How to not kill Keller

As I mentioned two days ago, at the beginning of Part 2 of Rome's Revolution, Rei and Rome had a spirited debate as to whether they should awaken Captain Keller after they found him floating among the boulders of the inner Oort Cloud. After some discussion, cooler heads prevailed and they decided to keep him in the frozen state until they arrived at Deucado.

Unfortunately for Captain Keller, I had already made my decision that what was then VIRUS 5, Book 2, would be all about action, action, action. The first thing I intended to occur was for Rei and Rome to be attacked upon their arrival at Deucado. I knew that MINIMCOM was going to crash land and fuse with the tug's airframe to become the character we know today.

So how to save "poor" Captain Keller who was bungy-corded in the back of the tug? How could he end up not being crushed when the 7000 metric tonne Ark II landed on top of him? Here is the scene where Rei recovered the sarcophagus:

     The retrieval operation went fairly smoothly. Rei had a little trouble grabbing onto the railing surrounding the sarcophagus but once he gripped it, he was able to swing up and straddle it like a would-be cowboy on an artificial bull. A few short bursts of the hand thruster extricated the sarcophagus from its rocky neighbors. A couple more bursts and Rei and his ride glided smoothly back to the waiting confines of MINIMCOM’s cargo compartment. Once inside, MINIMCOM slowly re-activated the artificial gravity. The heavy object settled gently onto the cargo bay floor. Rei hopped off and used the blue stud to seal and re-pressurize the cargo compartment. As soon as the indicator turned green, Rei removed his helmet and ran over to the sarcophagus.
     While the faceplate was completely iced over, the nameplate said “Captain M. Keller” confirming Rei’s suspicions. Rei stooped down, examining the rods and panel, locating the bars he needed to turn to begin the thaw cycle. (Of course he did not turn them in the end)
     After securing the sarcophagus with some short tethers stored in the cargo bay, Rei spoke up. “All right, MINIMCOM, he’ll be safe here by himself. I’m ready to get back to Rome.”

Knowing what was coming next, I made sure that Rei secured the sarcophagus at the back of the cargo compartment, near the cargo hatch. That way, when MINIMCOM's tug was crushed beneath the Ark, MINIMCOM's final act as an autonomous computer was to angle the tug so that the rear section was extended outside the kill zone.

As I've always said, you have to know how it ends before you begin. The following image has nothing to do with Rome's Revolution. It is from the TV show Lost which I loved!