Naomi still hoped for the moon, or Mars. Maybe even as far as Titan. But no further. She’d long since come to terms with the fact that the little biome of Cavendish she’d made with seeds from the probe was the closest she’d ever get.

“Don’t taunt me, V. They’d never let the likes of us go. Even if you could figure out how.” The news had reported NASA’s latest failure—a probe full of rats, returned in one piece, every rodent frozen solid.

Valerie waved a hand. “We have Jerrie Hixon with the team now.”

Naomi raised her eyebrows, impressed. She remembered her. Sharp pilot. Sharp mind.

“She’s on the case with the calculations. We’ll be able to get within one AU of Cavendish using the drive, I’m certain of it. Let me worry about the government. I need you to keep us fed all the way to that planet. I need you, Naomi. No one else will do.”

Naomi felt something bright and white and hot as a young sun deep in her chest. The shock and depth of her want winded her. Cavendish. A chance at Cavendish.

Valerie motioned to the barkeep—a dour man with a face like a walnut—to bring water. Naomi buried her head in the glass, gathering her thoughts. She prided herself on never showing too much. She was the calm one, the collected one. The one that others turned to when they were losing it.

The conversation flowed around them, people in the pub unwinding after a long day at work.

“I can’t break my contract,” Naomi said, hoping she still sounded cool.

Valerie scoffed, deep in her throat. She knew she had Naomi on the hook. “If Lockwood goes after you, I have plenty to threaten them with. Honestly, Nomi—” Naomi noted Valerie’s use of her childhood nickname; clever—“do you even realise who you’re working for? They’ve done some messed-up shit.”

As if you haven’t, Naomi wanted to say. All corporations were the same. As long as they paid the bills to let her continue her research, Naomi tried not to think about the darker edges. A privilege, she knew, and one that still made her culpable, even if she pleaded ignorance.

“Let me show you the data and where we are,” Valerie said. “Take some leave, come to California with me. You have to at least see the Atalanta. We’ll start ferrying the pieces constructed on the ground to space in the next three months. The assembly hub is already being built.” Her eyes rose, as if she could see through the smoke-stained timber to the sky.