The countdown ticked relentlessly. With every racing step Leanne took towards the docking bay, she felt the seconds turning against her. She and Ryan ran, feet beating on the sleek metal floors. Behind them, each portal door slammed shut. Valkyrie watched them all the way, sealing off their path as they drew further and further from the cockpit where Stefania still sat. The entire Arcadia was being locked down by the AI. Leanne remembered how hard it had been to get past her when first boarding – she hoped that difficulty would now prevent the BASE's attempts to get in.

Leanne and Ryan had made two stops only. One, to fetch their exosuits and two, to grab a data pad that Stefania had directed them to in her quarters. It felt strange to return to that small room with its window staring into the black sky. It had only been days since Leanne had stayed there, terrified of Phaethon's prowl about the ship. But it seemed an age. Perhaps it had been: time had been ripped apart by the ship and her drive. Leanne did not know how she would live the rest of her years, knowing what she did.

But now, she could only slide to a halt outside the docking bay and fumble with her exosuit. Ryan, still shaken by Imperium's sacrifice of her, struggled with her catches and Leanne reached across to help her. Her helmet clicked into place and then, suddenly, Leanne knew it was time to leave. Her strength failed her for a moment. Though she might depart this bizarre ship, its truth would shadow her. Stefania, all the embryos, Valkyrie... Would they still come into existence decades from now, as they were meant to? Or had destiny and the future been torn asunder?

Ryan paused at the entrance to the bay. She looked at Leanne and took a step back towards her. Seconds still ticked but she reached out, grabbed the polycarbonate of Leanne's helmet with both hands and drew her close. Their bubble-like visors touched softly together. Ryan's eyes stared into hers, her desire to calm Leanne outweighing her own grief. Leanne grasped her wrists, needing the connection.

"We'll be fine," Ryan said through their microphones.

We. Leanne had despaired of being alone on this ship, even when Ryan had arrived. Now, she knew: she would never be lonely in what occurred afterwards. She and Ryan shared all of this.

Ryan's Fighting Machine was still docked by the airlock. Ryan ushered Leanne inside and Leanne looked around curiously. She had never been inside a Martian vessel before and was struck by how minimal and sleek it appeared. It did not have the busy consoles or loud, flashing screens that Mandala had once had. Everything glowed with a soft green, flat to the bulkheads rather than protruding awkwardly. Ryan smiled as she took her place at the helm.

"Your BASE superiors would have a field day in here," she commented, back to her familiarly confident persona.

"I won't tell them any of this."

Perhaps there had been a time when Leanne would have done. She had been guilty of suspecting and disliking Mars, as everyone on Earth seemed to. She knew she could not go back to those ways after meeting Ryan. Earth and the BASE were as shady as anything they accused Mars of.

Needing the distraction, she asked, "Why do you wear a helmet anyway? You don't need the protection."

Ryan smiled, seeming comfortable with revealing her inner self now in the face of Leanne's secrecy. "To blend in," she explained. "I know you wouldn't mind me taking it off but... Wells will, and they'll be arriving soon."

Outside, the Fighting Machine's docking arm retracted. With gentle movements, Ryan coaxed the vessel away from the side of the Arcadia. The thrusters powered up and they banked softly, pitching out of the shadow of the great ship. Leanne held onto the straps of her seat, staring through the round portal window. She had not seen the exterior of the Arcadia since she and Cliff had approached in Mandala. Now, viewing the Arcadia in motion, her grand centrifuge pirouetting around her, she saw how beautiful the vessel was. Otherworldly, strange, but with the allure of the new and unknown.

In a little over twenty minutes, she would be destroyed.

Across the distance, she saw the team from Wells station approaching the Arcadia. They must have noticed the Fighting Machine's exit but Leanne had not informed the BASE of it. She watched them pass between the Fighting Machine and the Arcadia, heading to the now empty docking bay. In their tiny shuttle, they would not be much of a task-force – but enough to strip the Arcadia of anything they deemed important. Leanne put her faith in Valkyrie. The AI would have locked the Arcadia down by now. Nothing would get past her.

"The Artificial Intelligence and the Fighting Machine," Ryan remarked up front.

"Hm?" Leanne asked, distracted by the idea of her fellow BASE astronauts violating the terrible secrets of the Arcadia.

"Nothing. I was making a joke. An old song: The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine from War of the Worlds."

Leanne, despite herself, huffed in amusement. "And they're coming from Wells station. Do you think Valkyrie will stop them?"

"Without question. I think they're struggling already."

The shuttle seemed to be unable to dock properly. Leanne watched it heave back and forth for minutes, precious minutes that they did not have. The BASE team needed to be away from the Arcadia before the guns opened.

"Are we going to be far enough away from the explosion?" she asked Ryan.

"It won't be an explosion," Ryan said. "We're very anti-space junk at Nerio. You saw how a piece of it nearly wiped me out. The Arcadia won't be scattered."

"What will happen to her?"

"She'll be vaporised. There'll be nothing left."

Leanne did not know what to say. Whether that was more merciful or not, she could not tell. Nothing about this was merciful, she reminded herself. And they were too far away to help, to do anything now. She could not watch.

Instead, she pulled out the data pad Stefania had given to her. Stefania had said she had reprogrammed it so Leanne could access it with her own ID card.

"Take it," she had urged Leanne. "So that even if our fates are changed, you will know that somewhere, somehow, we existed."

The screen flickered to life. Only one app remained on it, nothing official, nothing the BASE could learn anything from. Just a collection of photos.

"Should I look?" Leanne asked Ryan, showing her the pad.

Ryan did not hesitate. "Yes. Commander Malinowska gave you that for a reason."

Leanne nodded. It felt an invasion of privacy but Ryan was right: Stefania had obviously wanted the Arcadia's memories to stay alive. As the counter ticked down, and as the Wells station team gave up, Leanne accessed the files, labelled with the crew's names. Her heart felt thick, her chest tight. She had not known these people, other than their commander, but she had seen their imprint: their quarters; their bodies, stripped to the barest flickers of life, in the cryo pods; and now, their photographs. Leanne looked into an existence that had not yet come to fruition, an alternative turning of the years before her.

Annette Rousseau, holding a trophy and certificate, overjoyed at her achievement. She wore the uniform of a new graduate from the BASE's academy. She could not have been more than twenty-one, young and with her whole life ahead of her.

Daniel Bahari, in stylish sunglasses and climbing-gear, standing at the top of a craggy, orange hill. He gave the peace-sign to the camera, a fluttering flag behind him. Leanne scrolled through images of him in various postures, each one less serious than the last.

Saira Rai, wearing a beautiful and colourful sari, mehndi designs over her hands and arms. She stood with a handsome man who, by flicking through the other images, Leanne realised was her husband. These were her wedding photos, a romance which might never exist now.

Kay Miyuki, smiling and laughing in the middle of a game of what looked like holo-volleyball on Helios. Then, her posing with her team-mates, people who had not even been dreamt of yet.

Lee Allcraft, swimming in the ocean, snorkelling amongst animals, lounging on a yacht. It gave Leanne some hope; the world's seas had not been entirely destroyed by his time – or perhaps this was in a place Leanne did not know. So much could still come to pass.

And then, at the end, Stefania Milanowska. Her photos had all been taken in space stations and other facilities. She was the only crew member whose life had been captured at various stages. Leanne scrolled back through time, the process feeling more and more eerie. She did not know if she wanted to see any more. The pictures were getting into years she might viably live to. But she kept going, for the commander's sake, for the crew of the Arcadia's, committing them to memory.

She stopped.

Stefania – a younger, child version of Stefania – smiled back at her. A woman, likely Stefania's mother, had her arms wrapped about her shoulders. And behind her, another woman whose looks matched the two others. Leanne looked at her, blinked and chided herself for being ridiculous, then looked again. She recognised the oldest woman. She had to be Stefania's grandmother.

A chill covered Leanne's entire body.

"Ryan," she said, voice quaking. "Who... Who does this woman look like?"

She held the data pad up and Ryan turned. The same bewilderment crossed Ryan's face.

Then, everything, the final pieces of the mystery, clicked into place. Why Leanne had been able to access Stefania's quarters. Why she had got into the data pad, not reprogrammed at all. Why she had felt a connection with Stefania.

"That's you," Ryan said softly.

The countdown reached zero. Ryan whirled around again and Leanne's eyes flew to the window. She had no time to think of Stefania, there on the Arcadia, knowing of her relation to Leanne and yet still making her leave – for her own protection. From Mars, a ghostly green glow arose. In a second, it jetted through the atmosphere and out into the stark blackness of space. Leanne saw Cliff's shooting star ornament, hanging by the front shield, turn to silhouette. No noise, no roar, only the silent destruction coming from the Martian guns.

And when they died down again, the Arcadia was no more.

Word count: 1778
Overall: 33,124

Final numbered chapter but please also read the short epilogue for the final final chapter ;)

This chapter's shoutout goes to Han_writer21 and Call Me Vi, a sweet lesbian romance between a celebrity and a reporter.