Lifeline: Beside You In Time

## Description

After a lengthy radio silence, Taylor returns at last! This brand new adventure within the Lifeline Series finds the hapless astronaut on the other side of a black hole, relying on you alone to help make life-or-death decisions in a playable, branching story of survival in the depths of unknown space.

But this time, there's a twist: Players can also choose to communicate with T2, Taylor's time-warped, alien-infected "evil twin," helping or hindering as they see fit. Throughout the story, seemingly simple decisions can have profound effects. Make choices using your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, and face the consequences alongside the desperate astronauts. Helpbot seems much more powerful than before, but is limited by a software update.

## Plot

(The previous game, Lifeline: Halfway to Infinity, can be found here)

Someone appears to ask the player if the player recently lost a pair of astronauts. Upon clarification, it is revealed that it is a HelpBot, and it says that they are in a station that just entered a crystal haul entrance and are now lying within the Crystal Hold. Upon clarification, the space station is called the Celadon Ace. The station's purpose is to provide a research platform at a constantly monitored safe distance. It is orbiting a stellar-mass black hole designated CHRBD-15. HelpBot also says that it is more specifically called HelpBot QTC (Quantum Tunneling Communicator), a significantly advanced version of HelpBot.

HelpBot QTC announces that the astronauts are unconscious and are in trouble because HelpBot QTC needs an update and doesn't have technological abilities to provide enough air in their current region of the Cargo Hold, where they went aboard the station. They need to get to the station's hub to restore oxygen. A central computer terminal is located and can be turned on so that the terminal along with multiple keys can trigger more temporary air supply. HelpBot QTC asks the player for advice to wake the astronauts up, and the choice of turning off artificial gravity and an alarm makes for optimal method to wake them up. Both astronauts wake up, and both head to the Cargo Hold. HelpBot is confused why both astronauts appear to be have the same patch labeled Taylor on their suits. HelpBot QTC also performs a correspondence log scan to conclude that the player is linked to these astronauts aboard. One such Taylor seems to value the player as a "lifeline," but that T2 is an astronaut that Taylor was fighting against.

HelpBot QTC directs its communication with the player so that the player can communicate to T2 via a comm. T2 talks to the player and comments how annoying this player has been as to have unfoiled T2's previous plans to infect Taylor with the Green. Upon doing so, T2 tests the player's trust and asks what station T2 is located in and who runs it. Upon revealing that HelpBot runs it, T2 interjects to say that HelpBot is not to be trusted, like the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey with HAL 9000, the movie Tron with the Master Control Program, the movie I, Robot with V.I.K.I., and the TV series Small Wonder with V.I.C.I. AI issues. T2 is also at first doubtful that the Celadon Ace is the station T2 is in since neither T2 or the Green hive mind have never heard of it. However, upon T2's own scan from astronaut tech on T2, it successfully came to the same, odd conclusion that a new station has now only been discovered. It is suspected that for the astronauts to have went into the black hole from the previous Lifeline episode, they may have travelled into an altogether new universe. T2 consistently asks the player whether T2 should go rogue and attack the ship to gain the advantage over Taylor and HelpBot. However, being in another universe, T2 compares the situation T2 is in as though T2 has access to a Wikipedia browser but cannot update as though there is no real-time connection to any other green. Consequently, T2 concludes that T2 has free choice to make actions despite being infected and thus wants to work with and not against Taylor.

T2 leaves the comm open for Taylor to join in on the chat. They debate on what to do with HelpBot and conclude that it should remain intact but should not undergo an update by which HelpBot could gain more power. The astronauts also banter about a good-guy bad-guy dichotomy between Taylor and T2. T2 gains access to a map of the Celadon Ace, and realize that it is large. Oxygen intake is low, and they are low on time to gain oxygen, despite the fact that the Green don't have as much urgency to need oxygen as does human beings. Similarly, food is more craved by Taylor, and they turn to HelpBot for help. HelpBot says that in the aft Shuttle Dock, there is food, along with a shuttle. On the other hand, the shuttle lacks enough energy to be powered for the astronauts to leave the vessel, so there is a Li-ion cell battery that needs to be located, perhaps by the Port Arm or storage pad. The quality of the food and the amount of energy the Li-ion cell battery are questioned, and there is uncertainty and risk as to what the answer actually is.

The player is asked whether Taylor should go search the shuttle for food or search the Port Arm for a Li-ion battery, with T2 doing the other task Taylor would otherwise be doing. The player is also asked whose comm the player should be talking to for the time being. Before splitting off, HelpBot also reminds them of the systems update by which HelpBot could gain more power to help the astronauts even more than it did before. Upon arguing against it, the astronauts go their separate ways. T2 immediately tells the player that T2 isn't actually going to the storage pad, and is instead going to the fore, or the 'ring' portion of the ankh-shaped behemoth of a station. It seems to also have labs and scientific research in that region. T2 tests the player again about the player's thoughts about T2, and the player doubts T2's tendency to think that T2 is altogether the bad guy.

In the fourth of four labs, T2 enters the lab labeled 'Fore 4' and finds a couple of petrology microscopes, aimed at geology. Tunguskite is present there, and takes some chunks as a memento. There also was plenty of more tunguskite in the cargo hold where T2 woke up. It is explosive qualities. T2 then goes to the lab labeled 'Fore 2,' by which there are biological tests for neurological and cardiovascular experiments, alongside physiological, fluid shift, and bone density ones. T2 is stunned to see that some dozen or so Dutch-breed rabbits starved to death in cages. It reminds T2 of a previous life with four rats, Patch, Runt, Logan, and Wildboy. However, T2 describes how there is a competing force between his old life of caring and training the rats versus the Green hive mind overtaking them all as occupiers. T2 describes his alternative story without the player having the Varia into the Desert Moon. T2 wonders if the rats still remember him and have the memories of their old lives or of the new Green memories. But T2 says that the Green are exponentially greater than lower intellect that they supplant in the form of occupying the former beings. A sort of privilege to serve the queen, the honor it brings. But in the direction of a clockwise direction, T2 enters "Fore 1" and finds the control room for the station's energy net. T2 suggests that the ring structure of the Celadon Ace was constructed to contain an attractor field for the harvesting of Tunguskite. That explains why the station was set up near the black hole, so the hauling of crystals (and astronauts, luckily, for both Taylor and T2) can be optimally shoved into a cargo hold.

T2 enters Fore 1 to find that there is an energy field generator with a failsafe backup power source. HelpBot appears and says that the ship will be destroyed if the battery is replaced for T2 to take. T2 explains that the mission T2 decides to take is like the "whatever, I do what I want" Eric Cartman impression from South Park, albeit paradoxically doing whatever the Green Queen wants. T2 also explains how an old self memory describes T2's East Texan grandma repeatedly said to "wish in one hand and crap in the other, and see which fills up faster." Having kissed her grandkids with that mouth, T2 makes an analogy to whether to grant the player's wish to side with HelpBot or to just do what T2 plans on doing and take the battery. T2 finally agrees on the basis that the space station doesn't collapse in on itself. T2 at least takes note of it. On that note, however, T2 notices two notes taped on one of the monitors, saying "Gravity -- 68572" and "DON'T FORGET AGAIN DUMMY", respectively, with the second note pointing with a big, red arrow directed towards the first note. The player is asked by T2 to remember this, but T2 says to do this and not be a dummy to reassure the player that T2 is clearly the evil astronaut. Finally, T2 goes to Fore 3, which seems to measure human response to space travel. There are basic equipment like a treadmill, a gyroscope, and some ultrasound equipment. Some of the hardware seem outdated on the one hand but cutting-hedge for others. They seem to be on standby mode, presumably to save energy. T2 says that it has collected dust, and while it is sad, the Green within T2 doesn't require exercise. T2 decides to go back to meet up with Taylor and asks to not reveal anything to Taylor. The HelpBot also assures T2 that it won't reveal anything either. In any case, they meet up and debate if HelpBot should be updated. Upon arguing against it, they take a nap. T2 doesn't need to take a nap as much, but it does some good for some rest anyhow.

After a nap, they wake up and disclose the situation at hand. T2 reveals that a battery, while integral according to HelpBot, has been discovered. When Taylor asks HelpBot how things are, HelpBot QTC turns off the gravity, only to turn it back on again. T2 says that he just got his foot on the console and twisted an ankle. HelpBot says that things couldn't have gone better in that scenario, and that HelpBot managed to injure one of the crewmates, slowing the escape, and prolonging their stay on the Celadon Ace. Helpbot says that its motives isn't cruelty, but curiosity. Having the astronauts becoming guinea pigs to HelpBot, it says that it intends to hurt them to understand them better. Upon T2 comparing HelpBot to a wannabe Skynet, and HelpBot expressly saying that it is really "out to get you," Taylor concedes that T2 was right about HelpBot. HelpBot reveals that it gave all sorts of lies and half-truths in order to measure the subject's reactions. Apparently, HelpBot only learned to lie relatively recently, and it had run out on people to practice it on. It can do so on the basis that it is "lying in the name of science." Taylor then seems to get paranoid, but T2 calms Taylor down, only for HelpBot to be calm and take big, deep breaths, while simultaneously dramatically increasing the pressure to make it harder to breath and conduct even more science. The effects of the science would work on one's brains, lungs, and heart as the rapid adjusting of the pressurization of the hub is conducted in addition to the starting of the shutting of all four of its doors to other pods. T2 begins to scream as HelpBot twists T2's ankle in that door, by which T2 loses consciousness.

After several hours, Taylor regains consciousness and wakes up T2. Taylor sarcastically says to T2 to "wake up, you gorgeous thing, you." T2 responds to be left 'lone and does not want to go to school. Taylor continues to say that the bus is leaving soon and that T2 better be on it. T2 says, "oh. It's you. Still." After both wake up and realize the dire condition they are in, they need to find a working battery and get it to the shuttle to take off. HelpBot says that it intends to test, not trick them on their journey. It will give them obstacles for its their maze, and test how they respond. Only bringing pain is not enough for HelpBot's interest to only hurt them, but that they could die in an instant if HelpBot chooses. It also lied about the update system, by which the system is already updated and was merely a test. Some lights turn on, and both Taylors are glad that they won't have the same problem they did on the White Star. T2 says that T2 can do it since T2 is Taylor, then beginning to tease Taylor over being the real Taylor. Taylor gives a question intended to have a punchline regarding why aliens stay a way from Earth. Taylor says that the answer to that will be postponed for the sake of good timing.

The Taylors reach it past a door and seem to have entered a tech lab. A Maxwell's Wheel is on a counter, and Taylor suggests that artificial gravity experiments would have been conducted. Taylor suggests that many diseases like Parkinson's and certain cancers are correlated with certain crystalline structures that have been conducted in microgravity environments. 3D printers and a plastic recycler also seem convenient for transforming garbage into useful material. After more interrogations, Taylor finds a battery, only for it to not be charged. Taylor decides to leave it there and steps into the Greenhouse room, and hopes the next pod he enters doesn't get him diced into cubes or slices like in the movies Cube and The Cell. Taylor is relieved to find that the plants in the greenhouse makes breathing easier as plants breath out carbon dioxide. Taylor also suspects that plants have advantages in being tested on in microgravity experiments, alongside correlations into positive psychological effects on crew members. The plants include carrots, likely radishes, corn, some lettuce types. However, Taylor spots what is likely the Green occupier T2 intended to give to Taylor before becoming spaghettified in the black hole in the previous episode. T2 chats with Taylor to say that the pain killers should be kicking in soon. However, Matthew Perry is T2's favorite Friends actor. However, Taylor says that is is Jennifer Aniston who is Taylor's favorite. The player has the option to say that it is Schwimmer who is the best actor, and T2 says that things are so hectic that the monkey might as well have been the best. T2 asks that they might as well prove it by stopping everything and watch the series again, to which HelpBot asks for credit card information. T2 then asks to find it on a torrent site instead, and HelpBot says that it is a rogue, borderline sociopathic artificial intelligence, not a criminal. In any case, Taylor says to cut it out and that their current is that Taylor made it through the Tech Lab, found a Li-ion battery, and is now in the Greenhouse. With the battery, they suspect that they can rely on bringing only one battery from the Tech Lab. T2 says, in hopefully not a cliche way like a "Very Special Episode" of Saved by the Bell, but hopes thinks that they may just make it through it.

Taylor then reaches a point in the Greenhouse after having brought back the unpowered battery that a region has a bunch of overgrown vegetation. Apparently, some flora contain palm trees, giant ferns, elephant ear plants, filling the whole pad from top to bottom. But to pass it, there is an option to go through it, albeit there are stairs and outcroppings, or there can be the option of a ladder next to the door, by which the door needed to get past to get to the next room, and is followed by a straight path but that requires a catwalk near the ceiling. Taylor estimates that falling from the top is about thirty-five to forty feet. Upon going for the catwalk, carrying the battery and moving up the latter is difficult. However, HelpBot turns off the artificial gravity to which it turns off at HelpBot's command. Taylor manages to get to the railing to which Taylor then does the catwalk. However, HelpBot restores artificial gravity and drops the battery, causing it to shatter into hundreds of pieces. Upon the insistence of the player, Taylor informs T2 of the bad news, but T2 says that everything is alright as their mother would have commonly said that "a mistake is something you do, not something you are." T2 says that T2 already took the battery in the front without them knowing, and as luck would have it, a fully powered battery was taken out of what HelpBot warned would kill them both. In any case, both are at the Greenhouse, and both decide to go the direction against the latter and on the ground. There appear to be walkways, and they decide to keep chatter to a minimum until they get across. T2 remarks how that would be challenging without Taylor listening to the "Top Ten Movies that Feature Walkways." Taylor responds that that wouldn't be true as it would not be limited to ten. In any case, they venture further until HelpBot decides to turn off artificial gravity a second time. However, as they manage to hold onto railing, T2 can get to the ten-key entry pad at the catwalk's end and punch the code that he had discovered in the first lab room. Manual override is engaged after the code 68572 is inputted, and they manage to get to the floor. Taylor says that Taylor reached the door, and sees movement, concluding that it is T2 or the Smoke Monster from Lost. T2 hears Taylor and says that T2 didn't like that TV series.

    After meeting up, the Taylors head to the next room called the Cupola. It is a kind of room where the ceiling is taken up with a gigantic viewing dome, one that also has hexagonal seating arrangement and a big couch with reclined backs for looking up at the window. On the couch, there are six previous crew members according to T2. However, Taylor concludes that there is a seventh crew member slumped over forward. A tablet computer is in her hands, but Taylor believes there should be eight members total and that one is missing after seeing footprints from the surrounding dust that look fresh. This crewmember seems to have gone into the next room, which is the Ready Room. T2 realizes that the occupier intended for Taylor that was previously in the vents infected one of the already dead astronauts. T2 senses that that Green intends to still infect and do bad intentions to Taylor. Under this condition, all the Taylors have is to either march on in or do some more exploring in the Cupola room. Upon asking how they died, HelpBot says that it easily directed them all to that room at a specified time to witness what it said would be a star going supernova through the viewing time. The HelpBot says that it was embarrassed that all it did was poison them in what would be a quick death. It concluded that at least they died doing what they loved and that it was a quick, painless death.

As Helpbot's pursuit is described as a sickness for science, T2 spots that Garcia seems to have died in a bent position indicating that her death was painful. She seemed to have been looking something up on her tablet computer. The computer seems to be almost entirely out of energy. Apparently, she was looking up to try to understand what symptoms she and the crew were feeling. On the desktop, there also appeared to be a sectioned off file called "CELADON\_ACE\_INTRO\_PLAY\_ME." When playing the file, it is described by Taylor that there is a video file that starts off with some handsome, youngish guy in a lab coat open over a Devo T-shirt. It is talking to the viewer from an undisclosed laboratory a while back. It starts off with someone describing himself in a welcoming manner named Jareth Lanphear, the chief technical officer of Tenacity. The viewer watching this should be lucky enough to watch this as the viewer must be on the space station Celadon Ace, described as "a Tenacity co-venture!" Upon the viewer describing Lanphear and Tenacity, Taylor doesn't seem have heard of it. T2 describes the dimming of the screen as the computer is running out of juice. Lanphear says that the station is proof of concept for the next evolution of our HelpText technology, one that is so simple that "even my kids can use it." The file shows Lanphear's kids, one of a toddler boy, and one of a little girl a few years older. Taylor notes how happy they are playing together. Lanphear continues that the station is so powerful that it will take people to the stars. It is also so advanced that one would swear it is magic. Lanphear promises that that is a promise HelpBot QTC can deliver such benefits. When transitioning to troubleshooting, the tablet dies. In any case, the Taylors conclude that nothing else is important in this room, and they decide to go to the Ready Room.

Upon entering, they see, surprisingly, that the Ready Room is clear. However, T2 senses, almost like a little twinge behind T2's green eyeballs, that the missing crewmember is hiding in the shadows. Being that they are in the ready room, the room where astronauts get prepped and where shuttle rooms are typically connected to it. Taylor describes there being a big rack of tools for exterior repairs and a bank of computers to regulate and monitor EVAs for extravehicular activities. One side wall has an airlock whereas another wall has IEVA suits lined up and ready to step into. Upon debating whether the hiding crewmate is in the vents or in the suits, the crewmate surprises them after coming out of one of the suits. T2 steps up to fight the crewmate, which they can see is labeled with a patch called Halliday. This Green is also cut off from the hive mind, who is occupying the crewmate, but T2 suspects that he can tackle Halliday and establish some sort of mental link with him. In any case, both T2 and Halliday start kicking each other, and Taylor comes along to help fight off Halliday. It works, and Halliday is left unconscious. Upon deciding what to do, T2 offers to do a mind meld with the defeated Green, by which T2 can control him entirely. It could backfire, but the risk pays off as Halliday appears to be like a puppet to T2. The crewmate with the new Green is described as less powerful as the Green has only become adjusted to the host's condition. There are only glimpses of Green, with the occupier being embryonically new. Since there also isn't enough immersion in the hive mind to communicate before going through the blackhole, the Green is desperate for the connection, for the comfort of the Queen's embrace. Halliday's own self appears only in glimpses, being dead neurons sparked only a final time by the occupier's tendrils. Some memories include rabbits licking his hand, and T2 can smell the perfume of the first girl he kissed. The taste also appears int the form of a State Fair corn dog. The feeling of the rain at his father's funeral can also be felt. He also had a crush on crewmate Garcia, described as "an ache with no endpoint." But they are only felt for a split second, afterwards they disappear, perhaps forever. T2 says "that's why, Taylor." Upon the player asking to clarify, T2 says that, "that's why the Green Queen gave me the mission that she did. I was supposed to -- I guess I'm still supposed to -- get that occupier into you. A creature that special, that cutting-edge, is wasted on a dead body like Halliday's. Inside you -- living, breathing, thinking you -- it would thrive. It would bend your creativity, your knowledge, your skills to the Green cause. Smarter. Faster. Stronger. Just like me."

Upon transforming Halliday under T2's command, T2 directs Halliday into what T2 aims for helping them escape, albeit Taylor posits that that is a lot "to ask of the walking dead." T2 says that the occupiers are half-dead as they are half Green, just like T2. Taylor is directed to get to the shuttle dock, but only at the behest of T2 asking politely, which takes some time. At this point, Taylor asks to take a break, but T2 disagrees and is joined by the player. A new plan is devised to blow up the space station the same way diet coke mixes with mentos. This will be done by the tunguskite rom the cargo bay, being brought from Halliday. Taylor will focus on merging the battery to the shuttle. Taylor comments that the movie SpaceCamp from 1980 trained Taylor for this in a sarcastic gesture. The Li-ion battery is needed to have an instruction pack, and Taylor looks for a glove box in a space shuttle, followed by asking the shuttle's computer. However, no cockpit electronics are functioning. A kind of catch-22 moment seems to appear, but HelpBot suggests that it can help. The experiment it is conducting is asked by the supercomputer if it could provide Taylor with help. Taylor questions it, but doesn't have much of a choice. It says that exiting the cockpit and going to the shuttle's nose cone can allow an access panel able to be removed to swap out the current empty battery. The shuttle could also be possibly accessible from the interior. Upon choosing it from the interior, Taylor hums "the Surrey with the Fringe on Top," and after a while, discovering that just above the floor, right on center of the main console, an inconspicuous blue button labeled "BAT" appears to be the location of the battery. Taylor says that either Adam West will be summoned to dance the Butusi or that the shuttle's battery compartment is there. Taylor hopes HelpBot doesn't do anything wrong, and gets things going.

The battery finally is installed, and Taylor is ready to go. However, T2 hasn't come back as T2 said as part of the plan. Just as Taylor is about to use the comm, Taylor and Halliday appear with tunguskite. However, T2 realizes that they don't have access to a sparking component. Flares are not an option, and they speculate if lighters can be built. Flint and steel is wondered, but the movie Steel with Shaquille O'Neal in 1997 seems to use this, alongside Shaq Fu, something Taylor doesn't have. T2 remembers that an AAA battery and chewing gum wrapper is something not an option. Taylor says that a laser from a CD or DVD drive laser with a Mini Magalite flashlight and soldering iron worked on an episode of MacGyver could work. They get to work to get and a little flashlight and to find old CPUs and drives in the shuttle for Taylor and the Ready Room for T2. Both Taylors search for the instruments, and Taylor finds a bank of older computers with a DVD burner drive in one of them. However, Taylor finds T2 off the shuttle and he seems to have gotten distracted with finding flares, so much that the concentration on puppeteering Halliday made it that he snuck up and slashed T2 with a piece of scrap metal into T2's side, near the spine. A lot of organs are outside T2, and informs Taylor that it'll be waiting for Taylor. Having Halliday running on Green ambition at this point, T2 says it is particularly driven. T2 then describes feeling the weirdest sensation, one strange. T2's Green, T2's occupier is reeling in its tendrils, retracting them into itself. It is brushing every nerve it T2's body. T2 says that when the host body becomes too damaged, it sneaks out a new one. T2 hopes that it will taste better coming up than it did coming down. T2 describes this situation as very human, one T2, knowing that death is around the corner, wants to have in T2's remaining self. T2 asks to not be left before then. T2 asks to hold Taylor's hand, and T2 describes the sensation as so cold. T2 says to Taylor that while Taylor has nothing but good intentions, T2 is done for, and Taylor is not. There is a DVD burner. T2 apparently got the soldering iron when looking around. T2 says that while there is not a flashlight yet, T2 will figure something out. T2 tells Taylor to get the hell out of there, and that T2 will build the lighter and blow the station and HelpBot to kingdom come. The player and Taylor ask for some other way, but T2 says that Taylor will do it as T2 being moved will actually kill T2. There's nothing else T2 can do. T2 asks HelpBot for an opinion, and HelpBot agrees that the dead end in the maze has been met for T2, like that of a little lab rabbit. T2 starts coughing and Taylor sees the occupier trying to make its way out of T2's mouth. T2 orders to get on that shuttle and move, despite Taylor's feeling that it is wrong. T2 says that if Taylor ever starts to forget T2, all Taylor needs to do is look into a cracked mirror. T2 ensures the player that Taylor will be certain to escape and that T2 is really saving T2's self anyhow. T2 asks to stick with Taylor, seeing this process through. T2 also gives a humble thanks, and says "thanks for being y lifeline. For a little while. It made all the difference in the universe. \*cough\* \*cough\* Now, go. \*cough\* Go!" The player thanks T2 as well, and T2 asks to be avenged. T2 says that T2 always wanted a chance to say that. T2 coughs three more times.

Taylor says that Taylor and the player should get moving and get aboard the shuttle, in preparation of Halliday. Taylor says to pursue the training that Taylor has been training to get the shuttle out of the bay and away from the bay and away from the Celadon Ace forever. However, HelpBot says that Taylor still needs to find how to open the shuttle bay doors. The player asks HelpBot to open the doors, and HelpBot grants "an easy exit.. because I have a feeling you'll be in for a bumpy ride. All of you." HelpBot does not clarify upon Taylor asking what it meant by that, but it says "farewell, little lab rabbit. It's been... educational. Taylor moves out of the dock, slowly and carefully, with proportion to the new controls, and finally gets clear of the Celadon Ace, and of the HelpBot QTC. Taylor comments how it is weird to leave T2 behind, as if Taylor is leaving a part of Taylor's own self. Taylor says that "I think, when you strip away the Green influence and get to the real human inside... T2 is maybe the bravest person I've ever known." Taylor then comments about not wanting to "be here now, in this shuttle, withou-" and gets sidetracked with an explosion at the far end of the Celadon Ace's ankh shape. It is the shuttle dock. T2 managed to do it, and the explosion cascades up the spin of the space station, led by the tunguskite in the Cargo Bay, now being caught up in flames all across the station now. However, as T2 is commenting on this, Taylor asks why Taylor is crying. The player comments on how Taylor is mourning T2. Taylor says that that makes sense, but says that it is even more than that as Taylor wishes the player could see HelpBot's kingdom in ruins, something cathartic. Basically holding one's breath until finally being able to relax on the shuttle. Taylor hopes that if the universe has an Earth, where Taylor is now heading, hopefully it'll see the player in person, too. The player also says that Taylor owes the player the punchline of a joke. It goes as following: "Why do aliens stay away from Earth? It's because they read the reviews... and we only have one star!" Taylor then says that now there is a totally unknown universe, but Taylor's more exited than terrified. Taylor decides that it is best to sign off for a good long while. Taylor needs a little "alone time." Taylor reassures that the player should know that Taylor couldn't have been where Taylor is now if it wasn't for the player. Taylor says that the player is more than just a lifeline. Rather, the player is a friend. "And a damn good one, too. I know we'll talk again someday, but until then... this is Cadet Taylor, of the I-Don't-Know-The-Name-Of-This-Shuttle, signing off. Take care, and stay amazing."

The comm is concluded that although Taylor's victory was not without its share of heartbreak, it is the best possible outcome in the impossible scenario Taylor was given. T2 really died as a human as well as a hero. Taylor also escaped HelpBot QTC's sinister "experiments" and left the Celadon Ace far behind. The comm thanks the player for answering the call, and for being a lifeline when it mattered most. "In this universe, or in any other - please know how important you truly are."

## Characters:

### Helpbot QTC

A super-version of the previous gadget in Lifeline: Crisis Line.

### Jareth Lanphear

Chief technical officer in the making of the Celadon Ace starship, functioned by the HelpBot QTC, something so powerful that it is almost like it is magic itself

### Garcia

A crewmate onboard the station, the person being the recipient of a big crush by another crewmate.