He finally collects himself and sits back down.
CECIL (CONT’D)
I won't even pretend to understand your
pain. I lost Gwen in the attack, along
with many good friends.
JEREMY
A quarter billion people were killed in a
single day. They were victims of The One
Day War like millions of other people.
CECIL
I suppose they were.
JEREMY
How are you holding up?
CECIL
You know me, always another asteroid to
crush. I don't mean to be insensitive,
but you do still have the crystal, right?
JEREMY
It never leaves my person.
Jeremy rubs the crystal through his pocket.
CECIL
I'm glad to hear that. Are you aware that
the NASA scientists aboard The Himalia
recorded your conversation with Carlos,
and that they bugged your room?
JEREMY
No. How could you know that?
CECIL
I have spies, too. Actually, that's why I
insisted on getting you, Tara, and Steve
offworld. I knew that a search warrant
was inevitable.
JEREMY
What would a search warrant for Microcore
have to do with Tara or Steve?
CECIL
The government's got their eye on you,
and they'll go through Tara, Steve, or
anyone else to learn the nature of your
association with me. I had to make all
three of you inaccessible.
JEREMY
That explains your insistence on sending
me to Mars.
CECIL
I also had to destroy all the Venus
Project data and the schematics for the
neutrino engine prototype.
JEREMY
So you did launch a neutrino engine.
CECIL
Yes. Professor Klein finally deciphered
the eighty pages of schematics. It was a
blueprint for building the engine. Since
I knew the government was trying to
obtain a search warrant for Microcore, I
thought I'd better test the prototype
while I still had the chance.
JEREMY
Everyone was pretty freaked out when it
started heading for Eridanus. They
thought you were working with the aliens.
CECIL
It seemed as good a destination as any. I
guess I didn't think it through. But
since you still have the crystal, we can
reassemble the data.
JEREMY
