"So, what's your play going to be?"The adults almost jumped. Sean shook his head. They obviously weren't pros at this, one reason he suspected betraya.... These were pirates of opportunity, unable to resist a quick dip into the illegal. Well, they'd just have to learn."What do you mean?" the largest of the two asked. He stood up straight himself, hand near his sidearm as his companion edged a bit away to make himself a harder target. Over in the other ship, the sound of movement stopped. Sean. It didn't look like anything that could do what the instruction manual claimed.So I hooked it up to my oscilloscope. It put out no electrical signal. As far as I could tell, it was just a ring of gold. Delivered by drone. After receiving a strange text message. A Goggle search revealed the institute was real, a pioneer in internet technology. New Age rhetoric dotted the website, talking about making the world a better place, bringing enlightenment to mankind, yadda, yadda, yadda.“This cannot be. Why did I not notice how firm that embrace was? Why didn't I stopself pleasuring myself when I was thinking of being held that tight?No woman ever held me like Dana has. When I came, my mind thought ofme pulling away from the kiss to look the lady in her face. It wasnot a lady, it was Dana. I had a smile on my face seeing his face inmy mind.I have to go. I do not want to think or talk about that Kiss. Whycan't I get it off of my mind? I must reread you to see if there areclues, but not right. He still possessed the survival instinct in some fashion, but he could no longer appropriately appreciate the most significant risk of death in a given situation. He was no more afraid of guns than a coffee table’s sharp corners.What he felt when he saw the worm was genuine fear, realizing that not only was the worm the most likely cause of his death in that room, it was a death he wanted to avoid more than any other. That feeling of fear, after so long, made him feel alive.“Noah?” she asked.