Vessel

40

WITH EACH DAY that passed Catherine’s hope grew dimmer. Her days were all the same now. Aimee hadn’t come back since she told Catherine she was working with Cal.

What if NASA overheard them and was keeping Aimee from her? Or worse? God, she never should have asked Aimee to get involved. What the hell had she been thinking?

And there went that cycle of thoughts again. She was driving herself mad, but she couldn’t stop.

She was about to get up and pace the cell again, unable to sit still, when the door opened.

“Mom!” Aimee burst in and Catherine caught her in her arms, hugging her tight. For a split second she questioned if this was real, or if she’d snapped and was hallucinating her daughter again, as she had back on Sagittarius.

Her sense of reality wasn’t helped by the sight of Cal coming through the door after Aimee, smiling. Then it hit her. It seemed unreal because neither of them was wearing a hazmat suit. She tightened her arms around Aimee. This had to be real. Even in the worst times on her trip home, when she’d missed Aimee so much it made her ache, she’d never been able to touch the image of the little girl that had appeared to her. Never been able to smell her shampoo.

“I— What are you both doing here?”

“We found it,” Cal said.

“Found what? Who’s ‘we’?”

“Mom, we found proof. We made them believe you.”

“Well, Aimee found it,” Cal said, and explained what her brilliant daughter had done. Catherine hugged her again, stunned.

“They’re going to let you out,” Aimee said.

Catherine looked to Cal for confirmation and he nodded. “They’re processing all the paperwork right now. As soon as they’re done, you can go.” But there was a hesitance on his face as well.

“What is it?” she asked.

“We were too late to stop the mission.”

Catherine’s heart sank. “They’re out of range?”

Cal nodded.

She sat down heavily on the edge of her bunk. “So, it was for nothing.”

“The engineers are almost positive they’ve fixed the comm issues Sagittarius I experienced, so we’re going to try to leave a message for the ship to pick up when it goes through the far end of the wormhole. They’ll get it, and can come back quickly. They’ll be fine.” Cal was trying to reassure her, but she could see how worried he was. Even if the message did get through, Addy had been infected almost as soon as she’d gone through the wormhole. Who knew how fast they’d taken control? She and Cal still hadn’t confirmed that their infection theory of control was correct.

“You don’t know that,” she said.

“It’s the best we can do. It’s not like chasing someone down to tell them their tire’s flat,” Cal said.

Chasing someone down.

“Cal…” Catherine began hesitantly. “The first Sagittarius was reconditioned and prepped as a backup, right?”

“You can’t be serious.” Cal might have been looking at her as though she were nuts, but there was the same dawning realization in his eyes that she felt herself. “You’re serious.”

“You said it. We chase them down.” Catherine wasn’t an engineer, but she could see the possibilities. “They’ve got a head start, but with a smaller crew we could push harder, take more fuel on board with us. And we’d still probably get there before the message would.” She was talking faster and faster as the idea took shape in her mind. “And even if not, if they run into trouble, they could use some backup. Someone who knows what to look for.”

“You’re saying ‘we,’ ” Aimee spoke up. “You want to go back?”

Catherine’s enthusiasm plummeted. What was she saying? That would be another six years of her life, at a minimum, gone. And that was if everything went well. And who was to say she might not be more susceptible to control a second time around? She looked at Cal, then at Aimee. “No, I don’t want to. I’m just saying that whoever goes…”

“We don’t have a crew prepped,” Cal said. Catherine could already see the wheels turning in his head. “I’m probably the only other person most prepared.” When Catherine shot him a look, he shrugged sheepishly. “I told you. I went through most of the same training as the crew. I wanted to know exactly what they’d be experiencing.”

“You can’t go by yourself, though.” Catherine reached out and took his hand. “Trust me. You don’t want to try.”

So there it was. Either Cal went alone or Catherine went with him. She laughed. “It’s probably all moot. There’s no way Lindholm will approve this.”

“I don’t know. We’ve got him over an awfully big barrel.” Cal leaned over to kiss her forehead. “I’ll let you two talk, and I’ll go see just how feasible this is. And see if I can get them to speed up that paperwork to get you out of here.”

Once he was gone, Aimee sat next to Catherine on the bunk.

“Were you really the one to figure it out?” Catherine asked.

Despite the worry in her eyes, Aimee grinned. “Yeah. When I went over to check on Cal, I wound up helping him out.”

Catherine shook her head. “You’re an amazing, brilliant woman. MIT is lucky to have you. And so am I.”

Lightly, Aimee said, “By the time you get back, maybe NASA will be lucky to have me.”

“Aimee…”

“Mom, Cal’s right. You’re the only one who can do this. It sucks. I just got you back. But this is…” Aimee gestured weakly. “This is bigger than me, or you, or our family. It’s bigger than just Cal’s crew. This is… this is world-changing stuff.” She tilted a grin up at Catherine. “I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have out there representing, like, all of humanity than my mom.”

Catherine laughed in spite of herself. “Oh, well, no pressure there.” She pulled Aimee into a hug. “We’ll see. Lindholm is gonna be a tough sell.”

“Cal will make him come around,” Aimee said confidently.

“You like him?”

“Not as much as you do, but he’s nice. Smart. You could do worse,” Aimee answered.

Catherine tightened her arms around Aimee.

The cell door opened and Cal poked his head in, and both women laughed. “Oh, that’s never a good sign,” he said. “Come on, I’m busting you out of here.”