"My fine android sir," you declare, waving your arm about dramatically. "Please take this... this creature away!"

"On what grounds, sir?" it asks impassively.

"Because it is a mime and I wish to sell it!" you announce, suddenly. Wow, where did that come from?

"Hmmm," states the robot. "It doesn't display any of the normal mime indicators, sir. There is no beret, no black-and-white makeup, no striped clothing, and it's very clearly speaking."

"Are you questioning me, robot?!" you bellow. A few other aliens look over at the noise, and tut to themselves quietly.

Then you realise, they're not tutting you. They're tutting at the android!

It looks around at the growing attention. "Of course, sir, how silly of me. I do apologise."

Grabbing the vole roughly by the arm, the android starts to drag the vole-man away, pausing only briefly when the alien objects, "No! I not mime! NO! NOOOO!"

But it's too late. More androids descend on the vole, and it's gone from your sight before you know it. A few of the aliens around give a gentle clap, or clack if they have the claws necessary to do so.

On the viddisplay before you, an image of the bedraggled vole creature appears, with a price of E20,000. Not a great price, but you'll take it!

It sells in seconds.

Even once the commission is taken out, that's not a small amount of money. It's enough to buy you out of QuarrixCo and to get a ticket to a small, isolated, ice-moon, with just enough left over to buy a plot of land just big enough to live on.

Once there, you build yourself a cabin by hand, chopping down nearby trees to serve as raw materials. It's not easy going, and you lose a couple of toes and one finger to hypothermia. But, you manage to get it finished and just barely furnished by winter. It's going to be a harsh one, by the seems of things, and you might not have chopped enough wood to fuel the fire. And it's going to be hard to hunt for food when the lake freezes.

But it's a simple, honest existance. And maybe, since you literally sold an innocent into slavery to get here, it's about as much as you deserve.


It's up to your own initiative as to whether you survive to see spring. And spring won't be much kinder. This isn't a lose, but there are better endings. If you want to find one, turn back to page 1.