Panel 1

Maya walking down a slope as she unzips the collar of her shirt, trailing speech bubbles behind her.

Annette, offscreen: "If the drug doesn't work they'll tear you apart!"

Maya: "I know."

Annette: "Even it it does, they probably will anyways!"

Maya: "I'm aware."

Annette: "You're insane."

Maya: "Probably."

Panel 2

Maya: "Tell the scrummers not to take me out of it until I'm right on top of the thing."

Maya pushes a bright blue vial into a shunt at the base of her neck.

Maya: "It'll run my day if I have to punch my way through a mob of kids."

Panel 3

Annette, offscreen: "Ready?"

Maya stands at the top of a ridge, overlooking a series of low hills. In the distance a crater spills pinkish-light, with a column of dark smoke rising from its center. Blimps with spotlights circle the crater. The valley is dotted with the silhouettes of children, loitering aimlessly.

Maya: "Not really."

Panel 4

Annette, offscreen: "See you soon, Maya."

Maya looks forward, gaze steady. The vial in her shunt is full.

Panel 5

The vial is half full. Maya gasps, surprised. A blue cast suffuses the background.

Panel 6

Close up on Maya's neck. The vial empties.

Panel 7

Close up on Maya's face, painterly. There are dark shadows in the hollow of her eyes, below her cheeks, in her agumentation. Her brows are furrowed, her eyes are half open.

Maya, narrated: "I feel the drug rush through miy mind. All thoughts, of the Von Neumann Probes,

Of the expedtion,

Of Vanja,

of the Last Kingdom, fall away.

With them go my worries, my aspirations. My regrets.

If this were scrum, they would find me again within the data stream,

But cascade leaves me here, without them."

Panel 8

Maya, narrated: "All I have left is the present---a string of moments, one after the next,

Each one an eternity unto itself.

Separate,

Whole."

Blue light suffuses the panel. Maya's expression softens, her eyes close.

Maya, narrated: "Pure."

Panel 9

Annette, on a more distant hilltop, looks down on Maya's ridge.

Scrummers, offscreen: "She's totally lost it."

Annette holds her face in her hand.

Annette: "Dammit, Maya."

In the distance, Maya pirouettes to imagined music. Her silhouette is tinged with blue.

Maya, narrated: "It's a beautiful night."