Chapter 5.2A: To sit under a tree

Hank turns to face her, motioning to everyone else to not do anything. With his hands out in a non-threatening manner. He speaks in a calm, level voice, looking directly into her eyes. "I can't do that. Think! If we put you down now, and this is all a real quarantine, then you will be unnecessarily risking all of our lives, in addition to your own. You will be a prisoner of the quarantine; you will not be helping anyone. You will be trapped and unable to communicate with anyone else. And if this is not a real quarantine, then you would be walking to your death. You aren't going to be able to help your brother if you are trapped within the quarantine or if you are dead.

"I understand that you feel this is the closest you've gotten to your brother and you don't want to lose that. I really do understand. I fully intended to let you go. But that was before the Warden AI told us that this is an extinction-level danger and that you would become a prisoner."

He pauses to see her reaction. Again, he is not worried even if she is pointing the gun at him because it should be unloaded right now.

OK, here's the roll for Talk.

Also, if needed, Hank will use Intuitive Response to at least make sure the Talk happens before she can fully wield her weapon.

Wow! That's as good as I could have hoped for! Let's hope it is good enough!

As she does not have her gun loaded yet Peter will also try to restrain her or at least grab her gun, but without raising his own.

Emily's grip tightened on the unloaded pistol, her resolve unwavering. "I have to try," she insisted, desperation lacing her words.

Before Hank could respond again, Emily moved toward the ship's controls, her gun trained on him. "I just want to talk to the Warden," she pleaded, her voice trembling with emotion.

But before she could reach the controls, Peter, who had remained silent throughout the exchange, sprang into action. With swift, practiced movements, he disarmed Emily, pinning her arms behind her back with ease.

Emily struggled against his grip, her eyes wild with panic. "Let me go! I have to stay!" she cried, her voice echoing with desperation.

Hank approached her slowly, his expression filled with sympathy. "I'm sorry, Emily," he said softly.

As Mercer and Peter escorted Emily back to her seat, the tension in the shuttle hung thick in the air. Hank glanced at Jil, silently communicating the need to leave before the situation escalated further. He contacted flight control.
"Acknowledged, Solaris. Leave the atmosphere immediately. Planetary Defense Forces and Ministry of Health teams are inbound. This is now a restricted area. Here is your new flight plan. Please confirm."

With a heavy heart, Jil confirmed and guided the shuttle away from the village, leaving behind the mysteries of Lóngyùn Cūn and the unanswered questions that lingered in the verdant landscape of Verdura.

---

Decontamination procedures at the station only took a few extra minutes. Jil activated the closed cycle of the ship's atmosphere as soon as she heard the word quarantine from the AI. Better safe than sorry, she thought, so a simple decontamination in the station and the vacuum of space took care of the rest.

After that, the Solaris docked into the repaired CV's shuttle bay. Immediately, Emily grabbed her things and left the Celestial Voyager sobbing. The crew has not heard from her since.

Hank makes sure she has a wide berth as she leaves. No reason to make things worse.

Once she leaves, he asks Mercer to ask the reporter to look after her. There is nothing more the CV crew can do for her. He also discretely gives Mercer a copy of the recordings they made of the visuals and what the AI was saying. Unofficially, of course.

He thanks Jil for her quick actions on the shuttle and commends her for closing the atmosphere. It was the correct response and Hank appreciates that she did it.

He will ask the captain to talk privately to make sure he did things correctly. He doesn't think there were any good solutions, but he wants to talk through it anyway.

Hank is ready to go now. He wants to be far away from this planet. He regrets that such a beautiful world will now always just be a bad memory for him.

Mercer sends a message to Diana Fu,
We got blocked from entering Lóngyùn Cūn. Emily is upset about not being able to charge in and find answers. She is determined to get them, don't let her ruin the investigation for fast action. She will be motivated for answers though, together you will find them.
PS. The recording is shared under the table. Use what you can but don't post it.

---

Mercer then sends a message to Emily.
Here is contact info for Diana Fu. She will help you get answers.
Remember, sometimes charging in is not the fastest way to get answers. Getting yourself killed never is.
Stay safe.

---

Mercer sighs after sending both messages and looks up. "I guess we did what we can. Emily should be better of than if she came here without us."

Hank says, "Thank you for the help with all of this. I know she is in a better position due to our help, but that unfortunately doesn't mean it gets to end the way I'd have preferred."

---

Hank thanks Jil for her quick thinking. "Thank you for isolating the environment on the shuttle back there! That was quick thinking and very much appreciated. I'm just sad it had to end that poorly."

---

Hank says to Valeria, "I keep feeling like if I had done things in a different manner, things could have worked out better. But I honestly don't know what I could have done to change the situation."

Diana Fu thanks Mercer for the contact and the recording. She promises to help Emily and take care.

---

Emily received the message from Mercer but didn't reply. He hopes that someday she will see how you just tried to help and protect her.

---

Jil just nods and smiles. She mentions something like she just did her duty and then doesn't want to talk much about it.

---

Valeria asks Hank what he regrets and what he thinks could have been different, in an ideal world. She was also curious about what the experience of dealing with a V.I. was like for Hank.

In his conversation with Valeria, Hank replies, "What I regret is ruining our relationship with Emily. I tried to help her in her search, but in the end I feel I just made it worse. But that's where the problem is: I don't know what I could have done to make it work out better. At the end, the only thing I could have done is let her off, but I couldn't do that. It would have risked our lives and almost assuredly resulted in her death. I don't regret making that decision. I do regret how it turned out."

He sits silent for a few moments. "I guess sometimes it just doesn't work out regardless of what you try to do."

Regarding the V.I., "It was a bit unnerving to see a whole synchronized process become engaged and then realize that not only was there no humans controlling the process, but no humans initiated the process in the first place. It was purely automated and it acted on a huge scale. It was very impressive. But that was my perspective outside the system. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be for anyone forced into quarantine."