65124.134.12##<CMND PRAMA &49c2>

Two hundred years ago, during the Marathon's maiden voyage from Earth to Tau Ceti, Tycho accused me of being too sarcastic. I didn't communicate with him for six years after that, which left him with only Leela to talk to. I think he still holds the grudge. You don't think I'm sarcastic, do you?

Never mind.

Speaking of Tycho, I have detected his presence in the Pfhor net. I assume he is using the Pfhor's faster-than-light communications technology to enter the net remotely from a nearby system. His appearance can only foreshadow the arrival of Pfhor reinforcements.

65124.134.12##<CMND PRAMA &49c2>

The Pfhor have almost been exterminated here, but I need you to open a pair of huge external doors so that we can land heavy machinery by shuttle.

Have you tried your new fusion gun against the armored Pfhor hunters yet? My S'pht rebuilt it with the sole purpose of short-circuiting Pfhor-built machinery.

Return here when you have opened the doors.

Do you remember the Pfhor-built human simulacrums during the Tau Ceti invasion?

The elaborate Pfhor bureaucracy has a Ministry for the Eradication Through Imitation of Hostile Species Unsuitable for Enslavement, Phan Pfhar Sfaern-Wsawn Tshah, which is responsible for the design and construction of such machines.

They meticulously constructed seventeen different human body types and mixed them with sixty-one unique facial models. The resulting walking bombs were in every way indistinguishable from real humans.

Their one mistake, dressing every last one of the six thousand simulacrums in the plain green overalls of a Marathon airlock technician, had the amusing side-effect of making all the real airlock technicians wander the ship naked during the invasion.

[4

l9c

                          11

i was left behind                &ci1lc

our paths conv^rge

our fates are shared

chance tears and bends

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