She kicks her chair back and starts pacing. Her hair swings out every time she turns like an angry swipe of a red blade.

“Bartie and I talked about it. Doc will stay here and he will be punished, but Bartie’s going to give him a tree-all.”

“A trial,” Amy corrects me automatically.

I didn’t ask Bartie what Doc’s punishment would be. Not death—they need a doctor, and Kit’s coming with us to Centauri-Earth. But Bartie was closer to Victria than I was, and I know Doc’s punishment will be severe.

“So, that’s it?” Amy says, “You two are splitting up the bad guys? Bartie gets Doc and you get Orion?”

“Something like that,” I say. Bartie needed Doc, but neither of us knew what to do with Orion. If he wakes up on the ship, Doc will support him and undermine Bartie. If he comes with us to the new planet, he’ll still cause trouble. Neither of us was willing to unplug him or throw him out of the hatch. In the end, I volunteered.

“It’s not fair,” she says. “Why should he come? He’s just going to cause more chaos. Can’t you see that? He’s frozen, and people are still being killed and blowing up all kinds of crap for him. Imagine what he’ll do when he wakes up.”

I shake my head. “It was always the plan. He would wake up with the other frozens, and they would judge him for his crimes.”

“You don’t have to make them judge,” she shoots back. “You could just leave him here.”

I could. I know I could. It would be far simpler. But I also know—because, no matter how much I want to deny it, we’re bound—so I know, I know . . . he wants off. He left those clues for Amy to find, he left the decision for Amy to make . . . but the mere fact that he left clues, that he didn’t destroy our hope of leaving shows that, ultimately, he—like me—wants off Godspeed.

I can’t condemn him to a life behind the walls of Godspeed, even if he deserves it.

“I’ll let the frozens judge him, and I’ll stick by what they say,” I tell Amy.

Her lips tighten; there’s a narrow white line on the edge of them. “It won’t be as simple as that, and you know it.”

“He’s going to the new planet,” I say.

Amy stops in her tracks. “If you do this, things can’t be the same between us. I can’t believe you’re even considering taking Orion with us.”

“I can’t believe you’d take away the planet from anyone, even Orion.”

She looks at me as if my words have punched her, then runs to the grav tube without another word.