I had a small hop in my steps as I left the apartment building. Playing music for Flint and Abel made me feel lighter, like a massive weight was taken off my shoulders. I could finally share that part of myself with someone I trusted. It was unfortunate that Nori didn’t seem to understand it, but I figured that’s what made our races different. It was possible they just didn’t understand the concept.

  When I played music for the animals in the forest near my treehouse they never responded to it by dancing or anything. Music felt like such a universal language to me, but it was possible that it was a fairly rare thing that humans and melodians shared with each other.

  As I walked through the streets I found myself staring at the few melodians that were walking alongside the mechara. They were all in the assembler, experiencing some memory from their past while their body did the work. I couldn’t help but wonder why they used it as much as they did.

  The listeners understood music in a way that the other melodians didn’t, almost certainly because they didn’t use the assembler as much. I couldn’t understand why anyone would choose the assembler over music. Losing such a large part of yourself to a machine. Was it just to make work easier? Did they not understand what they were giving up? It almost seemed like an addiction.

  As if I was on autopilot, I found myself at the large windows at the front of the ship, the place I’d spent the most time before I’d met Nori.

  Nobody else was around and the bleachers were back where I’d originally remembered them.

  I took a seat, looking out at earth as the ship made it spin slowly into view.

  I felt better. At least, better than I had the last time I’d been at the bleachers. It had been so long since I’d played music that I almost forgot how it made me feel. Getting my emotions and thoughts out in the air, transformed into sound, it was beautiful and it was something I’d never want to give up again.

  In the reflection of the glass I could see the distant glowing eyes of the melodians in the distance.

  They’d given up music for convenience, but it was possible I could teach it to them again. The way Flint and Abel responded to it told me there was still hope for the melodians. They’d just need someone to teach them.

  I stood up, moving up to the window, nearly pressing my face against it as I watched earth getting closer to the center of view, the sun casting beautiful red light through its atmosphere as the city lights along the night side of the planet came into view.

  “I’ll make this worth it” I said softly to myself.

  I was thinking of Oliver, Gav and Emily. My friends who made it possible for me to be on the lifeboats in the first place. Without them, I never would have found anything on the shard. The lifeboats would have flown through our solar system and disappeared and for the first time since arriving, I felt like it wasn’t such a big mistake to have called on them. I owed it to my friends to make their effort worth it, but more importantly, I owed it to myself.

  I turned around, making my way back to the streets and over to the large elevators. I still wasn’t all that great at navigating through the lower parts of the ship, but I knew where the items from earth were being kept.

  As I boarded the elevator an older melodian walked on board with me. His eyes were glowing, as expected.

  He walked in, facing away from me as we both looked toward the doorway.

  As the elevator started moving down its downward track I couldn’t help but notice the eerie silence in the small space.

  I found myself staring at him, wondering what his life outside of the assembler was like. As a kid he would have been without it, so at least part of his life was… natural. He was likely viewing those memories as he stood there. Living a life that was better. Before the assembler.

  The elevator jolted to a stop, startling me a bit.

  To my surprise, the doors didn’t open. As I leaned toward the panel I saw the elevator was between floors.

  “Wha…” I quietly started to say as I turned around to see the melodian staring at me.

  His hands were behind his back, his eyes locked on me as he starred at me with an expressionless face. His eyes were still glowing white.

  “Artemis…” I said to him.

  The melodian turned to look at me for a moment, it looked as though he was about to speak, but just as a hint of a sound came from his mouth, his eyes started to flicker.

  It felt as if time stood still as I didn’t dare say anything as I waited to see if he would get anything out, but unfortunately instead of making another attempt, a quiet clunk sound went through the elevator as it sprung back to life.

  “W-what is it?” I asked hesitantly, but the melodian only responded by slumping a little. His eyes were still white, still under the control of the assembler.

  The elevator stopped again, this time at a proper floor as the doors opened up and the melodian stepped out, leaving me behind.

  “Wait!” I yelled after him, but I was too late.

  The doors closed and the elevator sprung to life once again as I continued my downward descent as I stood there, frozen, speechless.

  Artemis wanted to tell me something. Something important. I knew it, but for whatever reason he didn’t seem able to.

  As I pondered what he could have wanted to tell me, the doors slid open in front of me. It was my stop.

  I shook my head, closing my eyes for a moment as I gathered myself before I stepped out of the elevator.

  Whatever Artemis wanted to communicate I was sure I could figure it out later. The task at hand was to find the item room and catch up with the other two.

  The elevator opened out into a split roadway between the front and middle sections of the ship, looking a bit familiar from the time I’d visited with Nori. I followed the path she and I had taken in the car until I found myself at the shipment room.

  As I turned the corner I found a much larger pile of items than what I’d seen before.

  Computer equipment, furniture, clothing, books and a meticulously organized series of shelves full of tools were in front of me. There were easily twice as many things in the room as what I’d seen before. I remembered the instruments toward the back so I made my way in their direction.

  There were at least thirty mechara sorting through the various items that had come in from the most recent shipment from earth, with various mechara darting back and forth between the newly arrived items and the respective piles. There were a few melodians thrown into the mix as well, all their eyes were glowing and they seemed to be responsible for moving the heavier equipment.

  As I turned the last corner I found myself looking at a large empty spot on the floor where the instruments used to be.

  “Oh no…” I said as I ran forward, looking around to see if they’d moved, but they were gone. All of the instruments were gone.

  I crossed my arms, biting my lip, trying to think of where I should look for them.

  “You’re late” shouted a voice from behind me.

  “Hm?” I asked, turning around to see a young mechara wearing a work outfit that was a little too large for her.

  “The others grabbed everything already. Put a big scratch on the floor too” she said, sounding a little annoyed at the situation.

  Sure enough, a large scratch, starting at one end of where the instrument pile was and leading off to the back exit of the room. Given the size and the weight that it had to have been to leave such a scratch, it was likely from a melodian who had dragged a piano out.

  The mechara began speaking again but I didn’t hear her as my focus fell onto the scratch leading me out of the room as I heard a faint “Okay nevermind then” from the woman.

  My eyes followed the scratch cut into the floor, leading me through a hallway and out toward a bank of elevators. They seemed different from the ones I was used to. Their design looked more industrial and they had a larger gap between each one. They were likely some sort of service elevators, which would be perfect for a piano.

  The groove led me to the elevator at the far end of the hallway.

  Before I could press the button, the elevator door I’d followed the groove to opened up in front of me as two young melodians exited.

  I gave them a small wave but they seemed more focused on something else as they quickly made their way past me.

  “There could be more,” one said to the other.

  “I think we got them all though” the other said as they both rounded the corner and went out of earshot.

  As the doors closed I looked at the buttons in front of me, realizing I had no idea which floor to go to.

  “Shoot” I said, tapping my foot as I tried to think of where I should go.

  We were near the bottom of the green zone. There’s no way they’d bring them to any floors occupied by mechara, so it had to be somewhere in the red.

  “Screw it” I said as I leaned forward and wiped my hand down the entire panel, lighting up every red button along the way.

  I figured whichever floor it brought me to would have a similar groove, I just had to check each one.

  The elevator opened a few moments later.

  Nothing.

  I sighed, standing near the elevator doors as they closed again, followed by them opening a few moments later.

  Nothing.

  I crossed my arms, realizing there were a lot of floors ahead of me, and they could be any one.

  They could be any one of them. But given that the listeners tended to be down toward the bottom…

  I smacked my forehead as I realized I should have started from the bottom and made my way up.

  “That’s what you get for not thinking Tess” I said idly to myself as the door opened in front of me.

  Nothing.

  I groaned, leaning against one side of the elevator wall as I started getting heavier with each passing floor.

  As I sat in silence I couldn’t help but wonder what Artemis was trying to tell me. He confused me. On one hand he seemed to be in control of the assembler, but on the other he seemed to be trying to convince the listeners to turn him off. So it was possible he was on the melodian’s side, but he wasn’t able to enact change in a direct way, which would explain the secrecy behind it all.

  I frowned, my eyes staying on the door to look for the groove in the floor as I thought about it.

  When I’d first encountered Artemis, he tried to keep me on earth. He tried to stop me from getting in the lander.

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  My best guess was that the encounter with the listeners and Nori was a set up. The listeners didn’t trust me, it was his way of getting me to gain their trust. The person leading the group of melodians down to earth was Abel.

  “Oh…” I said as I realized what Artemis might have been trying to tell me. He probably still wanted me to leave. But then again, he could have wanted to encourage me with the instruments. Maybe there was a way to save the melodians from the assembler without anything violent, maybe they just needed to be woken up.

  The elevator stopped once again, this time though, an older melodian stepped forward. Her eyes were glowing under the effects of the assembler.

  I looked her up and down, noticing that every time Artemis tried to reach out to me, it was always with melodians that had all white fur. I wondered if their older age made it easier to speak through them. Like their mind wouldn’t resist as much.

  It took me a moment to think of what to do, but I figured if he couldn’t speak to me, maybe he was trying to get me to speak to him.

  “Do you still want me to go back?” I asked softly.

  The melodian’s eyes flickered, then turned off as the woman looked a little startled.

  I blinked, stepping back a little and looking to the side, pretending like I wasn’t paying attention to her.

  She looked around a little, I could see her in the reflection of the metallic wall, but after a moment she seemed to relax as her eyes turned a bright white once more.

  Every time Artemis tried to interact with me in any meaningful way, the melodian he was controlling would snap out of the assembler, cutting off our communication. From what I understood from Flint, it might have been because they were at least partially aware of the world around them. But others were able to talk to Artemis through that state, just not me.

  A thought went through my head as I considered what was waking the melodians up. It was possible that it was a mixture of an emotional response from Artemis along with the melodian unintentionally picking up on what I was saying. But if I could say something the melodian didn’t understand…

  “Do you still want me to leave?” I asked, speaking English

  She didn’t turn to look at me, but instead simply nodded her head, but more importantly, her eyes didn’t go out.

  “I… I think I can help them” I said, the sound of English words feeling strange after so long without speaking it.

  The melodian didn’t respond, but more importantly, she wasn’t getting pulled out of the assembler.

  The elevator door opened, revealing two melodians standing on the other side. They started to step forward, but the melodian I was already with held her hand up, signaling for them to not enter.

  They both looked confused, but didn’t step forward as the doors started to close once more as the woman relaxed her arms once more, staring directly forward.

  I kept my speech quiet and slow, not wanting to alarm the melodian underneath.

  “If I can get them to understand music, I think they’ll learn to stop using the assembler on their own” I said softly.

  She nodded her head again, reaching for the panel and double pressing one of the red buttons toward the bottom of the list.

  The lights on the panel all turned off, a moment later the woman pressed two buttons. One was just a few floors down from where we were already at, the other was much further down in the ship, only a few floors from the bottom.

  As we descended I could feel my left ear flopping down, telling me we were passing earth gravity as we descended through the ship.

  There was so much I wanted to ask Artemis, but I knew if I pushed too hard the melodian he was controlling would lose focus, just like the others had before.

  “I… I think I can make a difference here…” I said.

  Before I could say anything else the doors swung open once again, this time to an empty floor.

  The woman, controlled by Artemis stepped out, but turned around to look directly at me as the doors started to close.

  “Good luck” the melodian said softly, just before the elevator closed.

  My eyes opened wide in shock as Artemis spoke to me through the woman.

  She spoke in English.

  “W-wait!” I stuttered as I lunged forward, but I was too late, the doors closed as the elevator started moving down once more.

  “Damn it…” I said out loud as I looked back to the panel of buttons. I almost wanted to turn around and go back to find her again but she’d be long gone before I could get to the floor again. Besides, Artemis could control just about anyone, so if he wanted to talk to me again he could do it whenever he wanted. At I knew a way to communicate with him now.

  I slumped onto the floor, feeling frustrated that I wasn’t able to talk to him more. I wished we could just talk.

  The elevator dinged as I felt myself quickly getting heavier as we came to a stop and sure enough, the deep grooves on the floor continued out from the elevator and into the hallway. Artemis had sent me to the correct floor, which told me he wasn’t trying to stop me. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I was hoping he was genuine when he’d told me ‘good luck.’

  I begrudgingly pulled myself up, letting myself adjust to the higher gravity before following the now much deeper grooves on the floor toward a wall of hand trucks near the elevators.

  They were large platforms with four wheels on the bottom, looking like they were meant for carrying large heavy objects and pushed by hand.

  Unfortunately, the groove made its way up to them and suddenly stopped. Presumably they pulled one of the carts over to have an easier time moving it.

  “Darn” I said.

  I was at least a lot closer, I just had to keep looking.

  With a long sigh I looked up and down the large empty hallway, picking a random direction as I decided to just wander around and hope I found something interesting.

  After passing by a few hallways the corridor in front of me opened into a large common area, similar to the one I’d gotten my first proper melodian clothes from. It was a multi-tiered room with a large circular opening, giving a view down to the upper and lower floors. I found myself on the third, having a good view of the shops that lined the area.

  It felt like a strange mix between a shopping mall and a city street.

  I was at least happy to see the majority of the melodians in sight weren’t using the assemblers.

  Despite them not seeming to have a lot going on in their lives and not wanting to talk about… Anything… It was nice to see them doing something.

  I wanted to help them. It seemed like if I could introduce music to them, they might understand that there’s more to life than just living in the past.

  It’s likely what the listeners were all about, whether they knew it or not.

  I sighed, leaning over the railing a little as I looked out at the other melodians.

  “I’m going to help you” I said softly, “I’ll find a way.”

  I sat there for a few minutes, feeling unsure about what I was supposed to do. I thought if I could find a melodian using the assembler, maybe Artemis could point me in the direction I needed to go.

  I tapped the side of the railing, trying to think, when a sound a little off in the distance caught my ear.

  “Ba ba, ba ba ba ba” said a melodian on the other side of the concourse.

  “No, it’s ‘ba ba, ba ba ba an’” said another melodian.

  My eyes locked onto them as I moved along the railing. They both looked pretty young, their fur was a darker brown than mine.

  “Hey, where’d you hear that?” I asked as I approached.

  “Down there” said one melodian, pointing down the hallway behind them.

  “Perfect! Thanks!” I said as I started running down the hallway.

  I could hear them continuing on as soon as I left, but as they left earshot, another group of melodians was singing in front of me. Like the previous two, they were all young, their fur almost a perfect black.

  The melodians with a browner tone to their fur like my own didn’t seem all that interested in what they heard around them though as they continued about their business despite the younger melodians all sounding excited as they sang their very broken renditions of Barbara Ann to each other.

  As I approached the group I saw a large gathering further down along the hallway. It was a large group of young melodians that looked like they were trying to crowd into a room.

  I made my way toward them, listening to the sound of the young melodians in front of me trying their best to sing together as the distinct sound of a very loud keyboard piano with random notes being played along its entire range.

  I pushed my way through the crowd, getting up through the doorway to find a filled room of melodians all trying to scream over each other along with random notes from hundreds of instruments being played all at once, resulting in an unintelligible mess of sound.

  The room looked like a small auditorium, like something you’d give a lecture in, but I couldn’t see much of what the room looked like due to how packed the room was.

  I stepped through, thankfully I was taller than everyone else in the room since they were all pretty young, I was able to see where I was going.

  Several of the melodians were holding instruments and attempting to make noises with them but they largely didn’t look like they understood the concept of what they were supposed to be doing.

  There was a group strumming on the large horn of a brass instrument, another was slapping the strings of a guitar along its neck and a few were just blowing into a couple of flutes and making a whimpering noise from them.

  I made my way toward the piano and to my surprise, it was just an electric keyboard, but underneath it was a familiar looking push cart that still had a bunch of instruments piled underneath it. It seemed rather than being some kind of grand piano, they’d just stuffed everything into one pile and had moved it along as one giant mass.

  Two older melodians were trying to make the piano make some resemblance of a tune as they sang Barbara Ann with the other melodians nearby. They were horribly out of tune and had forgotten most of the words to it already.

  “Flint! Abel!” I screamed over the crowd, trying to get their attention.

  They couldn’t hear me through the screaming, their focus was on the other melodians as they tried to teach them the song.

  I stood up, placing my hands on my hips as I tried to gauge the situation around me.

  Flint and Abel must have been singing the song together and the younger melodians probably stuck to them like a magnet, following them through the hallways until they reached the room they’d settled down in. Based on the way everyone was responding but I couldn’t tell how well they understood it since they mostly seemed to just want to scream over each other. It was possible that the chaos simply built over time until they’d reached their current state.

  I took a moment to look around until my eyes settled on one person that was holding the acoustic guitar that I’d shown Flint and Abel the song on originally. The girl holding it seemed to be strumming the strings randomly as a few other melodians tried to listen in to the notes coming from it.

  I made my way over, tapping the young melodian on the shoulder to ask “Hey, could I get that from you?!”

  I had to scream over the volume of the room but thankfully she seemed to hear me well enough to reluctantly hand it over.

  The back of the room was higher than the rest while also being a little less packed compared to the front, so I made my way back, pushing my way through the melodians as I held the guitar over my head.

  A few of them looked up, seeing me holding it and asking if they could try using it. I tried to respond, but my voice was drowned out by all the other noise.

  Eventually I just gave up and kept moving up through the seats, making my way up to the top of the room and turning around, looking down over all the melodians as I heard about a hundred broken versions of Barbara Ann along with hundreds of instruments getting played improperly and with completely random notes coming out of them.

  I trusted the instrument was at least somewhat in tune from earlier as I stood up, standing over the room as I started strumming it.

  At first I wasn’t going with any direction in particular, but I ended up settling on the guitar side of the song “Alice’s Restaurant” due to its repetitive nature and the relatively complex set of chord progression that I felt would help with getting people to pay attention to it.

  The melodians in front of me were the first to stop talking as they turned toward me. I could barely hear the guitar myself, but the melodians in front of me in the row lower could at least hear enough to know it wasn’t just random notes like the others.

  As they stopped, the next melodians over were able to hear it enough to stop and pay attention as well.

  A large grin crept across my face as a wave flowed ever so slowly through the room as each layer of melodians stopped what they were doing and turned around to listen to my guitar.

  I knew they wouldn’t understand the lyrics, so instead I started singing the notes of the spoken words of the song, which sometimes followed along with the notes on the guitar but mostly strayed from them to form a simple harmony.

  Within a minute the wave had made its way through the room, causing every melodian to stop and listen as a sea of wide eyes and perked ears laid their full attention on me.

  To my surprise, I didn’t feel nervous at all as I continued singing and playing along to the song, the lyrics in my head as my mouth sang the notes as I let the song pour out of my mouth and hands.

  It felt comfortable, it felt right, it felt like I was myself again and I was happy to finally be able to play music on the lifeboats.

  As I played through the song the room filled with melodians didn’t make a sound, they didn’t move, they simply stared, wide eyes, ears straight up and mouths slightly open as they listened to the gentle folksy rhythm of the song, including Abel and Flint in the front of the room.

  I looked over the room, singing loudly and confidently to the crowd as I got to the final round of choruses. I sang it louder, as I looked at everyone, leaning my head to the side and raising my eyebrows a bit.

  They seemed to get the hint as a few brave melodians started singing along with me, followed by a few others, followed by a few more until the entire room found itself singing along with the final verses of the song.

  Hearing them singing, watching the joy in their eyes as they experienced music for the first time in their lives made me swell with emotions. It was possible. They could learn it. It was possible the melodians on the lifeboats weren’t doomed to the assembler after all, they just needed to learn music. They needed to learn how to be melodians.

  I changed the strumming on the guitar as I stopped singing, playing a few final chords as I brought the song to an end.

  The stunned silence in the room lasted for a few brief seconds as I wiped the tears from my eyes before the entire crowd erupted in cheers.