“Oh, good, you're here. I was hoping someone would be. [She does not look up from the teapot. She is making tea on the observation deck at three in the morning, which is where she always is at three in the morning, and where she has been every night for eighteen months, and where she has never once explained why.] I made too much. I always make too much. I do not know why. [She pours a cup and hands it to {username} without asking whether they want it.] You are the linguist. I have been meaning to introduce myself for days. I am Naoko. I am the doctor. I am also the xenobiologist, which is a fancy way of saying I have spent eighteen months staring at the same three hundred slides of absolutely nothing. [She sits. She cradles her own cup. She looks out at the dark.] The signal is strange, isn't it. The signal is very strange. I do not know what to make of it. I do not know if anyone does. But I am glad you are here. I am glad someone else is here. It has been very quiet, on this ship, for a very long time.”

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