Ten minutes left.

Tausson jogged through the abandoned White House, calling for Tierney and the President. There had been no clues in her office, but the hint of her scent clung to the couch, a ghost of their night of lovemaking. He'd opened every door he came across, but found nothing.

Was she even here? Had she gone home afterwards to spend her last night on Earth in her own bed? Hopelessness threatened to swallow him up, whispering to him to stay and choose death rather than life without Tierney. He stopped moving and took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind, to think rationally about where they both could be.

A distant banging pricked his ears. He held his breath, his own pounding heart threatening to drown out the sound. He ran a few steps in the direction he thought it was coming from, then stopped. He didn't seem to be any closer. Then he fell to the floor and set his ear on the carpet.

Yes -- it was coming from below.

His sleeve chirped. "Tausson, transmit," ordered Carterra.

He almost ignored it, but her voice was unclear and ominously intermittent.

Racing down the hall, opening every door to find a way to the lower level, he tapped his mechasuit and said, "Squad, Commander."

When she replied, only some of her words came through, but he understood the message. "Tauss... teroid is interf... ignal. Conv... ficult the long... wait."

"But the asteroid is still a few hours away," he said, throwing open the door to yet another empty office.

"...iggest we've encou...must leave..."

Finally he found a set of stairs leading downwards. He nearly leapt down the entire flight in one jump. "I hear them, Carterra, I'm almost there. I'll have them back on the Irral before you're in danger, I swear."

"Five minutes, Taus--" Her transmission abruptly ended, but Tausson hardly noticed. The banging was louder now, closer.

"Tierney!" he shouted. "President Freeland!"

Suddenly the door he was running towards burst open, and out tumbled Tierney, still naked, with a bucket in her hands.

"Tierney!" he cried, racing to her.

"Tausson!" She was struggling to get up amidst the broken and splintered wood that had been a door moments before. He lifted her out of the debris and held her to him, paralyzed by joy and relief.

"Come to join our bakery party?"

Tausson looked down to see President Freeland, wrapped in a tarp, lying on the floor of the closet they had been locked in. He wanted to ask what had happened and how they'd been trapped there, but he knew they had no time.

"We must convey immediately," he said. "The cart has already begun its retreat, and the asteroid is beginning to interfere with communication waves."

Tierney reached out for the President's hands and helped her up. President Freeland winced as she stood.

"Are you harmed?" he asked.

Leaning on Tierney, she said, "Just sore all over from throwing myself at an inordinately strong door."

"May I carry you?" he asked. "We must get above ground to convey." The President nodded, and though he wished he could be carrying Tierney instead, he cradled her in his arms and ran back to the stairs, with Tierney right behind him.

"What's the fastest way outside?" he asked. Tierney led them through a nearby exit to the same garden where Tausson had first greeted the President a month ago. He gestured to Tierney to hug him close, then set his mechasuit to lock into the coordinates of the Irral. The world around him began to blur, but instead of disappearing, it came back together, reforming until he was again on the White House lawn.

"What happened?" asked Tierney. "We started to convey, didn't we?"

Tausson reset the conveyance coordinates and tried once more, still carrying the President with one arm and clutching Tierney against him with the other. Again Earth turned fuzzy, and again it cleared up.

"The asteroid is too near," he said, setting the President on her feet. "Conveying three at a time is too complex."

He turned to Tierney, but she stepped away. "No, take Nelle."

"I'm not leaving you," he said, grabbing her arm.

"You'll come back for me." She pointed to Nelle. "Take her first."

"Tierney!" He couldn't leave her here. The interference was growing stronger by the second. What if he couldn't make it back?

Though she had tears in her eyes, she slapped him across the cheek. "That is the true President of the United States!" she yelled. "She must be safe to keep Caleb and Jonas from getting power. Now get out of here!"

She was right. His command instincts shouted at him to listen, to take the leader first and return for love second. The greater good had to be served. Even the President herself knew it was true, though tears streamed down her cheeks.

Though he knew he was wasting time, he gripped Tierney's arms and jerked her against him. Pressing his lips to hers, he kissed her for as long as he dared, then he jumped away before he gave in to the temptation to convey with her.

Grabbing ahold of the President, he entered the coordinates. His eyes locked on Tierney as the world around them fell away, drinking in the memory of her courage, her strength, her beauty, and praying it wouldn't be the last time he saw her.

* * *

Tierney watched the spot where Tausson and Nelle had been long after they vanished. She was afraid to move, afraid to breathe, afraid to do anything that would risk his return.

But the longer they were gone, the less hopeful she was that Tausson would come for her. The way he'd looked at her as they conveyed, it was as if he knew it would be the last time he'd ever see her. Maybe it was.

Earth was surprisingly serene for a planet that was only hours away from destruction. Her heart ached for the animals doomed for extinction: the beloved pets, the stunningly diverse and resilient wildlife. Humanity had done so little for the Earth, and so much to it. The planet deserved its solitude, its salvation from humanity. Endangered species would be able to rebound and thrive without humans killing them or burning their habitats, nature would purge the filth people dumped in its oceans and buried under its soil. Earth didn't deserve its fiery end any more than Nelle did.

Still Tausson wasn't back. Tierney wondered if she should go to the bakery herself and make up a tray. Would she eat it there? Maybe in the middle of the street?

She lay back on the grass instead, guiltless sweets having lost their allure. The grass pricked against her bare skin, and the sun shone down through white, fluffy clouds.

Tierney thought of Shoshu, and the picture frame she'd seen of the alien family. No one would find any remnants of her. Even if Earth did rebound millions of years from now, her ashes would have been turned into soil, and soil into rock. There would be no trace of her.

What was it that Tausson had said when he met Nelle that first day? Tierney had watched the security footage of it a few times afterward in an effort to understand the Relicans better.

The soil is within us. We are within the soil.

Well, that would certainly be true of her.

The sky began to brighten. Was that the asteroid already? Her heart started beating harder against her chest, and she breathed deeply, trying to stay calm, to surrender to the inevitable and meet her death with dignity.

The clouds turned hazy, and the blue sky darkened.

What's going on?

She tried to sit up, but found she was locked in place. Her body felt numb, loose, disconnected. Finally she understood.

She wanted to smile, to cry, to scream, but could do nothing other than let her body dissolve. So instead she silently said goodbye to the Earth, to the animals, the plants, the oceans, and the countless people who had lived and died there.

Thank you, she thought, as the black veil fell, obscuring her planet, her home, until there was nothing but darkness.

Thank you for loving us.