I'm a little bit ahead now at 26.8k, and things are coming along pretty okay. I had a blast writing from an alien perspective and misinterpreting everything the human characters do, and I'm starting to get the characters to become something now. MC actually needs some work, though, so I'm brainstorming some nice, impossible dream to give him. The alien is coming along nicely, thanks to pseudo-communist space Mongols, and the spy just needs another section dedicated to his POV.