As Valerie turned the doorknob to leave, Naomi thrust out the bag of freshly-pressed nutriblocks. “These could hitch a ride to the kitchen with you.”

Valerie wrinkled her nose, but she took one out of the bag and popped it in her mouth, grimacing and chewing. “So gross.”

After the door slammed, Naomi’s plastered smile fell.

“I have to talk to Evan,” she said to the little zinnia flowers. “Fuck.”

Naomi shifted on her chair in the VR rec room—the large console doubled as the main comms point. She hadn’t spent much time in here, even as Valerie kept reminding her that yes, downtime was essential, algae emergency or not.

They could watch films or play a few games. They could also exercise in here instead of the gym, running in place and pretending they were jogging through forested trails or along the beach, the pixellated landscapes a pale stand-in for the real thing, even if the floors, walls, and ceiling were made with a flexible, programmable material that could raise false rock croppings or nearly whatever they desired.

Naomi put her fingers on the keypad.

Atalanta: Evan, it’s Naomi. I’m going to send you the DNA sequence of the phage that I’ve isolated. First, can you search GenBank to figure out what phage this is by matching the genetic sequence to the ones on file? Then I’ll need you to blast it against the database and tell me which receptor and which part of the receptor the phage targeted. At that point, I can use gene editing to change the shape of the offending receptor. Voila. No more virus.

She added a few specific databases and authors that would be good starting points. There would be a small delay before Evan got her message. He should be at the comms hub—it was ten at night in California—but he might not respond immediately.

The further away the ship flew from Earth, the longer the delays would be. The position of the planets would also have an effect. It could take anywhere from three to twenty-two minutes for a signal from Earth to reach Mars. With current positions, it’d be about four minutes, so a minimum of eight minutes between messages. Once they jumped through the ring, it’d take months. Communications would have to be sent through the rings via probes, like messages in bottles. Twenty minutes later, she had her first reply.

Earth: Hello from Earth, Atalanta. V told me about the algae trouble. I’ll look through those and send you anything else I find on what these phases are targeting on your spirulina. Any other search parameters?