The Patient in Bay Nine

The pod's frost had melted from the inside. The woman lying in it was breathing, slow and shallow, and her name was on no manifest Ines could find.

At 03:00 ship time the woman opened her eyes, looked at the ceiling as though she knew it well, and asked what year it was.

When Ines told her, the woman closed her eyes again and laughed — softly, without any joy at all. “Then we're nearly there,” she said. “I'm sorry. I really am.”