“Very little,” Hart admitted. “She’s so focused on the Alcubierre drive, I worry about distracting her. I—” She stopped. “For all her years out of the military, Hixon’s still very loyal. She follows orders, she doesn’t tend to question leadership. I worry that she might not agree. Think I’m looking for something that isn’t there.”

“And Lebedeva basically worships the ground Valerie walks on,” Naomi said, quiet.

“Sure. But a few months ago, I’d have sworn the same about you.”

Naomi grimaced, but didn’t correct her. She floated over to the pods, stopping in front of Cole’s.

“Do you miss him?” Hart asked.

“No,” Naomi answered honestly. “I wish he wasn’t dead, but no.”

As she moved away, her fingertips grazed the screen that had once shown Cole’s readouts, the ones that Hart had scoured for evidence that whoever was in those pods was no longer there. The screen blared bright, as if it had just been in hibernation.

Hart’s head snapped towards it. “Valerie said she disconnected those entirely from the system.”

The screen display was different, but Naomi couldn’t make out what it meant. “Hart—” she started, but Hart had already drifted to her.

Hart squinted. “This doesn’t make any sense. It says it’s still active.”

“But it’s dark, and no one’s in it,” Naomi said. “And we’ve had no other surges.”

“Yesterday Jerrie said fuel efficiency was all good. What if I just—”

Hart clicked the release on the cryopod. They both jerked back. Naomi reached for a handhold to steady herself, and Hart grabbed Naomi’s forearm.

Cole’s pod lid hissed as it released outward. Inside was empty, dark. Naomi’s skin prickled with goosebumps. At first, she put it down to nerves, an uneasiness of staring into what was essentially a coffin, but Hart’s skin was the same.

The air was colder.

Naomi grasped the lip of the cryopod. The metal was frigid. If she squinted, right at the corner was the barest glimmer. She pressed her finger against the faint, blue light.

“There’s something behind it,” Naomi whispered. “In the walls.”

A hiss as Hart opened the cryopod next to Cole’s. Who had that one belonged to? Josh? She’d already forgotten.

“Don’t see any light here,” Hart said. “But it could be fitted better?”

Naomi ran her hands along the inside of the cryopod, trying not to think of Cole, cold and stiff and gone. Her fingers found a latch. Her fingers almost burned with the cold. With a sickening certainty, she clicked it.