Galen was given time to compose himself. He took a cold shower, changed into the fresh clothes he was provided, and did the best he could to push the darkness deep down so that he could manage to function.
When he arrived in the Captain's office he looked dead inside.
"Have a seat, Galen," said the Captain.
Galen took the only remaining chair, the other two being occupied by Gibson and Mitzner. He wasted no time.
"You need to leave the rest of my people alone," he said "At the time I didn't take you seriously when you told me about the simulation. It will be the greatest regret of my entire life that I asked you to take me out without considering the full weight of that decision. What I have learned has utterly destroyed me. We can't allow this to happen to anyone else."
"You don't think that's a choice your people should be making for themselves?" asked Mitzner.
"There is no choice," said Galen, suddenly flushing with passion "There can never be any meaningful choice! Once you have revealed the truth about our world to someone they cannot choose to un-know it. Once we know the truth we lose everything. Everything! Even if it is an illusion it's all we have. Please, if you really want to help just leave my people alone."
"We will respect your decision, of course," said Littlecrow "But what about you, Galen? What will you do now? You can stay aboard the Armstrong if you like, for as long as you need. We are more than sufficiently outfitted to add another crew member. We could help you. I could help you. It may seem like you've lost everything now but there is a place for you out there in the galaxy, an amazing new life you have never dreamed of. You just need a little help to find it."
"I want to go back into the simulation," said Galen.
Mitzner and Littlecrow exchanged a quick, worried glance.
"You want to go back?" asked the Captain.
"I do," said Galen "Whatever it is, Zethes is my home. My friends are there, my family is there. I have children, grandchildren. Your Dr. Kang can say that they aren't 'real', that they're computer programs... all I know is what I know. They are the people I love and that's how it is."
Littlecrow sighed inwardly.
"I'll talk to Dr. Kang," she said "I'm certain that can be arranged. When do you want to go back in?"
"As soon as possible," said Galen "I've seen enough of the world outside."
* * *
"So that guy crying like that probably tipped the scales. It's looking like the Captain is going to leave these people how they are for sure," said McAfree, leaning against one of the towers of life support pods and providing no help to anyone "And you don't have any principled objection to that at all? Really?"
"Well yes," said Dr. Kang, still staring at the monitor-keyboard combo he had connected to the mainframe "In principle these people have a right to experience reality as it exists. In practice I don't care about any of these random collection of strangers enough to debase myself for their benefit by breaking my word to the Captain."
"You break your word to the Captain all the time!" said McAfree "So often that happens!"
"Nonsense, I am scrupulously honest with the Captain," said Dr. Kang "That's why I keep her out of the loop by and large. What she doesn't know can't obstruct me."
"You lied when you promised you wouldn't disconnect the Science Department from the rest of the ship anymore," said McAfree, crossing her arms.
"I promised the Captain nothing about the Science Department," insisted Dr. Kang, suddenly very serious "I merely gave non-committal answers that created the impression I was agreeing to her terms without ever actually agreeing. This time I gave my word cleanly. And if you can't keep your word when there are no loopholes to exploit how can you expect anyone to take you seriously as a person?"
"So you're really just going to leave these people to rot here?" asked McAfree.
"I certainly am," said Dr. Kang "Let them break out of their own mental prisons."
McAfree slid down the tower into a sitting position.
"Yeah I don't care about these weird old ostiches either," she said, twirling a strand of her hair "I'm just so bored," she stretched out the 'o' and played all kinds of linguistic games with it before finishing the word "And usually when we're on an away mission this long you've gone rogue by now."
"Do you want to play mental chess again?" asked Wagner.
McAfree sighed dramatically.
"Yes," she admitted.
"King's pawn to e4." said Wagner.
McAfree groaned.
"Again?" she asked "I beat you in seven but let's get this over with."
"You can't know that already," said Wagner.
"Exactly seven," said McAfree "Bishop's pawn to c5. I'm even more bored now."
"If you're that bored do some of Wagner's work," said Dr. Kang "I might still need you later because I'm doing something important so you're staying."
"Okay Wagner," said McAfree, lazily standing and walking over to where he was working "Don't even tell me your next move. I'm afraid I would black out from boredom if I even have to hear you say it. Just tell me whatever wretchedly banal monkey work the Doc has you performing."
"You're in a foul mood," said Wagner "Even for you."
"I'm helping you aren't I?" asked McAfree.
"Okay," said Wagner "I'm basically doing a routine diagnostic on all the ship's systems, only I have to do it with a patched-in monitor and a physical keyboard. And most of the hardware is really old and re-purposed from other, even older hardware. And none of the systems can communicate with one another."
"Mmmhmm," said McAfree, who didn't seem to be fully paying attention "Keyboard," she opened and closed her hand.
Wagner handed her the keyboard and shoved over to let her sit in front of the monitor. She began typing quickly.
"I'm just going to design a simple program that does your job," McAfree began to explain, then she stopped typing and stared seriously at the monitor.
"Um, Doc?" she yelled.
"What?" Dr. Kang yelled back.
"I think the reactor is leaking antimatter into infraspace," she said.
"Oh I figured that out a long time ago," Dr. Kang replied, not looking up from his monitor "These people are doomed."