But he's the writer. He's doing all this writing with the story, with who gets pulled into it. Doesn't he have some control over it? [ Saga shakes her head too, in something that's a cross between disbelief and frustration. ] Hostile to human life... it sounds like you're describing another planet.

[ But Saga isn't without a sense of empathy, and Jesse's descriptions do touch a nerve inside her. ] If it's that hostile, how has he not... well, died?

Okay, say that he isn't as much of a monster or an asshole as I've been thinking. What kind of ending do we need to stop the threat, save Wake, and get my daughter out of this whole mess? And, obviously, get you and everyone else out too.

[ Saga's frown deepens. When phrased like that, this whole thing seems all but insurmountable. ]

Are you sure that this is even possible? I don't mean to doubt, but I don't like the odds we're up against.

[ Still, Saga's getting the idea that she's misjudged Alan by a lot. She feels a twinge of sympathy for both Jesse and the trapped writer. It can't have been easy on either of them, but especially not for Alan. He's not the coldhearted villain that she painted him as in her thoughts. ]

Well, let's not send him on any trips, unless it's a trip out of wherever the hell he is. I won't mention it to him, don't worry. And, well, while we're on the subject of Wake...

[ Something like a knowing look comes to her eyes as she looks over the other woman. ]

Call me crazy, but- you care about him too, don't you? Just a hunch. [ It's just how she talks about him, and little things that happen to Jesse's voice when she's doing it. Maybe it's just worry, but that can appear as a kind of caring too. ]