“That geek kept us safe and sheltered during the GDO; his ingenuity and foresight allowed us to survive the gangs that would have eaten him and turned me into a sex slave. Ike was the first man I ever trusted.”

“Then why are you with me?”

“The Die-Off passed, only Ike still lives in fear. His phobias about mankind have made him overly possessive. You think he wants me piloting shuttles in space or submersibles on Europa? Hell no. Ike wants me in his bed and in the nursery, raising a kid or two while he explores quantum physics with ABE.”

“That’s not you. You’re a leader, Andria. A warrior bred for action. Just like me. It’ll drive me insane if we can’t sleep together during this mission. You have to tell him about us.”

Hearing them kiss, I dropped to one knee, as if someone had kicked me in the gut. Andie had not only lied to me about accepting a six-year mission, she was cheating on me!

There were a thousand things I wanted to say—retorts and accusations, rants and countless explanations justifying who I was and why I turned out the way I did—only suddenly I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons, and I had to get out now, before Oceanus submerged.

My mind paralyzed in a centrifuge of emotions, I staggered down the corridor—nearly knocking over Lara Saints, who was exiting Stateroom Seven, carrying a palm-size video camera.

“Ike? Are you all right? You look pale.”

Searching for the damn ladder, I mumbled, “Maybe I should run a level-one diagnostic.”

She giggled. “Are you pretending to be a computer?”

“What? No. Lara, where’s the ladder? And who the hell’s Kevin?”

“Kevin Read. He’s the ship’s commanding officer. Why?” She followed me down the corridor. “Oh, God, Ike, I’m so sorry. Do you want to come inside my suite? We could talk.”

Talk? No, I didn’t want to talk, I wanted to grab a bayonet and shove the blade up—

“Ike, here’s the ladder.” She ascended the tube before me, slowing me down, the top of my head pushing against her buttocks from below. We arrived together on the upper deck in time to hear a chorus of voices counting down “… three … two … one!”

Too late.

A deep, pulse-pounding rumble throttled sound and space, the structure reverberating in my bones as I saw the 360-degree panoramic view consumed in the chaos of flames and smoke and a thick white mist that blotted out the Antarctic heavens. The sound of rocket engines igniting below the habitat’s anchor legs muted my protests, along with the whooping and hollering coming from the eight members of the Oceanus’s crew who were strapped in lounge chairs to witness the historic descent.