Valerie let her hair fall over her face, the fight leaving the line of her shoulders. “It was a critical error. Pushing too far. If I had simply given you the cure, we would be on our way to Cavendish now, wouldn’t we?”

“We might,” Naomi admitted. “You still lost any chance of keeping me by your side as soon as you released the virus.” Naomi strode forward, bent down to Valerie’s eye level. Pressed the weapon underneath Valerie’s chin, forcing it up so she couldn’t look away. “You killed my mother. My ex-husband. You tried to kill everyone I’ve ever known. You may have inoculated your own son but you still left him there.”

Valerie hesitated. “Is Evan…?”

Naomi laughed, the sound harsh. Her finger was still on the trigger, but she hadn’t pressed it. She wanted to give Valerie a blast of electricity, let it ripple through her nervous system like lightning. “Now you ask? Did you think he’d skip along merrily to your version of Cavendish after you let him watch the world die?”

Valerie raised her head, shaking her curls back, unable to meet Naomi’s eyes. “I have nothing left. I’ve made all my plays.” She lapsed into silence.

When she spoke again, her voice was hesitant. “I don’t want to live my life behind bars. I don’t deserve it, but I’d like to ask one last thing of you.” She swallowed, the whites of her eyes showing as she leaned closer to the weapon against her skin, glancing at the hull as if she could see through it. “Leave me out there.”

Naomi stayed crouched in front of the woman she’d loved, worshipped, been so damn desperate to please.

She was tempted. Naomi allowed herself to imagine Valerie wrapped in the same black rubber sheeting as Cole after she’d killed him. Pressing the button. There, then gone. An eternity out in the cold.

Valerie saw Naomi waver. “Please.”

“You’re afraid to face what you did,” Naomi said. She pulled the weapon from Valerie’s skin. The tip had made a small indent against her neck. “You’d have to live with them cursing your name. Easier, isn’t it, to blink out now?”

Naomi stood, her knees protesting, and went to the door.

“Why take the easy option?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

177 Days After Launch

84 Days to Earth

Over the next few weeks, the Atalanta’s reduced crew had settled into some semblance of order. The four of them did the work of five people, with the added bonus of looking after a prisoner. Naomi had officially bowed out of that duty after her last conversation with Valerie. No one pushed her on it.

Naomi’s belly filled out her coveralls. Twenty-seven weeks along. The baby was big enough its lungs breathed amniotic fluid. She felt it kicking, the inside of her stomach tender.