate' mode into his standard 'moderately wealthy trader' mode en route. Unlike most city aberrants, he didn't have any aberrations. A century ago he could have passed as an unusually fit and muscular baseline. Here and now the muscles, health, confidence, and wealth all branded him a nova. In his favor he doesn't seem predatory or especially arrogant...

(To Raider) *Understood*

Anna just shakes her head at James frowning a little. "I cannot do that, sorry". She almost felt guilty for not being able to and looked self consciously to the floor.

Ash hesitates as she watches the pair from her hiding spot. They didn't look like they'd seen her yet. She could still walk away. It was a monstrous gamble, what she was doing. But if she could salvage ANYTHING from yesterday's fiasco, it was her duty to do it. Even if it meant risking her life. Everyone else she'd organized had done the same, after all.

With a deep breath, she emerges from behind the blasted wall she'd been crouching behind and approaches Gregory and his friend. She keeps her hands visible, if not exactly 'up,' to make sure they didn't think she was attacking.

Doug says,

"Hello there. You can lower your hands, if we aren't quite friends, we're not enemies either. I'm Doug."

Raider will escort Anna to their designated rooms and do a quick inspection just to make sure they aren't somehow dangerous. After that he will teleport up to the space station, but not before sending to Doug, *Hey, I'm having to leave Anna in our rooms at the tower. She's too heavy for me to teleport. Keep in touch with her so she doesn't freak out. I'm going up to take a look at that weapons platform, hopefully I"ll still be in range.*

Ash nods and sticks her hands in her pockets.

"You're the healer he was talking about?"

She nods at Gregory.

Doug responds,

"No, you said him and one other person, and things were confused enough I decided I needed to come. And that's 'healers', plural. One was busy, the other isn't bullet proof, and if someone's going to be walking into a potential ambush I wanted it to be me."

"We're pretty new here but my feeling is you and I probably have a lot in common. I thought we just talk for a while and see what's what."

Gregory tried not to look embarassed. He knew that he had told her he would bring a healer, and he hoped that Raider would come. Oh well, he told himself, at least he got someone to talk to her. Now he didn't have to worry about trying to understand all those big words.

Sheepishly, Gregory gave her a smile. "I tried."

Ash winces and rubs her temple as she tries to reframe what she'd just learned.

"So I sat around here, on the edge of enemy territory for hours, not knowing if wonder boy here was coming back with help, or an aberrant army...while the rest of us don't even know if I'm alive or dead...for nothing. I don't even -have a gun!-"

She shakes her head and manages to calm herself a bit, though it's clear the anxiety and fatigue are getting to her in a major way.

"Alright...it's alright. I got the feeling I wasn't getting through with Greg anyway. So good...fine. Lets talk. What do you want to talk about, Doug?" She pauses, then adds, "I'm Ashley. Corporal...like that matters anymore."

Doug responds,

"I get the feeling you want to kill all the aberrants. I approve, that's what I want too. Unfortunately with the world ending and all that it appears they're our last best hope for survival."

Doug sounds both sincere and annoyed at what he's saying.

"Who's last best hope?" Ash asks. "Yours? Or ours? Because frankly, I'm not sure that -my- kind wouldn't be better off with an asteroid hit right now. We sure haven't got much to lose. Something like that hurts the guy on top a lot worse than the underdog."

"Besides, what are you going to do to stop it?"

Anna watched Raider leave and suddenly she was alone. She wasn't expecting to be left alone, especially around the presumed Aberrants which turned to be their allies all of a sudden. Anna was still trying to put together the reason for all this but it seemed she lacked some vital information. Yet it was obvious that everyone was in danger and in extreme situations even the most unlikely would ally to defend themselves against a greater threat.

Then Anna remembered an old story her grand father told her when she was a young girl - The story about the scorpion and the turtle. The turtle needed to cross a lake but the waters were to dirty for her to see where she was heading. The scorpion which wanted to cross the lake, too couldn't swim. He offered the turtle to be her eyes if she swam him across. The turtle hesitated at first but then thought if he stung her both would drown to death and the scorpion wouldn't be that stupid.

As it turned out halfway across the lake the scorpion stung the turtle and as they both were drowning the turtle asked why he did stung her and he simply said, it was his nature...

She hoped Raiders brother wasn't the scorpion.

Doug blinked, Gregory had said something to this effect, but still. He said,

"OK, several different things here. First of all, that rock is 10 miles long and 5 wide. If it hits anyone who needs food or maybe even air is going to have a really bad time. That's going to be all baselines but only most aberrants. Me, I need to eat but with my powers and contacts I *might* make it."

"Secondly, you need to understand this city is an aberration. No, make that an abomination. The rest of the world Doesn't Function Like This. I make my living transferring information and flying really heavy loads of stuff from one community to another all up and down the East Coast. Mostly aberrants aren't organized, much less in charge. Mostly baseline communities do better if they have novas with them."

Doug waits to see how she reacts to this.

"All right," Ashley says after a moment. "Lets say you're right. Lets even say that you're being completely honest, for the sake of argument."

"Now you can explain to me how I'm going to go to my men and tell them, hey...war's off. Called due to excessive meteor impact. We're gonna help them instead."

She points at a phantom comrade and speaks with obviously sarcastic bright cheerfulness belied by the red rims of her eyes.

"Hey, Ryan, stop cleaning that gun. Remember that guy with a shell who killed your dad and brother when they stormed the walls, then had your mom on a leash and kept her in a pen? You're gonna be buddies!"

"Yo there, Esmie, put the knife down. Remember how that one aberrant liked to tie you down and stick you with knives, then drink little sips of your blood so he could taste your pain? You two will be working together!"

She wipes the back of her sleeve across her eyes and glares angrily at Courier.

"And yeah, these things happened, and worse, and you know it. So, you know, maybe my views seem a little...extreme to you. Maybe I don't seem completely rational, who knows? But maybe if you try to see things from our point of view, you'll see why...when you give us a choice between death from asteroid strike, and laying down arms and working with these...abominations as you put it...we'd have to stop and think -real carefully-."

She pauses to take a deep, shuddering breath.

"And you know, I've only got your word that there even IS a meteor coming. Or that the rest of the world isn't as...isn't like this. So what am I supposed to tell them? We surrender? Go marching back to the pens?"

Ashley finally runs out of steam, looking twice as exhausted as before. "What do you WANT from us?"

"They ate my parents!" Gregory blurted out. "Right in front of me. Abbies ate them. I was only 5." He looked to be on the edge of tears. "They took away my parents and left me alone for many season cycles. I hate them. I want them dead. I don't want to worry about Abbies eating kids and parents and hurting innocent people."

Gregory's shoulder stooped slightly in resignation, followed by a sigh. "But I want to live. So I putting my hate for them away. When we safe, I go back to hating them."

Just telling the others about the memory was difficult. He still had the occasional nightmare about it.

Ash is quiet for a moment then says, "I'm sorry to hear that, Greg. You know, it's happening again though. Not when you were five. Right here. Right now."

She takes in Courier with her gaze at that.

"You can't have it both ways. You can't take the low road and claim the moral high ground. As long as you're helping these aberrants, the blood they're bleeding is getting on you too, and there's no getting around that."

"As for this comet...you both keep saying, or suggesting, that working for the aberrants is the only way. But how do you know that, huh? Did you ever check? Have you ever seriously thought about it?"

Her eyes narrow.

"But why bother when there's such an easy way out, right? He's done most of the work for you, as long as you don't look too hard at how the work got done. And you say it's just for now...but there's -always- another crisis. And it'll ALWAYS be easier to do things this way just one more time. As long as you don't look down to see who you're stepping on."

"As a steppee, you'll forgive me if I don't have a lot of sympathy for your moral dilemma."

Doug waved a hand in the air to indicate a so-so effort and answered,

"Yeah, actually, I did check. I had one of my crew go up there and take a look at it. Those estimates of how big and what's going to happen all come from him, NOT your local nut cases. It's twice as big and eight times as massive as the one that killed the dinosaurs."

"I have a girl friend. If either of us were religious we'd be married by now. She controls the weather. Like me she's interested in keeping the planet alive, and also like me she's rather mercenary in her outlook. She'd have helped stop the rocket for nothing, or she could have just been paid."

"So obviously the way to ensure her cooperation was too..." Doug visibly steels himself, talking about this is hard, "... rape and torture her into cooperating. Physically and mentally. What passes for a leader around here tried, hell, more than just 'tried', to restructure her mind. I could hear her screaming in my head sometimes."

"So I got a crew to get her back, and when we tracked them I tried to kill everyone who was on site for just being involved. I tipped over the rocket and she whipped up a hurricane when we freed her. You probably felt it even from here."

Doug visibly relaxes and continues, "And I also tried to hunt down the key people involved. Caught one of them too, maybe the same guy who stabs people to taste their pain, that sounds like him. Shapeshifter, likes looking like other people and leaving his targets tortured to death where you can find them after the fact." Doug tenses and looks at his hands, this is hard again, "I quite literally ripped him in half."

"So yeah, I know exactly what these creatures are, and what they do, and for all that I don't see I have a choice. If I don't want the blood of the world on my hands I have to help them. Not that it's going to stop me from killing them afterwards."

"You got a different plan, please put it on the table, because I don't like the one that's there."

Ashley is quiet, head slightly tilted as she listens to Doug. She slowly shakes her head.

"I've been winging it, frankly. This attack we tried...this was our big push. We probably blew most of our ammo on it, and God only knows how many we lost, or are going to die before sunrise from injuries."

"My big idea was to try to scare the aberrants into giving something up by making threats. I didn't even KNOW about a giant meteor coming until he told me." She nods at Gregory.

"Still...if their leadership really thinks you're helping them, maybe there's some way we can get my people out and stop your asteroid at the same time," Ash suggests uncertainly, rubbing her forehead.

Glad to change subjects, Doug opens his mouth... then realizes what he needs to say and looks a little uncomfortable again. He says,

"Yeah, about that big push, I've got some bad news for you. I was in the building you were attacking and dealing with their leader right then. He thought so little of it not only didn't he consider it worth his time to do anything, he didn't even consider it worth my time. They aren't taking you seriously. I doubt you've seen anything close to their 'A' game."

"OK, look. I really think we can help each other here. For starters I'd like to bring one of my people here and have her Heal who she can. That should keep your fatalities to a minimum. Problem is she has a handful of aberrations. She's not crazy but I don't know how your people will react. I'd have to play bodyguard."

Ashley's mouth tightens as Doug pushes her between a rock and a hard place. Let the people she was responsible for die...or have an aberrant heal them. The news about the aberrant response to their attack wasn't helping either, though it wasn't much of a surprise. The goal had been to take out the slave overseers and make off with as many people as possible...not overthrow the leadership.

"You're sure she's safe?" she asks after a moment. "For humans, I mean. You're absolutely sure. Because if so, we can probably limit her exposure...keep her away from the others in a room or something. Wheel in the people that need it one at a time. Maybe turn the lights off or blindfold them..."

She shrugs.

"I'll make it work. So that's you helping us. What do you want from us?"