Naomi stared down at Valerie’s prone frame. Her head was turned to the side, her mouth open. Features softened and slack. There was grey at her temples where her dye had grown out.

“I am glad my fake death was convincing,” Lebedeva said, wryly. “You should have used the potassium chloride. Saved us all a lot of trouble.”

Naomi shook her head. She found a clean cloth to press against her cheek to help staunch the bleeding. “I won’t let her make me a killer.”

Lebedeva grunted. “What will we do with her?”

Naomi considered. “Can you carry her to the rec room? We can set that up as a cell easily enough.”

Lebedeva nodded. “Sure.”

“Okay,” Naomi said. “Valerie will be out for a few hours with that dose, so we’ll leave her tied up here for now. First priority is to finish breaking Hart and Hixon out.” She thought for a moment. “To do that, I’ll get Hixon to see if she can crack encryption on Valerie’s files from her tablet—I’ll share the information Evan gave me on that. I wasn’t successful, but she’s better with computers.” If they couldn’t unlock the rooms, they wouldn’t be able to change trajectory and Naomi wouldn’t be able to get to her snow globe.

Naomi picked up her tablet, elation sinking as she saw no new messages. Focus on the current problem. Don’t think about Earth. Don’t think about Evan sneaking into a warehouse surrounded by guns and germs.

Lebedeva wasted no more time, leaving the med bay. Naomi gave Valerie one last look and then followed.

Hart and Hixon asked what was going on, but there wasn’t time to say more than that Valerie had been captured. Naomi read the instructions for breaking the encryption through the wall, having to almost yell them in order to be heard.

Hixon blessedly made quick work of the encryption, and she found the new lock code, as well as plenty of other notes on the modifications Valerie had made to the Atalanta. Nothing on the cure or the virus, though, at least not at first glance. When the locks finally clicked open, they had less than half an hour to make the trajectory shift.

Hixon’s black eye was darkening to a lurid purple. She sprinted down to the bridge to begin prepping coordinates, trajectories, and velocities. Hart gave Naomi a brief, hard hug before following her wife, limping from when Lebedeva had tripped her. Naomi wondered what had happened between the couple behind closed doors. Whether they were still at odds or had found a truce. Lebedeva went to shift Valerie from the med bay to the rec room before she woke up.