Binard tripped as he got off the train. Espionage had never even been on his radar until throwing his lot in with Tor. He knew this was how journalism worked, but Binard was too honest of a face and was easy to spot in a crowd as he was usually a head taller than everyone else.

The only reason he got this particular mission was that Maks and Zahra were busy with their part of the plan and Tor was hopeless with technology. Binard wondered how Tor had become such an accomplished High Journalist when the only piece of tech he knew how to use was his air canisters and the writing platform that uploaded everything for him.

Shreya really had been the backbone of Tor's success and the man was so narrow-focused he hadn't even realized it until she was gone. Binard shook his head as he thought of how Tor had accompanied him the first part of the trip but had disembarked to go check out the gas fields, he sent Binard to the estate because no one would recognize him and if they did they wouldn’t feel threatened by him.

Tor was always telling him to stop smiling so much, but Binard was just happy to be finally doing something that didn’t involve being so quiet all the time. Tor was so quiet that Binard found himself doing most of the talking.

He walked towards the estate on Main Street and was shocked to see how many people were on the streets without masks on. He pulled out his meter and was even more surprised to find the air was just at the edge of being acceptable. Nowhere in Wilea or Saltec was anywhere near this breathable. As he put his hand on his mask to take it off he remembered Tor’s warning about not trusting anyone with his air if he could help it.

The estate would be safe because Varnusha was there, but everywhere else was circumspect. He had some time to kill before his part of the plan was put into action so he decided to wander the streets a little.

Wilea had built large arenas where the animals lived and likewise had built large stores that had everything you needed in one building to conserve oxygen and acted as a meeting place for the town it serviced. Binard was astounded as he saw small little shops crammed in every available space that could be found. It seemed everyone was selling something, anything you could think of being manufactured was here on the streets.

There was a shop with the smallest holo's he had ever seen, new and used air tanks, an artist had set up a shop with beautiful custom lamps in colors that matched the storms almost perfectly.

Wilea was too practical to support much art. If the piece didn't have a utilitarian use it was not purchased in Wilea. People would see it and know you bought something beautiful at the expense of a kid eating or breathing. Wileans took care of each other, not like here.

Binard watched as a fight broke out between two shop owners who were selling the same product, one for slightly less than the one who had set up shop earlier. It was a brutal fight and was quickly over as the later but larger man won. No one seemed to notice a man with broken bones, trying to get off the ground, in fact, people were stealing from his shop as he lay there unable to do anything.

Binard was unable to just watch, he walked over to the man and helped him to a chair. The man gave him a crazed look and started yelling at him, "Whatchyoudoing? That's my stuff you touch it I'll kill you." Binard stood at his full height and the man stopped yelling. Binard was a gentle soul, but this man didn't know that.

"It's ok, I'm here to help you. I can make a sling for your arm and get your wares put away so no one else loots them. Where do you store all of this?" Binard asked. By now Binard was drawing a crowd. Crap, I wasn't supposed to draw attention to myself at all and now I've drawn a crowd before I even reach the estate. Well, I might as well use it to my benefit.

"Hey, you over there. Do you have any spare cloth? It can be a scrap, just needs to be a bit longer than my arm." The bewildered cloth shop owner didn't know how to respond but gave Binard what he needed without saying a word. As Binard started tying a knot in the cloth he saw two young boys at the forefront of the crowd. They seemed the least threatening of the group, "You two, come here."

"Whatchu want?" The older boy asked.

"This man will give you each one small gift from his shop if you pack away his goods in his cart securely." The man Binard was fixing up looked as if he was going to argue, "Your losses will be less if they each get one thing and you save the rest of your inventory. If we leave them here you will lose it all."

The man nodded to the boys hesitantly, but relaxed when the two thought that was a pretty good idea and started packing his things away. With his wares in the cart and a sling and makeshift crutch to help the man along Binard watched as the boys took a small trinket from the man. Then Binard lifted the cart as the man would have and told him to lead the way.

The crowd parted for them as they walked through and one old woman called out to Binard, "Why you doing this? Do you owe this man?"

Binard stood tall and saw everyone look up to him, "When we treat everyone as our brothers and sisters, we all rise." He lifted the cart and they walked off the main street towards the lower manufacturing district. Binard was soon lost but still followed the man until he reached an alleyway and stopped. "Is this where you live?"

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"It's as good a place as any I s'pose." The man motioned where he wanted the cart, "I sleep in me cart most nights, but seeing as I don't sell nothing today, I'll sleep under it."

"Can I get you a room somewhere for the night sir? You're pretty banged up still." Binard couldn't believe someone would risk a storm coming and sleeping on the ground.

"Nah, ain't nothing I ain't have done to me before. You already fixed me up better than before." The man nodded his head and searched through his cart for a moment before he handed Binard something small, "I ain't be owing you for this. I pays my debts."

"Sir, I don't require payment, where I'm from people just take care of each other, that's what we do." Binard tried to give the package back but the man wouldn't hear it.

"It's yours to do with as ya please." At this, the man stiffly got to the ground and set up a rough bed under his cart.

Binard realized he was lost and now and late for his mission at the estate. "Sir, which way to the estate?"

"Follow the people with nice clothes, they be going home soon. You follow nice clothes they take you to Main Street." Binard nodded, the conversation was clearly over. He started to walk in the direction he thought Main Street was when he saw someone who looked out of place. They walked a little more upright and had on clean clothes.

He walked with a purpose and Binard figured it couldn't hurt to follow the man, maybe he could even ask him for directions. After following for a few minutes Binard found himself back on Main Street. I can't believe that worked!

As he neared the estate he was astounded at how enormous it was. He had heard, he had seen pictures, but to walk up the lane and see the sea of sloping grass and an enormous old castle behind it was breathtaking.

It started raining as a blue storm was rushing in from the ocean and Binard ran the rest of the way to the door. As he got to the front door he was greeted by security men just like Maks had said, he showed them his ID that Zahra had made for him and said a prayer.

The guards looked at it and opened the door for him as though they saw new people with security clearances every single day. Binard just hoped they mistook his sweat for the rain. As he reached for the door the guard looked up at him, "You the same tall man causing trouble on Main Street today?"

"No sir," Binard shrugged, "Must have been someone else." The guard nodded and let him pass. Binard tried a calming trick Zahra had taught him and forced himself to breathe normally and imitate the attitude of the guards as he passed.

She had told him one secret to blending in was to pay attention to the mannerisms of the people around him, he walked in through the door and started walking toward the small security room Maks had given him clearance to. He checked his watch and while he was slightly late, he should still have time to get the information he needed before the next watch came.

He reached the door and held up his card, the light flickered to green and the door unlocked. Please let the room be empty. He let out a sigh of relief and manually locked the door behind him and got to work.

Computers were the one thing Binard was actually good at and started feeling more at ease as he started sifting through files to find the ones that could actually help him. After copying files for several hours he came across a file named, ‘Shreya Personal Dox’. I really shouldn’t… What if she’s keeping important information hidden there… Or she’s keeping a personal diary and would kill me if she ever knew I had read it… Will she ever know I read it?

He hesitated. He knew Tor would absolutely want this document but he felt it was a great breach of trust. I’ll copy and paste it on my disk and we’ll make the decision later if we can’t find what we’re looking for. He took a deep breath and shook his head. These kinds of decisions were not what he signed up for.

----------------------------------------

Keisha sat in her office just off the main command deck. She didn't use this room often and it had become a clutter pile of worn-out electronics she kept around just in case. Fiolas was a neat freak and wouldn't allow her to keep all of this in their quarters.

Unable to sit still she got up and started tinkering with an old control panel that had fried out a couple of years back. She started taking it apart and sorting out the pieces they could reuse and the components so charred they needed to be trashed. When you lived in a closed environment everything you could save, you should.

She was remembering Andromeda's description of what had happened. Carter and Zayd had told her Anj was just on edge and had been working too hard to keep this old ship together but something didn't quite feel right about that.

She and Anj were close. In a lot of ways, Anj was more the captain than she was and she had never mentioned a dark-haired stranger before. From the little she could gather from Anj, Keisha wasn't even sure Anj could sleep. Not properly anyway. She was too plugged in. Too integral a part of this ship to truly shut off.

Then there was the part where the other Keisha and Zayd had been captured? Had they been living on a different Pytheas this whole time? Did she need to rescue them, or let them be? There were too many problems surrounding this.

Fiolas and her had developed a system that had been refined over the past 25 years. It involved prioritizing what problem needed solving the most. One problem at a time had been their motto for almost their entire relationship. How did the other Keisha solve problems? Did she and the other Zayd solve problems one at a time, or had they developed a better system?

Keisha threw the control panel down. Usually tinkering in this office helped Keisha clarify what problems she needed to solve. She wanted to ask Fiolas what she should do, but he was determined Anj just needed rest. He didn't believe the other Pytheas was coming after all this time. He couldn't solve a problem he didn't even believe was happening.

Maybe it was time to figure out how to get Andromeda disconnected from this ship. She had been through so much, they would have time to work on the problem after checking on Henear. If they could disconnect her and keep the ship at least, mostly running, on the way back, maybe she could actually rest before reaching Chronos.

They had tried early on to disconnect her, but there was too much at stake back then. The planet Henear still relied on them too heavily. People were begging to start families. Keisha had been thrust into being a captain so quickly, she didn't want to risk complete failure her first year.

Keisha was done with excuses. Her friend needed her to step in and find a way. They would solve the Andromeda problem, one step at a time.