Her mother’s name. Her mother, who had vanished from their Minsk apartment when Victoria was seven, leaving behind only a scorch mark on the parquet floor and a whispered rumor: She went to the stars. victoria stromova

On Earth, the Devorzh Array went dark. Petrov and his men found the control room empty, the primary mirror cracked, and a single piece of paper on Victoria’s chair. On it, in her neat, engineer’s handwriting, was a final equation. Come find me, dorogaya

It was a door.