I pushed past her, heading for the galley doors, escaping into the outer corridor. God, what the hell was that all about? Imagine being stuck for six years on Europa with that witch as your psychologist. Skip the dinner, get right into the make-up sex. Andria had a lot of making up to do.

I knocked on the door of Stateroom Two. “Andie? Sorry I’m late.”

The door slid open, revealing Omega’s six male crewmen. They were standing in a semicircle, waiting for me like a lynch mob.

Their ringleader stepped forward, Kevin Read’s Cheshire cat grin jump-starting ABE’s fight-or-flight command. “So, Eisenbraun, have you decided which one of us is the sociopath?”

“Are you campaigning for the position, Commander?”

Jason Sloan’s chuckle was silenced by the other men’s harsh glares.

“How much is Sebastian Koch paying you?” Dr. Bruemmer demanded to know.

“Paying me? No one’s paying me.”

“It has to be Koch,” spat Egor Vasiliev. “Everyone knows the bastard is the one behind the tar sands initiative in Canada.”

“He’s also been subsidizing the coal conversion campaign,” added Kyle Graulus.

My heavyset Israeli friend pointed a thick finger at my chest. “Who poisoned GOLEM’s algorithms with the false helium-3 results? It was you, admit it!”

“Yes, Yoni, it was me. Because I secretly want to terraform Europa with O-negative blood types.”

Kevin Read intercepted the charging fat man before he could flatten me. “Enough! We’re not here to debate conspiracy theories, Yoni. This is about the Europa mission. Each of us has made tremendous sacrifices in order to be here; I’ll be damned if I’m going to allow the opinions of some … jerk to break up my crew.”

“You mean ‘Jew.’ You were about to say, ‘the opinions of some Jew,’ weren’t you, Commander?”

Yoni turned to his captain, his anger ceding to disappointment.

“Don’t even go there, Yoni. He’s just being clever, trying to divide and conquer.”

“Release Professor Eisenbraun.”

Everyone looked up at the sensory orb peering at us from the corner of the ceiling.

“This is not your concern, GOLEM.”

“All matters pertaining to the success of the Omega Project are of concern to the GOLEM system. It was the GOLEM system that requested Professor Eisenbraun’s presence on the training mission.”

“For what purpose?” Bruemmer snapped.

“Efficiency.”

“Who’s he here to replace?” Jason Sloan asked.

“Those crewmen who are deemed liabilities at the time of the December launch. Mr. Limor’s additional weight gain increases the risk of heart failure during the mission. Ms. Moss has failed to master mini-sub operations. Ms. Saints has become emotionally attached to her biologicals. Dr. Bruemmer’s advancing osteoarthritis renders him a long-term liability. Professor Eisenbraun’s brain-stem implant allows him to be trained to take over any position on Oceanus II.”