“I don’t know what you heard, but Captain Ngahere talked about the two stages of the virus in her last transmission,” Bhattacharya said. “The same one where she said it might be Zeffir-1 and Dr. Lago was probably responsible.”

“He’s lying again,” Henke said. He was grinning. It was the grin of a feral dog, more threat than amusement, the same way he had grinned when Adam first brought him to the homestead and introduced him as a man devoted to a new beginning. “We don’t need to listen to this asshole.”

“Um.” Malachi cleared his throat. “The radio is functional.”

I spun to face him. “Can we contact Homestead?”

“If I can make sure it’s encrypted . . . There. Okay. Homestead, this is House of Wisdom. Do you copy?”

A noise came over the space suit radio, a click and two low beeps directly in my ear. Malachi watched incomprehensible data scroll over the screen and tapped out a few commands. He didn’t seem concerned.

“None of you are going to say a word,” Henke told the hostages. They nodded mutely, eyes on his weapon.

“I repeat: Homestead, this is House of Wisdom. Do you copy?”

Another click, another beep, and a man said, “House of Wisdom, this is Homestead. We hear you loud and clear.”

Panya let out a relieved laugh, and Malachi grinned. That was Orvar, captain of Homestead.

“Good to hear your voice, Captain,” Malachi said.

“What the hell is going on over there? We picked up a distress signal from Pilgrim 3, and Orbital Control is lit up with emergency transmissions.”

Malachi looked up at me. I leaned forward, then stopped, feeling foolish. I didn’t need to speak into the terminal. I only needed to speak.

“Pilgrim 3 is gone,” I said.

Orvar was quiet for a long moment. “Is that you, Zahra? What did you say?”

“The shuttle is gone. There was an explosion. It’s been destroyed.” I swallowed. I could not allow my voice to break. There would be time to grieve later. “We lost Boudicca, Nico, and Bao, and several hostages.”

“Fuck me,” Orvar said. “How could that—fuck. How did that happen? The security drones?”

“The drones didn’t attack. We don’t know what happened. The explosion might have come from inside the shuttle.”

“It may have been a missile,” Dag said. “We don’t know it came from inside.”

“Nobody knew that shuttle was ours until today. Nobody knew our destination,” Orvar said.

“I know, but they must have found out,” I said, trying so very hard not to sound like a child insisting the adults listen to her. “The explosion tore the . . .” I had to pause for a breath. “It took the shuttle apart, and it came from the inside.”

“A missile is still more likely,” Dag said.