Scrambling up the ladder, she heard the first signs of footsteps from outside in the corridor.

“Faster,” Edison hissed. “She’s coming.”

22

“She?”

Edison stomped the hatch closed behind him, swiveling the manual lock into place with the toe of his boot. As he did so, a light flashed in front of his eyes. Mother. She—it—was learning him. Now whenever he felt her ghostly touch on his shoulder, he would turn to find his own mom staring back at him. She always wore the thin smile of a disappointed parent, her lips pursed, one hand on her hip, ready to ground him for not cleaning his room or taking out the trash.

“Mother,” he said, lowering his voice. Piero and Misato would be just below them; they would have to keep quiet. Even if Piero sensed Edison there, and he would, he might not be able to make out their entire conversation. “The Foxfire appears to us as our mothers. It’s a trick. A really, really fucked-up trick. But it . . . can work. That’s how this thing gets to us.”

“Sure,” Rosalyn murmured, drifting farther into the bunk galley. To Edison, she appeared lost in her thoughts, moving down the line of bunks in her bulky suit on almost tiptoes. “You’re all out in the middle of space, suddenly you start hearing things, things that sound like your own mother . . . It’s the stuff of nightmares. Were you close with your mother?” Gazing around the room, she reached out to touch the surface of each bunk.

“Yeah, we were close,” he said. “I was afraid of her, too. Military woman, and boy did she expect the best. When you made her happy she was sweet as pie, but let her down?” He whistled.

“I know it. My father was—is—the same way. Perfection or nothing. It’s exhausting.” She stopped suddenly, about halfway down the row, and spun to face him. Her dark eyes squinted at him, and she frowned. With her hair shaved off, it was impossible not to notice her immense, startling eyes. “Are you . . . all right? Are you going to attack me again?”

He saw her eyes dart around, probably for a weapon.

“You’re safer with me than you are with Piero, and besides, I’d like to help you if I can.” Edison stayed near the hatch, preparing to defend the way in if Piero decided to smash his way through again.

“Why?” she asked. “I imagine it would be easier to give in. Misato is fighting it hard. She wants to help me, too, but why you?”

“Because I’d like to stay human,” he said with a chuckle. “I’d like to get rid of this. Be myself again. I don’t know if it’s possible, but we have to try.”