Mind-manipulating Chabon had been easy. Putting Forster on the right path was set. His wife had no interest in him, and his remaining daughter Nadine was so distraught over the change in her parents' dynamic that she turned from them to join what the Institute assessed to be a cult.

For the other core crewmembers on Russ's list, (to include Samuel, Tiptree, and Guin), she had a harder time of things.

She flitted back and forth to certain days, years, trying different manipulations. Most didn't take. Finally, she decided she had to work from what she had been told, rather than what she assumed. In the case of Forster, she had been told about the falling out with his wife, and this was confirmed in her mind because of his relationship with Guin. Therefore, in re-wiring Chabon, she had found what the universe would allow.

The thought of what she was allowed to do seemed silly. However, in all her manipulations, Russ found there were rules. It took her several tries to understand that a failure meant it wasn't supposed to happen. For instance, she tried convincing Samuel to outright break up with Rotsberg. If he ended his relationship, they would never marry, and he would be on the right track. Only, every time she planted the thought of "break up with Rotsberg" in his mind, Samuel inevitably wound up back in her bed.

Fearing that her first manipulation had similarly failed, she checked on Chabon. Then wished she hadn't. The scene had been full of a sweaty, gyrating couple that hadn't included Forster, and it wasn't something Russ wanted to see. Nor did she want to necessarily be reminded of the fact that she was responsible for her mentor's broken marriage.

Though, the visit confirmed that she could be successful. She just had to plant the right impulse.

Part of her worried about motivations for carrying out the subterfuge. It was possible she was doing all this selfishly, to ensure she didn't end up stuck at the same dead-end job, living a pathetic existence in the adult Dorms.

Another part inside of Russ was still bent on the mission, sure that this was the way it had always been. If she couldn't convince the crew to rally for the mission, she feared the S.S. Delaney would pass through the anomaly and merge with this alternate (and wrong) present.

~*~

One down, three to go.

Instead of trying to edge Samuel away from Rotsberg (which Russ identified as petty, and yes, entirely fueled by jealously), she thought back to what he had told her.

"I found the evidence, then confronted her."

She shadowed the man she had grown to care for, noting his tendency to pour over reports, scanning for variance. Though he wasn't yet scanning over anything mission related, as the mission had yet to get the green light, he was thorough. Russ reached out with transient tendrils to connect to Samuel's mind. His mind was alight and bursting at the seams with drawers of questions and knowledge. In one of the open drawers, she planted a note that read:

Failed twice. Last chance.

With that, she was confident he would uncover Rotsberg's complicity. She jumped ahead by a month, and they were no longer a couple. The mind manipulation had worked two-fold, and had driven Samuel to convince Rotsberg that a third and final mission was needed. It was humanity's last chance, he told her.

Next, she focused on Guin, thinking to when she'd first emerged as Estrenar. It had been odd to hear her every random thought. But now, these tidbits were helpful, particularly:

"I was going to be a nurse. Until Trent fucking fired me."

It was a definitive moment for Guin. At the time, Russ hadn't known that.

In following a younger and far nicer Guin, she found that Trent was the supervisor of the volunteers at the hospital. Russ peeked inside his head, containing far less drawers than Samuel's, and he had no designs on firing anyone.

Bingo.

Russ lingered in his head, and left a note behind:

Patients complain about Guin. She's going to piss off the wrong person.

When she followed up with Guin a year later, the woman was fielding calls in a run-down building in downtown Vegas. The stencil on her office door read "Union Head."

"Women and men who work hard deserve to be paid, and they deserve rights, like everyone else," Guin was saying.

A pin on her lapel read: SEX RIGHTS, LET'S UNITE.

Russ was more amused than she was tired. The manipulation had played out, but it had veered Guin into an entirely different line of work than intended. After she was fired, Russ followed her for days, trying new manipulations, but none had any staying power.

Then, she watched as an Initiative operative offered Guin a spot at Academy, but assuming the woman had been hitting on her, Guin passed. Russ followed the woman, Sandi, and connected with her mind. Instead of drawers, Russ found tables and baskets. Kind of a fun mess, she decided. She scrawled a message and slapped it on an empty table:

Guin is a worthy recruit. Worth a second follow up.

When Russ fast-forwarded into Guin's future, she wasn't a nurse or a Union organizer. She was training at the Institute, just like she was supposed to.

However, upon visiting Kass, Russ learned that she had been invited as the lead anthropologist on for the S.S. Delaney mission. This would push Guin out, and change how focused Tiptree would be, Russ decided. She found the Initiative coordinator in charge of compiling experts for the mission, good ol' Sandi, and convinced her that her acquaintance Guin was a better choice.

Sandi's interface detailed the entire crew list, alerting Russ to the fact that she, Forster, Samuel, and Tiptree were not on it.