Sea of Tranquility

Part 5 has no chapter breaks or asterisks between sections. It picks up where Part 3 left off—with Olive asking Gaspery to go off the record to talk about her experience at the Oklahoma City Airship Terminal. She admits that after seeing the violinist there was darkness and then she saw a forest, as if she were in two places at once. Gaspery asks her if a time traveler told her to “drop everything and go home immediately” (172), would she? He uses his name being the same as the character in her book to persuade her and leaves the interview as her publicist arrives. Olive tells Aretta that she’s ending the tour early and goes to the airship terminal without getting her suitcase from the hotel.

On the way, Olive calls Dion and asks him to pull Sylvie out of school. He doubts her assertion about the pandemic spreading but agrees. While waiting for her flight, Olive uses her device to order pharmaceuticals, bottled water, and toys for Sylvie. She then travels to the moon and sees that Dion scheduled a doctor’s appointment for her, still doubtful about the pandemic. Olive tries to practice social distancing while traveling and misses her suitcase in Colony Two.