Chapter 28 · The Woman Who Opened It

The pod's spinning.

I can't stop it. The RCS is shot and I'm tumbling end over end through the Rimward Dark with nothing but eighteen hours of air and a viewport full of stars that won't hold still. I press my face to the glass. The Long Invoice is a bright scar two klicks out. Cutting torches. Hull breach strobes. I can't see Briar. I can't see anything but the shape of what I just lost.

Then the comms crackle.

"You."

A woman's voice. Raw. Barely coherent. I don't recognize it but I recognize the tone. That's someone who just woke up wrong.

"You did this."

I fumble for the headset. "Who is this?"

"Crew manifest says Sable Quinn. Owner. You're the one who put us down." She's coughing between words. Fluid in the lungs. They thawed her too fast. "Four hundred years. We trusted you."

My throat closes. "I didn't wake you. The hunters did. They cracked the ice hold and forced the thaw. I'm not—"

"Liar." Another voice now. Male. Older. Same wet rasp. "We have the logs. Contract holder. Beacon runner. You signed the charter. You locked us in."

I pull up the pod's comm panel.