Stephen groaned. He didn’t like EVA. He preferred sitting in a contoured acceleration couch and listening to old music, and only showed real enthusiasm for physical activity during his religious devotions. “Isn’t it bad policy for the captain and the executive officer to leave the ship at the same time?”

“He’s right.” Drake’s voice was amused. “With both of you off the ship, leaving me and Janice unsupervised? We could get up to anything. The only thing keeping me from crashing us into the nearest icy planitesimal is your strong leadership. Janice, hold me back.”

Callie clucked her tongue. “It’s only a thousand meters, Stephen. I think we’ll be OK. Ashok and I will finish checking out the ship while you come over.”

Their survey didn’t take long. The cargo area was a mess – the seed banks seemed fine, but the refrigeration for the more fragile biological specimens had failed. They both put their helmets back on, because the stench was bad in there. There was no sign of the missing crew members.

“What the hell happened here?” Callie floated in the dim cargo hold, scanning the walls. It looked like an ugly, irregular hole had been cut in the ceiling and subsequently patched.

“The crew went somewhere, woke up, welded a bunch of crap all over their stern, one of them got back on board, set a course for Trans-Neptunian space, and went back into hibernation.” Ashok fiddled with the buttons on an ancient fabricator, meant to build machine parts on a colony world the ship had never reached. “The ‘what’ is pretty clear. The how and why are totally mysterious, but if we can wake up the ancient ice mummy back there, maybe she’ll have some answers.”

“She’s more like Sleeping Beauty,” Callie said. “Mummies are gross.”

“Beauty, huh? You see something you like back there, cap?”

“Shut up. She’s a thousand years old.”

“Five hundred, tops, and she doesn’t even look it.”

“Shut up double.” She waved him away. “See if you can get any sense out of the ship’s computer, especially the navigation system, and try to find a crew manifest. It would be nice to know where this ship’s been… and who our sleeping beauty is.”

“I’d rather see what’s going on with the propulsion system. Engines are way more fun than cartography and human resources.”

“You can tinker after you gather intel. Shoo. Do as you’re told.” She returned to the cryochamber, where Stephen had arrived and was now stooped, examining the control panel on the one active pod. “What do you think?” she said. “Is she going to survive?”