The words raced through Sophie’s mind. There had never been a seat on the ship for her or her team. Hoffman had manipulated them all. The contract, the mission—it was all based on a series of well-planned lies. But knowing what she knew now, could she blame him?

“Please know I take no pleasure in telling you this. I do wish you could be here when we open the doors and step out onto the red sand. There is one gift I have left for you in case everything else fails. Inside the command center, you will find a two-way radio that operates on only one frequency. It’s encrypted, and virtually indestructible. You can use it to communicate with the other Biospheres. I wish you the best of luck, Dr. Winston.”

She watched his image fade. It took a few minutes for the information to saturate her brain, but it was more than enough time to grasp the fact she had been completely deceived. As she sat, replaying the message in her mind, another pair of voices drifted through the wind.

“Sophie, can you hear me?” one of them said.

A calm, robotic voice quickly followed. “Dr. Winston, are you awake?”

She blinked, and the red sand was replaced by the white walls of the med ward.

“Sophie!” Emanuel reached for her, naked relief on his face.

“Give her some space,” a rough voice said from her other side. She didn’t need to turn to see Overton’s scarred face peering down at her.

“Dr. Hoffman! The radio! We have to find the radio,” she said, struggling to get out of her bed.

“It’s okay, Sophie, we heard the message too,” Emanuel said, soothingly.

“But, how? What happened?” she asked.

“A couple of kids saved our asses. That’s what happened.”

Sophie managed a smile. She turned her head to the right to see Holly sitting with Jamie and Owen. David and Jeff sat on another bench, digging into a couple of freeze-dried meals. Standing next to them was Bouma. He winked at her.

She finished scanning the room and realized someone was missing. “Where’s Timothy?”

Emanuel took her hand. “There were two Spiders hibernating in the ceiling. They killed him. But that isn’t all.” Emanuel paused, realizing the information might be too much for her to handle right away.

“Tell me,” she ordered.

“Do you want the good news or bad news first?”

“Bad.”

“First, the radio Dr. Hoffman was referring to doesn’t work,” he said. “We can’t get any other Biospheres online. Which either means everyone else is dead, or the disruption outside is preventing communication.”

“And second?” Sophie asked.

Emanuel took a deep breath. “Second, the Organics are reproducing, and by the looks of it they are doing so at an alarming rate.”