Naomi shook her head. “No, you do your thing. But do tell them I’m only a maybe. And if I want to stay out of the spotlight, that’ll be okay, right?”

Cole’s teeth were white. “Of course.”

“Cole, you forgot your—”

The door closed with a snap.

“—jacket.” It lay on the back of his chair. She picked it up, and something clattered as it fell from his pocket. She bent down to pick it up, pinching it between thumb and forefinger.

A small white pill stamped with DMAU. His birth control pill.

The door opened again. Naomi shoved the pill back into his pocket.

“Forgot my—ah, thanks,” Cole said, plucking it from her numb hands. He gave her another kiss, this time on the lips, as if he couldn’t help himself.

“Have a good day,” Naomi said, faintly.

She’d seen him put the pill on the table next to his vitamins, like he did every morning. He’d seemed so good at taking it every morning. She knew he’d forgotten a time or two, but he’d not known what consequences she faced. They’d stopped using condoms a few months ago. He complained they kept bunching. She wasn’t fond of them either, and so she’d relented. It didn’t matter, anyway.

But he didn’t know that.

She went to the medical cupboard, picked up his pill pack, flipped it to the back. Days of the week. Today was Wednesday. The pill was missing. Had he forgotten to take it another day… or had he palmed the pill that morning and only pretended to take it with his orange juice?

Naomi hadn’t told him about the pregnancy, but this, this was like poking holes in condoms and not telling her. Wasn’t circumventing birth control revoking consent?

She sat back down at the table, staring at the whorls of the wood. A pregnancy and a baby would be a great subplot for a documentary series about the Martian astronaut and the space botanist, wouldn’t it?

She downed her bitter coffee in one gulp.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

127 Days After Launch

4 Days to Mars

122 Days to Cavendish

“What the hell do we do about this?” Hart asked.

They were in the greenhouse. They’d put the embryos back behind the cryopods. Naomi checked the crops, dark as charcoal in the purple light. She’d be able to harvest the latest crop of strawberries soon. Eat some fresh, dry the rest for their stores. She picked the berries, one by one. Naomi snuck one, the sweetness bursting on her tongue. Hart came over and helped. If anyone peered in through the window of the door, it’d look like they were busy at work.