“So get yourself down to repair.” Noemi takes him by the shoulders and steers him to the door. “Then get some sleep.”
“You need rest as well,” he points out.
It will take them hours to reach the Haven Gate. Virginia’s still mourning her corsair. And Noemi will need her strength for what’s to come. “If I go to bed, you’ll go to bed?”
Abel had expected her to argue, she can tell, but he nods.
“Don’t you dare wake up for at least seven hours,” she says, pointing her finger at him.
“As you command,” Abel replies, in a soft tone of voice that makes her wonder when else he might say that. Even as her cheeks flush hot, she gestures toward his bedroom and he obediently goes inside, hopefully straight to sleep.
Noemi takes the world’s most glorious shower, then goes to bed in the same crew cabin she used before. Her exhaustion defeats every worry in her brain and carries her off for hours of the deepest slumber. When she awakens, she feels as if she’s returned from some completely different, alien realm of the mind.
Fortunately some abandoned clothes of the long-ago Captain Gee remain in store, so she’s able to change into a fresh outfit, a simple black shirt and utility pants. She heads to the bridge to talk with Virginia, who isn’t there. But Abel is.
Her eyes narrow. “You said you’d sleep.”
“I did. I arrived here only twenty-two minutes and twelve seconds before you.”
“Are you being super-precise so it won’t sound like you’re lying?”
“I’m always precise,” Abel says, almost primly. Noemi relaxes as she realizes how much better he looks. New pink skin covers his once-wounded hands, and he moves with his usual energy. Even if he’s not one hundred percent again, he’s recovering.
Now she has to give Genesis that same chance.
They’re within minutes of the Haven Gate before Virginia joins them on the bridge. Her eyes are red-rimmed—she really loves that corsair, Noemi thinks—but her good cheer has apparently been restored. “Okay,” she says. “I’m pterodactyled out. What’s our situation?”
Abel has returned to his captain’s chair. “Six minutes and ten seconds to the Gate.”
“I’m at navigation, but if you want to take ops—” Noemi gestures toward the other main position on the bridge. “And I’m so sorry about the corsair, Virginia.”
“It can be fixed. Yeah, it’s going to take a while, but projects are good. Projects are fun.” Virginia says it with genuine relish before giving Noemi a side glance. “Of course you guys have to help.”
“You name it. I spent years learning how to fix up my own starfighter. Your corsair shouldn’t be too different.”
Virginia raises an eyebrow. “Here I thought people on Genesis stuck to—germinating seeds, or praying, or eating oat bran, whatever you guys think is flash.”
“It’s not just oat bran,” Noemi protests, but she has to laugh.
The dark, rough exterior of the Haven Gate looks forbidding, but Noemi feels a lot better going out than she did going in. After light bends and twists around them, they’re back in Earth’s system. Abel immediately brings up Neptune on-screen; a handful of ships patrol Proteus, no doubt still investigating what happened to the Osiris, but nothing flies anywhere near them.
“We’re clear,” she says. “Now we use the relay codes. Call Remedy. See if they’ll answer.”
Abel moves toward the comm panel, but Virginia holds up a hand. “We do that second. I want to run a search for something first.”
Taken aback, Noemi says, “Is this really the time?”
“The time to see if Ludwig managed to steal the new, genetically manipulated form of Cobweb they used to attack your planet, to help Remedy find a cure?” Virginia raises her eyebrows. “Uh, yeah.”
“What if they haven’t found it?”
Abel considers this. Given the Razers’ ability to obtain virtually any information or materials they desire, generally without being caught, I predict their efforts have proved successful, or will in the near future. Very few obstacles stand in a Razer’s way—as I think Virginia would agree.
Her tongue sticks out of the corner of her mouth as she works. “All right, now what?”
“Now we send out a relay code,” Noemi says. “One that should signal all of Remedy to listen to our message, and join forces.”
“Oh, we’re going to call the terrorists!” Virginia’s smile is stiff, deliberately fake. “What jolly good fun.”
“Not everyone in Remedy is a terrorist. Even some of the ones who are—” Noemi remembers Riko lying on the floor of the Osiris, wondering what she’d been fighting, and what she’d been fighting for. Those aren’t questions you want to leave unanswered to the end. “—They’ve had it hard. And if they save Genesis, I think that makes up for a lot.”
Virginia doesn’t look convinced, but she turns the console over to Abel, who memorized the relay code. He begins inputting it, saying, “After the relay codes, I’ll send a second message to Ephraim. He’s the one member of Remedy we’ll all agree on trusting.”
It jolts Noemi to realize that she’ll actually get to see Ephraim Dunaway again. Every aspect of her freedom on this side of the Genesis Gate strikes her anew, now that she has the time to consider it. There are so many people I want to talk to. So many places I want to go.
But Genesis has to come first.
Within minutes, a return message chimes. Noemi wants to cheer. “Remedy?”
“Sort of,” Abel says, putting the signal through to the main screen. There, larger than life, are Ephraim, Harriet, and Zayan, all together on the bridge of what looks to be a small ship, each one of them smiling.
“You found her!” Harriet cries, waving. “Hullo, Noemi!”
“Hi.” Noemi barely gets the word out; her throat tightens from the sheer joy of seeing these lost friends once more. Traveling to the rest of the galaxy as a free person rather than as a prisoner—it’s the greatest exhilaration she knows. It’s
