“Where?” said Steve as Iona pulled him back the way he’d just come, toward the steps. He pulled his arm away: her grip was hurting him.

“In the ship. We’ve got to get out of here.”

“Now?”

“Yep.”

“What about the others?”

Iona turned and faced Steve, a haunted, panicked look in her eyes. “Dead. Both of them. It’s got out.”

“What’s got—You mean the Poramutantur?”

Iona nodded. “I don’t know how—”

“But . . .” Steve swallowed. “Who—”

“Saori.” Iona kept walking, urgently. “I don’t know when it happened—”

“Shit. She has been acting a bit—”

“Maybe it happened when we were escaping from the tower; she was the last one out through the window, wasn’t she? Maybe it got free from that oven—”

“But how do you know it’s her?”

“She killed Victor. I saw her out behind one of the domes, burying the body—”

“But are you sure that means she’s the Poramutantur?”

“Why else would she kill him? After all that’s happened—”

“Maybe she just flipped.”

“In that case she’s a murderer and I’m still not traveling across space with her.”

“What did you do when you saw this?”

“She hadn’t seen me so I came back to the facility to wait for you.” By now they had reached the steps leading out of the valley. On the way up Iona asked how the test flight had gone, if there were any issues.

“No,” said Steve.

“Good, because if there were we’d be done for.”

They reached the plain, and after Iona had looked back down the canyon to see if anyone was following them, they entered the craft. The figure who’d accompanied Steve on the test flight was still inside, ensuring everything was prepared for the journey. Iona told it to get out and it did so without question.

“Close the door behind yourself,” Iona added as she and Steve took their seats.

As soon as the figure was a safe distance away the craft took off.

* * *

Once they’d left the atmosphere neither of them wanted to talk about what they’d done. They watched as the planet receded from view, the place they’d both spent the last few centuries. The place where they were supposed to have built a new life, and in fact had built a new life, but not the one they were supposed to build, and which was gone now anyway. They didn’t even know what the planet was called.

They went to the mess area and ate a meal, discussing what they would tell everyone when they got back to Earth. If nothing else the people there would want to know what had happened to Alyssa.

“I don’t think we need to tell them about your part in it,” Iona said with a heavy sigh, stirring her bowl of protein.

“I’d be very grateful,” Steve replied. “I mean, it’s up to you—”

“You weren’t really in control, Steve. And we want them to focus on the important thing, which is coming back here and destroying that creature.”