Everyone did their best by the sullen Talon, who would not speak, but stayed by himself, sitting in the chamber he once shared with his twin.

“Is being coming away,” Skidoo urged him, but he refused.

“I can smell him here, better than anywhere else on the ship,” he said, and then went back to silence.

Atlanta made herself small and unobtrusive in the pilot’s chamber when it came time to exit Q-space, watching Niko and Dabry.

Niko said to Dabry, “I’ve been thinking more about what we might do in the future. If we are in luck—and manage to remove this threat, then we should set course for a central hub.”

“Why?”

“To give Pet choices when they depart.”

“I…” Dabry said, and faltered for the first time Atlanta had ever witnessed. “They said so, and I will say that I had hoped it true, but I had also thought they might stay with you.”

“I had hoped so as well,” Niko said in a neutral tone, “but it seems I was mistaken.” She rolled her shoulders. “I will go and see what the others are up to,” she said. “Thorn and Talon, you never know what they have gotten up to.” She stopped. “Talon, I mean.” Her tone was neutral as stone.

She left. Atlanta looked at Dabry, who frowned as though noticing her for the first time.

Atlanta felt as tired as Dabry looked. Poised on the edge of a knife blade, they were all having trouble sleeping. “How close are we?” she said.

“We are cutting it close,” Dabry said. “The drone is smaller and moves faster than we do in this space. But we will get to the facility in time to intercept it with drones of our own while Gio works on exploding the facility itself. Petalia says it’s a maintenance station about two hundred clicks away from the main structure. Blow that up, and we’re golden for now. You’re prepared for that, Thing?”

“You and the captain have both asked me that repeatedly,” the Thing said. “The answer remains the same.”

Dabry shrugged. “Lucky for us, there’s no living crew there,” he muttered. “As it is, if Gio doesn’t act fast enough, a data squeal with information identifying us will go out.”

Atlanta looked at the empty doorway. “You’d think the captain would stick around to watch,” she said unhappily.

“She is distracted,” Dabry said. “And we can do nothing to change what happens, once we are in place.”

Niko drifted like a leaf through the Thing’s hallways, her pattern seemingly aimless. But she already knew where it would take her. She paused in the doorway of the lounge, looking at the way Q-space’s milky light outlined Petalia’s silhouette.

They stood stock-still, Niko watching while the other ignored her. The light outside flashed and dimmed; neither flinched as the ship slid into normal space.