“You never went to these presentations, did you?” Haseul asked. Sometimes academies sent promising students to attend them so they could learn even more about what it was like. Haseul hoped she would’ve remembered seeing someone like Choerry. 

“I did,” Choerry nodded, “but I snuck in.” 

“You,” Haseul looked at her, “snuck in?”

She smiled, before going back to connecting the wires. They’d been working on the new machine for three days now. She hadn’t seen Vivi once during any of them. She couldn’t exactly say she missed her, because she was too busy and fell asleep as soon as she got to her bed (another extremely comfortable one). Still, there was a bit of an absence. Even with all the colourful company this lab had. 

“Wait,” Haseul laughed slightly, “you can’t just say that. Now I’m curious.”

“It’s a give and take,” she shrugged, “a little trade. All I know about you is that you studied on Earth, worked on Saturn, then left and found Eden.” Her smile tilted up a bit more. “But not really any details.” 

“I’m not sure how much I can tell you about Eden,” Haseul replied. 

Choerry gave her a look. “You could give a little bit. Like how it all started. That was a few years ago.”

She was more grateful that Choerry wasn’t mentioning what’d happened shortly before Haseul finding Eden. 

“I hijacked a ship on Saturn,” Haseul said. “Left for the Keplan system.” She could smile back on it now, but at the time— “It was terrifying. Earth wanted to get me back to rebuild what I’d ruined. Kepler and Aphrodite would’ve wanted to get me to have a leg up on Earth.” She laughed. “And everyone in between, if they had the means, had a nice ransom to aim for.” 

Choerry nodded. She didn’t ask anything. 

“So I wiped the software of the ship and sold it. Then I used that for a smaller craft. Station Eleven model?”

“Good for staying out of range,” Choerry said, as if it was normal for her to know that. “Not much room to sleep.” 

Haseul made a note to ask her how she knew that. “At the time I didn’t.” 

Her brow shot up. “You’re saying you used drugs?!” 

Haseul snorted. “Maybe.” 

“Jungie made a few things to keep us up,” she replied. “No damage to the liver, or this.” She tapped her head. “At least I don’t think so.” 

Jungeun’s biggest claim to fame was finding ways to work against the worst damage of drugs to the human body. She’d both altered certain pharmaceuticals and made supplementary medication. 

Apparently, that extended to making her own. 

“Is this where you tell me she’s a dealer too?” Haseul asked. “Is that where all this came from?” She waved at the lab. 

She just rolled her eyes. “It’s coming from the Wong’s finances. The extras all came from our side jobs.” 

“All of you?"

“Jungeun doesn’t need one,” Choerry waved a hand, “she’s got an Aphroditan salary.”

“And what about you?” 

She looked at her for a long moment. 

“Not allowed to tell me?”

“I am.” Choerry pursed her lips. “But I’d really need you to promise not to tell anyone.” She was smiling, so either it’d be a joke, or something really serious. 

“Promise.” 

“I smuggled out from Aphrodite.” 

Haseul felt her jaw drop. 

“Not that big,” Choerry waved a hand, “I was just the one who got the stuff out and in. Everything else was by the rest of the team.”

Haseul didn’t say what she wanted to, because Choerry didn’t seem like she wanted to talk much about before. Still, Aphrodite was notorious for being extra hard on smugglers when they caught them. They usually left them alone within the system, but on planet or any of the stations around it, their security was tight and it could be brutal. 

“Eden would’ve loved to have you,” she said instead. 

“They might’ve hired us at some point,” Choerry shrugged, “but I never really asked about all that.” 

Haseul nodded. “Sometimes it’s better just not to ask.” 

She laughed slightly, making a few adjustments, but it didn’t feel like she was done talking. 

Haseul thought of how life had changed once she’d come to Eden. She had a decent amount of free time. She’d used that to get better at hacking. Had Choerry used it to learn more about the brain?

“Can I ask you something?” Choerry looked up then. “It won’t be about what happened, promise. I know you don’t want to talk about that.”

“Go ahead.” She was still trying to figure out how she was supposed to repay these people. She couldn’t do a one-to-one debt type of thing, because how could she ever match seeing years of confidential research? 

“Was it worth it?” Choerry asked, her voice a little less bright. “Leaving it all behind?” 

“Yeah.” Haseul nodded. “It was worth it.” She didn’t have to think about that long. 

“Good,” she said quietly. She kept working then. 

Haseul wondered how much else Choerry knew. Maybe she’d even figured out what it might’ve been. Or the girl was wondering how someone would willingly give all of this up, when it might’ve just been what Choerry had been dreaming of since the beginning. 

“But I wish I hadn’t given up a job like that completely,” Haseul admitted. “Building something, looking for answers, having a team like that.” She chuckled. “You have lab meetings too, right? Briefings of your projects?”

Choerry smiled. “Yep. They’re some of my favourite parts.” Her eyes sparkled. 

She was glad that the girl could have that. She envied her too, but there was also a part of her that felt grateful to the people who’d made it possible that someone like Choerry could be on a team like this one. 

“I could get Soul to make a mini one for us,” Choerry said. 

“I’m not watching those two be all,” Haseul grimaced, “like that.” Just this morning, she’d spotted Jungeun put down a coffee on Jinsoul’s workbench, only for Jinsoul to swoop by hers ten minutes later. They’d thought no one was looking (Haseul had wished she wasn’t) and Jinsoul had attempted to get Jungeun to stop pipetting. 

“I’ve got sixty-four of these to fill, Jinsoul.” Jungeun stressed her full name. “And I still have to add the enzyme.” 

“The enzyme’s still on ice. You’re on row seven, well six,” Jinsoul replied. “You won’t lose your spot.” 

Haseul had tuned the rest out. She’d also left the room to finish going through some calculations.

Choerry laughed. “Jungie wouldn’t be obvious.” 

“But Jinsoul would,” Haseul retorted. “And I have enough to do with couples already.” 

She gave her a look. “Are you sure it’s not because you’re single?”

Haseul gaped at her. “I can guarantee there’s no evidence that I’m single.”

“No,” Choerry smirked, “but I can tell.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I was going to ask you how you put up with them, but I’m not sure anymore.”

Choerry rolled her eyes. “They keep me because I’m brilliant.” She was grinning from ear to ear. Back to being the madwoman from when they’d first met. It was hard to believe that was already a few days ago. 

Haseul had no comeback to that. She couldn’t even joke that it wasn’t true. 

Choerry pulled up the diagram Haseul had made. “Yerim,” she said then. 

Haseul stopped adjusting the headset. “Yerim?”

“That’s my real name.” She turned it around, as if she hadn't just formally given away her identity. . “You really think we’ll need direct access to her head?”

“It’s the safest option,” Haseul grimaced. “Once we get everything that’s Vivi stored somewhere, we have to be prepared to shut her down if the virus starts to corrupt the rest.” 

Yerim’s face fell. “Then we should be making another brain.” 

“Maybe,” Haseul shrugged, “but I think it’ll work.”

“We still can’t risk her not being able to show herself for a few weeks.” Yerim got up, pacing around. “Because that’s how long it takes to adjust to that. At least.” 

Haseul hadn’t thought of that. Why hadn’t she thought of that? 

Then Yerim was beside her. “It’s not a big deal. It’s expensive, but it’s not coming out of our pockets.” She smiled at her, but this one was a lot softer. “And I probably won’t be working on this great machine, because we need the next potential one to be perfect.” Her eyes lit up. “Also,” she gripped her shoulder, “if we don’t need that brain, we could use it for your friend!” 

We? Haseul almost asked when helping Hyejoo had become a group thing. That wasn’t what she was here for. Technically it was what’d gotten her here, but it wasn’t really the reason she was staying. 

“It’s a win-win,” Yerim said, patting her back. “Oh yeah.” She rushed to a notepad and scribbled something down. It took up at least five bullet-points. “These’re the adjustments I wanted to make to Hypnos Eight.” She ripped it out and handed it to Haseul. 

She read it. “Clunky electrodes?” 

“The design needs an improvement.” Yerim tilted her head slightly. “Yours is outdated.” 

“It’s from last year.” 

“Exactly,” Yerim grinned, “outdated.” She was already going to another workbench. “Just like Vivi’s brain is. What I’ll be making now will be brain 2.0. I’m expecting you to do a little mentoring to make it work even better, by the way.”

Haseul couldn’t speak. Too much was happening at once. Yerim was talking too quickly. She felt like her peers had during lab discussions. Unless Haseul had been talking about augmenting the brain, most hadn’t really paid much attention. They’d gotten lost when she’d told them about the nuances of mapping the human brain. 

She felt like that now. 

At least she knew Choerry’s real name. 

______

Dinner with the rest was surprisingly entertaining, despite everyone being on varying levels of energy. 

Even tired, Yeojin and Yerim managed to lead most of the chatter, with Jinsoul and Jungeun as close seconds. Haseul found herself being more talkative than Hyunjin, but less than Heejin. It was weird, but worked somehow. 

From what she knew of the queen, she would’ve belonged to the quieter ones. If she spoke, you’d listen immediately. 

“So you’re telling me you already cracked the code?” Yeojin pointed a fork her way. 

“Where’re your manners?” Haseul frowned at it. She hit it once with her own fork. “But yes, I think I’ve got what we need to get rid of it, but I can’t get rid of it all at once.” 

“Cell by cell.” Yerim nodded. 

“And you’ve got what you need?” Heejin asked, leaning forward. 

“We had to improvise with how we’d get it to the cells directly, we went through a box of capillary tubes, but it’s all gonna work.”

Hyunjin raised a brow. “Why’d you need a capillary tube?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Haseul smiled, “it’ll work.” 

Her eyes lit up. Haseul was almost taken aback by it. “Really?” 

“Yeah,” she said. “We went through at least a hundred cells, got a virus in, and I focused the algorithm a little more. It’ll work on the one they put with her, because I studied it when we were on the ship.” She hadn’t been able to recreate the virus. She’d tried, but it hadn’t worked. It wasn’t what she could do the best. 

“I’d propose a toast, but you don’t drink while you work, huh?” Jungeun smirked slightly. 

“Don’t mock me,” Haseul scowled at her, “and just because it doesn’t damage my liver doesn’t mean I’ll be drunk while building.” 

“You’ll just start doing that after?” Her brow rose. 

“Yep,” Haseul grinned, “and then I’ll thank you for a potential, free, detox.”

Yerim snorted. “It costs a hundred signals.”

“I fixed the whole memory problem you had,” Haseul shot back, “that’s at least a thousand.”

“But didn’t Yerimmie also make your machine better?” Jinsoul asked. 

Haseul sank into her chair. “You’ll get fifty, but that’s it.”

Jungeun just gave her an infuriating smile, but Haseul had learned there wasn’t a lot of bite behind it. The Aphroditan training had sharpened most of the woman’s edges, but it didn’t look like it’d hardened her completely. 

“Anyway,” Yeojin stood, “you done with that?” She nodded at Haseul’s empty plate. “Because they’ve got a PS5 and you still owe me a rematch.” 

“You,” Jungeun looked between them, “played games on the ship?” She looked like she was about to burst into a lecture on slacking off. 

“It’s called taking a break,” Hyunjin said as she walked past, flicking the back of her head. “And she’s ahead of schedule.” 

Jungeun was still frowning. 

Haseul caught Jinsoul slipping a hand into hers, before she sent a poke into Jungeun’s side, earning a quiet yelp. 

She wondered if Vivi was still in meetings, or preparing to stop some other potential crisis. Heejin had shown her the schedule for one of the last few days, telling her which people were infuriating and which were bearable. There were a lot of the former, and some others who were just boring. 

Heejin had to be at some others that Vivi couldn’t attend, while Hyunjin was monitoring everything else, checking if there was a Saturn ship nearby, or anything else out of place. Yeojin was usually at Vivi’s side, along with a few other guards. Jinsoul and Jungeun were working on whatever preparations they’d need for Hyejoo, while Yerim was building an actual brain. Ironically, Haseul had one of the easier jobs here. 

She just wasn’t sure if it’d be enough yet. 

______

Jinsoul smiled at her when she saw her. It was an open sort of one, practically a grin that you’d give when you were running on caffeine. 

Which was exactly what Haseul saw on Jinsoul’s desk, which was messier than any of the workbenches outside her office. 

She wondered what made Jungeun stay. 

“Settling in alright?”

“Settling in?” Haseul repeated. “Chances are, I’ll never be back in this lab again.” And she was savouring every minute she was here. She’d been here five days and it took everything in her not to just start begging Jinsoul or Jungeun to let her stay a little longer. 

She shrugged. “Or you might be,” she leaned forward, dropping her voice to a whisper, “we don’t usually move much.” 

“Your base is mobile?” Haseul frowned. 

“It’s Artemis,” Jinsoul said simply. “Of course it’s mobile.”

“I–” Then it hit her. “Is this lab a ship?”

Jinsoul grinned. “Exactly!”

“Should you be telling me that?” Haseul probably wasn’t supposed to ask that, but there’d been so much trust placed in her. By Yerim, even Jungeun, who she’d have expected would have a gun within reach just in case. 

“We’re past that, don’t you think?” Jinsoul lifted a brow. “You’ve seen our life’s work, so I think I can tell you we’re in a mobile lab.“ Then she glanced at the door. “Unless that one’s said something else?” 

Haseul looked only to see Jungeun at one of the boards, in front of a truly appalling diagram with notes around it. It might’ve been lungs, but she wasn’t sure. 

When she looked back to Jinsoul, she saw a disgustingly sweet expression on her face. Then she blinked and it faded. 

“Anyway,” Jinsoul shrugged, “the mobile lab might actually help if you want us with you. Or we could pick up your friend.” 

“Olivia,” Haseul said. 

“Is it Olivia? Or the way Yerim’s Choerry?” 

Haseul laughed. “What do you think?” 

Jinsoul smiled. “The smarter option.” She stood. “Want to see the fish?” 

She was bewildered for a moment. Then it hit her. “You’ll actually show me the shark you wanted to hunt me down with?” 

“It wasn’t you specifically,” Jinsoul started, walking out of the room. 

“Are you sure?” Haseul asked. “The queen didn’t tell you who was getting the information?” 

She looked like she was fighting a smile. “We gave her a list of who we’d trust with this,” she explained as she walked. They were in a different hall. Was this where the sleeping areas were? "You might've been on the top of it."

“Really?” 

“Don’t let it get to your head,” Jinsoul shot her a look. 

“Too late.” 

Jinsoul shook her head as she opened the door. It looked different to the rest, a lot thicker, with parts of it that almost looked like an airlock. In case of flooding? “Careful now, some of them have learned how to jump out of the tank.” 

“What?” Haseul took a step back. If there were actual piranhas and sharks, she didn’t want to be in there. She hadn’t seen actual animals in a long time, let alone sharks.

“I’m kidding.” Jinsoul still had a straight face. “Once I attach the booster rockets, that’s a different story.” She went into the room, illuminated by a pale blue glow. 

“Oh my god,” Haseul followed, “did you have to become a mad scientist?” 

“This‘s how I avoided it!” Jinsoul was grinning now. “Welcome.” She waved at the room. There were two tanks. One was absolutely massive, taking up all of the wall, stretching into the room in a way Haseul couldn’t gauge. The other was tiny in comparison. 

“Where did you get the water?” 

“The Aphroditans intercepted a massive comet. The northerners got it, but Jungeun was able to buy a part of it by convincing them her next project needed live fish to work.” A dopey smile now. 

Haseul couldn’t keep looking at that. She made a mental note to ask Yerim how she even survived around these two. “The Aphroditans need results. What'd you give them?” 

“She made a better fish oil supplement,” Jinsoul said. “Improved its bioavailability and the concentration in the pills. We have cells that could still synthesise more if they wanted it.”

Haseul frowned. “Wait, the fish oil pill comeback was you?”

“Jungeun,” she corrected. “But yeah, we got them a profit, and I got the water.” She ran a hand along the edge of the smaller tank. Inside that was a dark blue fish. Its eyes glowed a bright purple. Definitely not natural. 

“And why didn’t Jungeun get the credit?” They could’ve easily made her the face of it. The galaxy was shallow and that usually worked in people’s favour. It was why Aphroditan ships were loved so much more than Keplan ones. 

“Too much attention,” Jinsoul replied, going over to the large tank. 

Terrifyingly, one of the sharks swam over with the other fish. None of them were attacking each other. Was that how they’d been programmed? Or raised? 

“Too much?” Haseul repeated. “For her?” 

Jinsoul frowned at her. “Not all press is good press.” 

She didn’t respond to that. She looked a bit longer at the larger tank. There were three sharks, a small swarm of piranhas, and more fish. 

“Wait, aren’t piranhas freshwater?” 

Jinsoul grinned. “Glad you remembered!” She gazed at the tank. “Made a few changes so they’d fit.” 

“You changed the habitat they’d fit in.” 

Her smile stayed, as if she hadn’t just completely messed with nature. Then she turned to her. “This’s my official lab,” she said. “The rest is what we can move.” 

Haseul looked at the rest of the room. The massive tank had taken up most of it, but she saw more workbenches. Still messy, but with more computers and less paper. 

“It’s still a secret, but a little more of an open one,” Jinsoul continued. “I’ve got assistants. They feed them when I’m not there.” She waved at the fish. 

There was something else to this. Jinsoul was enthusiastic about her work, but she probably knew that Haseul didn’t really care about whatever work she was doing here. 

“We can leave at any time,” Jinsoul said. “You can tell the others to come to a safe location for all of us, or just Eden, and we’ll be there with everything you need.” 

Haseul knew she was frowning. She wished she wasn’t, mostly because Jinsoul actually sounded like she meant it. 

And then it hit her. “Wait,” she shook her head, “you disconnect from Artemis station, then they’ll know this really exists. All the people keeping an eye on here will see that. They could realise it’s tied to you.” And if there was ever a connection to Eden, Jinsoul would become a target. 

Jinsoul laughed softly. “You sound exactly like Jungie.” 

“You mean smart,” Haseul said. 

“Careful.” Jinsoul went to the tank with the blue fish. “It’s probably not a bad thing, but you can’t exactly be too cautious either. Not when you lose access to a lot of the facilities that Olivia could need."

“I’ve got a lot of materials together,” Haseul said. 

She gave her a look. “You read what we did. Do you even have half of what you need?” 

“Can’t we smuggle some of it out?” Haseul asked. She didn’t say it aloud, but Yerim was an actual smuggler too. Haseul also had her own experience with doing all that. If she could send word out, then she’d be able to get some others with experience for it. 

“I’m not risking anything getting broken,” Jinsoul muttered. “And then I don’t have it all in the same place.” 

“Are we sure that Jungeun’s the control freak?” 

She wrinkled her nose. “Sorry for wanting to keep extremely expensive stuff in one lab.”

“And what happens when you’re on the run for most of the time?” 

Jinsoul shrugged. “Then I am.” 

“I?” 

“You said it yourself. My lab’s the closest, Jungeun’s is planet-side, and Yerim’s officially not a part of anyone.” Jinsoul smiled. “And I’m already a bit of a troublemaker.” 

“Not on Artemis,” Haseul countered. “You’re innocent by their standards. Kepler too.” 

Jinsoul chuckled. “But not Aphrodite’s or Earth’s.” There was a falter in her expression then. 

Haseul couldn’t help but wonder where that was coming from. As far as she knew, Jinsoul was still very much able to stay with her life before she got involved with Vivi. She also seemed fully devoted to what she was doing, loving what she was doing too. 

So what was the problem?

“It'll take time to build her muscles again,” Jinsoul said. “Building those new connections will take even more time. The environment of her intestines will also be something she’ll need a lot of support for.” She held her gaze. “Can you do everything that we did without our facilities?”

She knew Jinsoul didn’t mean to, but the words felt like a punch in the gut. All the parts Haseul had taken, all of the little trades she’d done to gather what she could—it wasn't enough. She’d gone to different parts of the systems to hack into whatever databases she could, gathering whatever research she could to try and rebuild what she could. That still hadn't been enough. Haseul had known it then, but she'd hoped for more. 

Her main hope had been that they’d figure it out somehow. Or make some body that Hyejoo could find some type of peace in until they made it even better. 

Except that body would’ve never been like Vivi’s. They wouldn’t have ever been able to give Hyejoo a body that could eat, sleep, or probably even feel properly. 

“Dinner!” Yerim was at the door. “And we have almost all of the royal entourage here, so hurry.” She met Haseul’s eyes and winked. “You probably know already, but Heejin hates it when we’re late!” The door practically slammed shut then. 

“Come on then.” Jinsoul walked past her. She looked a lot more serious than before. “You don’t have to decide yet. We still have someone else to worry about first.”

Right. Did Vivi even know that this was Jinsoul’s plan? She had to. She’d told them they could trust Haseul with a lot more than they’d probably been willing to share. 

Then again, Vivi had to know Jinsoul well enough to know she’d be prepared to do this, right? 

Jinsoul opened the door, turning back to her with a small lift of her brow. 

“So if you were going to offer me that,” Haseul started, pausing in the hall, “why show me the fish?” 

“The betta.”

Haseul blinked. “The what?”

“The blue fish,” she said. “It’s a blue betta.” Jinsoul closed the door behind her, pressing a button. There were a series of whirs as the door locked. Haseul heard a hiss as well. An airlock. “They’re extinct.” She kept walking down the hall. 

”So you pulled a Jurassic Park.”

“Did you see them eating each other?” Jinsoul smiled slightly. “I was lying when I said I’d send something after you.” 

“A shark,” Haseul said. She could hear the chatter at the dinner table, including how Yeojin’s voice stood out among most. Yerim’s laughter joined it. 

“They’re as dangerous as we are,” Jinsoul told her. “I would’ve never been allowed to have a predator like that, let alone one theoretically able to go through space.” 

“So not as animalistic?”

“Oh they’re animalistic, but I managed to get them to imprint a bit better on humans. They used to have cats grow with dogs naturally, and that’s the same with them.” Jinsoul nodded at the direction they’d come. “But I actually wanted to show you the betta. I didn't change much about his nature, but I made him like we made Vivi’s body.” 

“You had the fish’s body already?” 

“Well, not really,” Jinsoul shrugged, “well, it was complicated, but what I mean is, it worked. He’s one of the reasons I was even asked to do this.” She waved at the lab. “And I can show you those files too.”

Haseul stopped before they reached the common area. “What are you trying to prove here?”

Jinsoul frowned at her. “What’s holding you back from taking up the offer? Other than you either not thinking we could do it, or just not trusting that I’d keep up my end.” 

She didn’t miss how the others had grown a bit quieter. Hyunjin was quietly describing what they’d been doing, but she knew that even she was listening. 

“This could ruin you if it came out,” Haseul whispered. “Being hunted like that means more than just being careful when you get to a station. You won’t get the projects you want, maybe not even any of the research you still want to go after.” 

Jinsoul scoffed. “You don’t think we had that same risk here?” She shook her head. “Vivi’s putting her entire reputation on the line here, you know. It’s so she can keep ruling, yeah, but she’s also going to help you get that girl back.” 

“And she can’t do that,” Haseul said. “I can’t do that.” A pause. “But you can.”

She shrugged. “You could with our notes,” she said. “But you’d have a better time with our help.”