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Back Goldilocks Save as PDF
Chapters (52)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. 30 Years After
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. 30 Years After
  45. Acknowledgements
  46. Discover More
  47. extras
  48. meet the author
  49. A Preview of "The World Gives Way"
  50. A Preview of "Nophek Gloss"
  51. By Laura Lam
  52. Praise for

Satellites around Mars had captured the Atalanta for the last few days, streaming grainy photos and videos back to Earth. On their home planet, whether they hated the Atalanta 5 or not, everyone would be glued to screens, waiting to see a spaceship disappear.

The greatest magic trick. To an outside eye, it’d be there one minute, gone the next.

“Ready?” Hixon asked.

“As we’ll ever be,” Valerie replied.

Naomi reached out across the distance and clasped Valerie’s hand, giving it a squeeze. Valerie’s gaze flicked to hers, the corners of her mouth turned up.

The launch sequence started. As the numbers counted down, Naomi found her voice.

“Now you see us!” she called.

Three. Two. One.

Now you don’t.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

6 Years Before Launch

Pasadena, California

Valerie had arranged all of it.

The day after Naomi had flown to Valerie’s house, she realised that had all been for nothing.

She had started bleeding on the plane. Light spotting. She’d known that could be normal, thought nothing much of it, and it soon stopped. The next morning, not long before the doctor was to visit under the guise of giving Valerie her biannual check-up, the bleeding returned. Heavy, dark and almost grey. Too much. Naomi was bent double in pain, clutching a hot water bottle. Valerie’s hand brushed Naomi’s forehead medicinally, reminding Naomi of when she’d stayed home from school with soup, pillows and bad TV.

Valerie frowned at her fever and asked the doctor to come sooner.

She was a tiny woman, under five feet tall. The doctor didn’t give her name and kept her filter mask on the entire time to ensure her anonymity. Naomi remembered a soft, Indian accent, dark hair in a thick braid to the middle of her back, and gentle eyes.

Naomi knew before the doctor said anything that she was losing the baby, and that she was bleeding enough that the doctor was worried. Instead of a conversation where the doctor walked her through her procedures and made sure she was sure of her decision, the abortion done on the plastic-lined teenage bed of her old room, Valerie drove her to the hospital herself. Naomi’s memories fractured at that point, from the pain and the drugs that followed as soon as she was through the double doors.