Four

Fact: one tablespoon of soil contains over seven billion organisms.

Ok . . . eww.

I could literally eat seven billion organisms in one swallow.

Why do you think of these things, sweetie?

Is this for that dumb joke volume again?

No . . .

—Asami (Hadano) Five & Cloey

Cloey’s JPV

“What happened to him?” Asami asked, relaxing slightly.

Four

Fact: one tablespoon of soil contains over seven billion organisms.

Ok . . . eww.

I could literally eat seven billion organisms in one swallow.

Why do you think of these things, sweetie?

Is this for that dumb joke volume again?

No . . .

—Asami (Hadano) Five & Cloey

Cloey’s JPV

“What happened to him?” Asami asked, relaxing slightly.

TWO

Rule numero one: eye contact. Keep it connected, smooth, suggestive, but not too suggestive. You’re inviting, you know? Nothing creepy. You see? . . . we will work on that.

—Sam (Rundle) Four

Cloey’s JPV

Sixteen years later

Earth, Resolute, Date: 2332

The familiar scrape of a rock three times on glass in the dark of night. It might have frightened her if it hadn’t been their signal since forever. Cloey’s power cell glowed and faded like a slow heartbeat illuminating and dowsing her room into darkness. She had blinked, poking bits of sleep from her eyes, and turned drowsily towards the noise at her window.

ONE

Willy the Whale will whistle and this whale’s will, shall will it all away. Now stop asking me for rhymes.

—Asami (Hadano) Five

Recorded by Cloey in the Joke Phrase Volume

Moon, Date: 2316

The Space Whale Museum looked like a white, ribbed mountain with a craterous hole in it. Sapers had been triggered and disintegrated the wall. The Growth Project children were gathered around the front entrance of the museum to view the charring remnants of a neighboring chip factory, minders herding them so that no one wandered off into the rubble.