Remove failed.
She closed her eyes. Seventy-two hours became seventy-two minutes of oxygen. The asteroid was tumbling toward the sun. If she left without the relic, Earth burned. If she stayed, she burned with the asteroid, and Earth still burned.
Elara smiled, blood on her teeth, and watched the stars spin. She had failed to remove. But she had not failed to save.
The device on Captain Elara Vane’s wrist blinked red.