The force field that had brought all of us here would’ve crushed me against the hull of a ship along the edge of the Anomaly disk.”
I set my empty mug on the table and leaned a little closer toward her. “What if there was a way to fix the capsule? Some of the best minds of our century have been involved in the planning of this expedition. They believed the departure from here was possible.”
“No one,” she lifted an eyebrow, leaning closer to me, too. “No one in the Universe knows the Dark Anomaly better than I do now. And, I’ll tell you that there is no sure way to leave it. Any attempt would carry some risk, to an extent even I cannot predict.”
Hope was evaporating from my heart with her every word.
“Yet I would still try,” she added unexpectedly.
“You would? Even knowing you’d be risking your life?”
She nodded with an easy smile.
“There is little I wouldn’t do to solve the mystery of the Dark Anomaly. I’ve dedicated my life to this research. I’ve risked it before, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat if the results gave humanity answers to the many questions I have.” She paused, taking a long breath in. “However, I would not risk Vrateus’s life for any of that.”
“Vrateus? The captain?” I asked, wondering what exactly she meant by that.
The warm expression lingering on her face explained it all—Svetlana loved Vrateus. She hadn’t become “the captain’s woman” out of the need to survive. She truly cared for him, so much that she was prepared to spend the rest of her life in the place she despised—because of him.
“If there is the slightest possibility of harm coming to Vrateus, I’d rather spend the rest of my life here than search for a way out,” she confirmed my assumption. “You see, I love him and would never leave without him. He loves me, too, and he trusts me enough to follow me anywhere I choose to go. It places an enormous responsibility on me. I’m in charge of his safety in this case, and I can’t bear the thought of hurting him in any way.”
“So, you’d stay here, just because leaving may carry some risk? Not to you, but to him?”
“Exactly.”
I leaned back against the couch, trying to make sense of it. Svetlana was sacrificing her chance at a better life because of a risk to another person? She appeared to have made that choice all by herself. Vrateus hadn’t coerced her.
Then, my thoughts drifted to Wyck. At this point, I wouldn’t want to leave him behind, either. Would I choose to stay in this hell forever because of that, though?
Svetlana straightened in her seat.
“Well, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to explore any new opportunities presented by the technology of your ship and its equipment. All of it is new and exciting. I do want to get that capsule fixed, even if just to run an unmanned test. Would you like to help?”
“Of course. I’ll do my best. ‘My best’ isn’t much, though, I have to warn you. Val would’ve been much better help here than me. She was... She is a pilot.”
Is or was? That was the scary question.
“Val? Is it short for Valya? The full name—Valentina?”
“Yes. It’s the name of the woman who disappeared.”
“So far, without a trace,” Svetlana said slowly, her expression contemplative.
I didn’t want to think about what the phrase “without a trace” could mean in a place with a recent history of cannibalism.
“Yeah. Wyck has searched for her, but so far without any luck.”
“I’ll talk to Vrateus about her. He knows the habitable sector much better than I do. He knows his crew, too. He might be able to figure out what has happened to her.”
She released a breath and pushed up to her feet.
“I should go. Vrateus dropped me off at the gardens, to work with Malahki. He’d freak out if he came to pick me up and didn’t find me there. Would you mind if I told him I’ve found you? I hate keeping secrets from him, even though he kept you a secret from me. I need to teach him by setting a good example. I want to be completely honest with him.”
“I suppose there wouldn’t be any harm in him knowing—”
The slamming noise of the entrance block crashing to the ground made my words stick in my throat. Svetlana’s face turned as pale as a bedsheet. She yanked her gun out of its holster, spinning