He was gripping Nadra’s shoulder so hard his fingers pressed indentations in her sleeve. “Zahra, my girl, you are hysterical. You don’t know what you’re saying. Where is Panya? Where is Dag?”

“I am not hysterical,” I said. “We’ve found information SPEC never had, a log recording from one of the scientists before she died. The virus isn’t Zeffir-1. It never was. It is not safe here. We can’t bring children to this place.”

“Can you even hear the hateful things you are saying?” Adam demanded, his voice rising with alarm. “You pretend to care about keeping them safe? As though turning them over to the oppressors is safe? As though offering ourselves up for capture is safe? You are speaking from fear and cowardice.”

“I’m not,” I said. “I’m telling you what we’ve found. I’m telling you we cannot make a home here. We can’t even turn on the lights, Adam. We have no way of turning off the security web. We got the shuttle through because we had the right genetic signature, but the drones will attack Homestead. They might be powerful enough to completely disable it. And even if we could—everyone aboard died by terrible violence. Everything SPEC told us about the virus was a lie. The girl was infected through a scratch. She killed Henke and fled, and now she’s out there somewhere in the ship. We can’t find her because we can’t do anything. Do you understand what I’m saying? She went mad from a single scratch.” I took a shaky breath. I was holding Malachi’s hand so tightly it had to hurt, but he did not pull away. “Please listen to me. Please. You can’t come here.”

The other members of the bridge crew had left their stations to gather around Adam, their expressions ranging from disbelief to naked fear. Anwar was staring at me, and Nadra had finally lifted her eyes from the floor.

“Adam, you trusted Zahra to make this judgment,” Malachi said. “Listen to her.”

“You would have us give up on our dreams when we are so close,” Adam said.

“I would have us survive,” I retorted.

“You would destroy everything I have worked for.”

“I don’t want us to go mad and slaughter each other like—”

“You would send your brother and sister to the prisons of the oppressors without a thought. That is what you are doing. Are we no more than animals to you, Zahra? Have you grown power mad in your time away from me?”

“Adam,” Orvar said hesitantly. He glanced over his shoulder. “If the virus is still a threat—”

“It is,” Malachi said. “It is absolutely a threat.”