Valerie told them to meet her in the rec room. For the barest hesitation, Naomi and the others debated staying put, barricading themselves on the bridge, but that would only last as long as their hunger and thirst did. They climbed the ladder back to the ring, rung by rung, their bodies gradually growing heavier. As second in command, Hixon took the lead, Naomi next, with Hart and Lebedeva trailing behind.

Valerie waited for them. She’d shifted the background of the rec room to the proposed landing site on Cavendish—a clearing surrounded by the same blue-green moss and ferns Naomi had grown back on Earth. The gentle waves of the freshwater lake lapped at the shore. Mountains rose in the distance, tinged orange and pink in the haze. Valerie had uploaded her blueprints to the program, as if Catherine Lovelace’s robots had already erected the ghostly outlines of buildings. The sleeping pods were clustered around a main structure that would be largely 3D printed. The bridge of the Atalanta would remain in orbit. The ark ships out would hopefully carry hundreds, or at least dozens, rather than five. Their largest ships were designed for thousands. The VR wall showed the outline of the greenhouse where Naomi was to conduct her experiments. Valerie had even added vague animated figures coming and going. Living their idyllic, golden life on their new planet.

Valerie perched on a raised chaise that fit her body like a cupped hand. The orange of Cavendish’s sun softened her features but couldn’t erase the obvious anger coiled through every line of her body. Naomi fought off the urge to curl her shoulders; it was like she was fourteen again, standing in front of Valerie to be berated for some infraction.

“Take a seat,” Valerie said as four more chairs rose from the ground—lower than Valerie’s, Naomi noticed. She eased into her chair, her heartbeat thudding steadily in her ears.

“Well,” Valerie said after they’d settled. “You’ve certainly been busy.”

“You’re spying on us,” Hart said.

Valerie gave a sardonic half-smile. “Don’t act sanctimonious now, Hart, when y’all have been questioning me, my leadership, and the mission.” With a pained sigh, she gave each of them an uncomfortably long look. “I thought when I picked you out of the hundreds of candidates clamouring for the job it was because you knew the significance of reaching Cavendish. That it was of the utmost importance, no matter what happened back on Earth.”

Naomi focused on the spiderweb of the base camp spun in delicate gossamer over the backdrop behind Valerie.

“Why are there embryos on board, Dr. Black?” Hart asked, biting back her anger. “As medic, I should have been made aware. There are experiments I could have been conducting, ensuring their health and viability.”