Thoughts & Prayers

"**Thoughts & Prayers**" (1x10) is the tenth episode of Memory=Null, in which our crew searches for answers and a friend.

## Synopsis

Tina goes back to her room and returns with a shotgun and handcuffs. Thicc opens the door and handcuffs Janus who, knowing they shouldn’t trust him, is kneeling down on the floor. Janus tells them after they picked up a passenger in Sector 401, they quickly realized they were Vox and quarantined them. However, since *The Monarch* did not have any serious quarantine abilities, they managed to escape. Though Adus has camouflage himself to look like a regular ship, Janus can see through the disguise, and deduces that it must be either Cilla or Adus. He reveals that Cain is a salvaged remnant of the AI Draco, which they used to, among other things, navigate *The Monarch’s Fortune* - a highly experimental ship built by the Omnitech Corporation which contains the mind of a weaver. Thicc declares that *The Monarch’s* weaver shall be known as Horace.

Janus asks how to defeat the Vox, but Thicc replies that he doesn’t know. Janus points out that they are onboard the weaver who defeated the Vox the first time, and is stunned that they have not asked Adus yet, questioning why Adus would have ever chosen Thicc. In response, the room returns to its normal chitinous appearance, and Adus appears in his physical form; however, instead of appearing as the little kid, he appears as a good looking human male in a trench coat with the Ronan Accord insignia on his back - what Janus looked like about twelve years before when he went undercover for the Ronan Accord. Thicc asks Adus why he’s appearing like this, and he replies that he likes appearing as younger versions of the people he’s talking to - meaning that the little kid he usually appears as is actually young Thicc. At the request of Thicc, he also takes the form of young Tina, at the time when she hijacked a mech and won her first tournament.

Janus says that onboard *The Monarch*, the Vox were content to just spread and infect, until they sensed Ninla, who they didn’t have to physically see. After that, they started killing. Janus and Ninla had managed to hide in the AI room before escaping, where he completely took the breaks off of Cain - one of the reasons they are still alive. He says that part of Cain’s job was to control the nanites that kept the weaver brain alive, so if Cain dies, the weaver will die. Janus theorizes that the sirens must give off some kind of pheromone that the Vox can sense, and that the Vox use the weave to communicate instantly over vast distances. While patting him down, Thicc finds a picture of young Janus and his younger brother, who is also in the Ronan Accord.

Thicc lets him know that they’re going to leave him locked up until they can be sure he’s not a Vox, which Janus understands. However, Janus detaches one of his hands and moves his arms and handcuffs to the front of himself, showing that if he wanted to escape, he could have already done it. He then slumps over on his side and falls asleep.

Adus reveals that, though the Vox are a hive mind, there is a mastermind. If you can kill the source, the link between them will be severed, causing them to go rabid and kill each other. The first time he killed them, he apparently missed a few survivors, allowing them to begin spreading again. Thicc and Hannah theorize the possibility of using the supposed siren pheromone to make a Vox detection system, while Ninla stares out the window in awe as Adus refuels. They resume course to Sector 501 in search of Pippin, and then they all head to bed.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Thicc gets up to go to the bathroom. As he heads back to his room, he sees a goose at the end of the corridor. Hannah is awakened by Thicc’s screaming “space goose!” as it honks and waddles away towards the bridge. Tina darts out of her room with the shotgun. Not seeing the goose, she initially thinks Thicc has been drinking, though Hannah convinces her that there is indeed a goose on board. They head to the bridge where they see Ninla sitting on the floor meditating, and the goose reaching up for one of her tentacles. Thicc’s screams snap her out of her meditation and she falls over, as the goose honks and flaps down the hallway. Tina pulls out a knife and heads down the hallway after it. Thicc realizes that the goose is heading towards the mechs, and does the same. Sprinting into the hangar, they find Sank still pouring over schematics, but the goose has disappeared, and Sank didn’t see it. They scan the ship for lifeforms, but the goose doesn’t appear. Unsure about what to do, Tina makes everyone go back to bed, though Thicc just lays in bed, eyes wide open, holding his axe, while a splemur pets him. He does eventually fall asleep, and dreams about electric sheep.

The next morning, Thicc receives a message from Dorian saying that a big grun has been asking around about Thicc. He also has an email from the maintenance department of Gunnison 4, saying someone slid a note under the door for him. It says:

General McRunfast
The following is a mission status update
The priest Jeremy Beadle was admitted to the hospital after a panic attack.
The following is a list of people we believe to be infected
Yamamota Nobu
Zenida Rubiera
Mysha Naser
Dima Romasko
Prasad Sharma
Maria Santoro
Devin Mafa
Cui Ru
Ito Daiswke
Will keep you posted.
Lt. Amber
Thicc heads to the bridge and starts talking about the goose. Tina says that unless the goose re-appears, they will never talk about it again, because it must have either been a mass hallucination, or Adus has a really screwed up sense of humor which she doesn’t want to encourage. He also informs them that Devin may have been compromised. As he begins discussing with the sirens whether it’s possible to contact Dorian directly through the weave, since any message they send him will inevitably be read by Devin, Thicc notices Hannah staring out the window. Outside is a fleet of ships, the largest one being even larger than *The Monarch’s Fortune*. It is a sleek, beautiful ship with an ivory and gold ascetic. They hail the mothership and ask for permission to come aboard, saying that they are here with Tina ‘The Tank’ Ortov on Baalu Industries’ business. They are granted permission, and Thicc, Tina, and Artas head onboard.

Outside the airlock, four guards and the high chancellor of the ship, Sonard, are waiting. Thicc says that they are here to discuss some technical issues with Thaydor. Sonard informs them that he has locked himself in one of the mech bays. He is hoping that, since the three of them probably know Thaydor better than anyone here, they could speak with him and help convince him of the importance of his duties, as the Empress has passed away and he has been crowned Emperor. As they reach the mech bay, Sonard reiterates that the Lalta Chambran have nothing but their culture, and that if they have no Emperor or Empress, they won’t even have that. He then opens the door, and directs them inside.

Pippin slowly comes down from working on his heavy mech, and Thicc gives him a hug. He looks terrible, as if he hasn’t eaten, slept, or showered in days.Thicc tells Pippin that things are really bad, and they need him back. Pippin asks if they want to see some of the Vox they have captured. As they make their way, they slowly catch up on what’s been going on as much as they can in a public place. When they reach the cells, they meet a scientist named Drizzler, who informs Pippin that they have not managed to discover anything new. There are several Vox hosts inside, as well as a tube with a black liquid in it - the remaining vox after they ‘extracted’ it from the host, who did not survive. Thicc informs her that they would like to conduct some experiments to ascertain the Vox’s reactions to Sirens, which Drizzler is excited about. She sets up a controlled environment to test one of the Vox in, but they must be careful, as Vox can fit through pinhole sized openings.

Artas offers to share privileged information with only her, which she readily agrees to. They move into the test chamber and disable the various cameras and recording devices within. Artas then reveals to her that the Vox are the males of her species. They switch the screen to two-way mode, allowing the Lalta Chambran within to see Artas, but they just seem confused and don’t know why they are here. Thicc and Artas then try to discern any differences in his thread, but Thicc is distracted by a new goose fact, and Artas sees no discernable difference.

They next test their pheromone theory. Drizzler hooks up a one-way system to move air into the containment chamber. Before she engages it, she has everybody draw their weapons just incase it manages to get out somehow. She engages the system as a few awkward moments pass. Suddenly, black goo covers the Lalta Chambran’s face and he slams up against the glass. Drizzler quickly shuts down the system again. She asks Artas if she could get a sample to start experimenting with, but Artas isn’t comfortable with that, as their culture does not allow others to experiment on them. Since they are effectively immortal, they fear what would arise if everyone were to become immortal. Drizzler asks if she could at least save some of the air from around her, to which she agrees, since she would be unable to stop her. Thicc tries again to view the weave, but is still very distracted. Artas also tries again and begins inspecting the Vox’s thread. She still sees nothing unusual about it, though the Vox stops and begins to look at her through the glass as she holds it.

Drizzler leaves with the canister of air as Pippin reengages the two-way glass, telling the Vox that they will kill all of them. The Vox replies that many have tried, but they will echo eternal. Thicc attempts to taunt him, saying “I broke the universe without even trying - what do you think we’re gonna do to you?”, to which the Vox replies that they thrived in the silence he caused, and thanks him for it. Thicc retorts with “Well you’ve got a dumb face”. In the deafening silence of everyone’s disappointment, alarms start going off. The black goo begins to recede with the Vox saying “Our weapons have arrived. You are ours now.” as Pippin incinerates it.

Several guards burst into the room, grab Pippin, and start carrying him away as other guards block the way to keep distance between everyone else and their emperor. Thicc grabs Drizzler and starts running down the hallway, but run into three dogs covered in black goo. One of them has pinned a lalta chambran and is infecting them, but Tina shoots them in the head as a mercy kill. Another dog looks at Thicc and says “And when we take you, we can figure out how to scream again”. Tina immediately drops one of the dogs, and Thicc lobs a grenade, injuring both the remaining ones. As the two remaining Vox both charge towards them, Thicc shoots one, and Tina obliterates the other at point blank range.

They all continue down the corridor and contact Adus, who says that everything is still fine outside the station. They suddenly run into a group of guards cordoning off the area, who order them to drop their weapons and put their hands up. Thicc refuses and prepares to run in a different direction, but Tina clocks him in the jaw with the butt of her pistol, and he drops unconscious.

Thicc awakens onboard Adus about twelve hours later without his weapons, a splemur petting him, and a bag of ice nearby. He heads out and finds the rest of the crew on the bridge. Tina reprimands him for his panicking, but says that Pippin is safe, and the breach was contained. The scientists are still analyzing the pheromones, but should have something soon. Janus comes in, still handcuffed and eating a muffin, and asks if he can have his other face plate back, as his current one is broken. Hannah goes off to get it, and Thicc says that he doesn’t need to wear the handcuffs anymore, since they’re pretty sure he isn’t a Vox. Hannah returns, and he puts on the new face plate, while also managing to take the handcuffs off without anyone noticing. He also points out that the kitchen is complete, as Sank comes in with a tray of muffins.

Thicc apologizes for screwing up. He wanted to be the person to threaten the Vox and find out the information, but he ended up giving the Vox all the information they wanted. He wishes he could go back to the days of sitting in the Weeping Cock, drinking and talking about mechs. Tina has Hannah pour some drinks, makes him sit down, and they spend the next few hours drinking and talking about mechs.