It wasn't that Marcus could not sleep since his interrogation by Silas, he just didn't want to. At night, when the lights in the detention centre powered down, he would stare up at the thin LED lights on the ceiling and focus on anything to distract him from nodding off; how to do proper maintenance of the Compound Interest's temperamental engine, or the route through the lanes to get from Caxis to Icheon.

On the occasion that he slipped into a troubled sleep, nightmares of Silas plagued him. Back in that room, strapped down to that contraption while the spectre of Silas towered over him, asking question after question, which made Marcus even doubt whether he was telling the truth. Silas hadn't cared about Allison or Chi-Young--just about the package. In this dream state, Marcus couldn't make out the questions, but the Silas-spectre was angry, wanted to hurt him but was being held back by something. In reality, the interview had ended then, but the dream continued until the spectre cut Marcus open with its claws, pecked at him, and let out a terrible shriek.

Each dream went the same way each time he slept. Even when Chi-Young had delivered the news of how the Alliance called Silas away, that hadn't been enough to grant him relief. So he lay there and tried to remember what Sophia's voice sounded like, and the smell of Lio's head. Memories of the both of them kept slipping away, like water falling through his hands.

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry and how twisted his situation had become--trying to keep himself from sleeping despite having not slept in the better part of a week.

Just as he gave in to the pull to sleep, a voice rang out. "All personnel, this is Captain Chi-Young. We have detected unidentified vessels heading for an Alliance installation. Estimated time to intercept, seven hours. Be at your posts by 0700. Chi-Young out."

Marcus bolted upright, but the lights stayed off and there was no sign of activity down the corridor through the force-field. Something big was happening, that much he knew, but it frustrated him that no one could tell him what it was. At least it gave him something to focus on. He thought back to when Allison visited him after Silas left, once everyone breathed easier with that threat being removed. The Admiral had stood on the other side of the field.

"We're in the Candover system, I believe you know it well," Allison said.

"To what end? What are you trying to do? Who even are you?" Marcus spent countless hours turning these questions over in his head.

"Questions I can't answer now, but suffice to say, Caxis has its friends and if I and others like me have their way, they won't be alone much longer." Allison leaned forward, his face mere centimetres from the field. "Events have fallen into place, part through design and part through luck, that mean we may be in with a shot of being rid of the Alliance at last."

"But--"

"I've been accommodating enough, Mr Fenig. Besides, I came here to deliver a warning, not explain everything." Allison gave him a wry smile. "You'll work it out soon enough, but remember Silas could still come back. Be on your guard."

With that, the Admiral had left him, though even the mere memory of the end of the conversation threatened to trigger flashbacks of his interrogation. He started pacing, but when that failed he went for his last resort; re-watching the video from Sophia. Marcus saved this for the worst moments so didn't watch it often, which meant he hadn't seen that a file had been sent to the tablet. Intrigued, he opened it and found an audio message from Allison, of all people.

"This message will delete once you've read it. We'll soon arrive at a space station that has some significance for the fate of Caxis and the rest of the Arm. Now Silas has left we have more flexibility than before so I will take you on board to show you around, and maybe you will see what we need from you. Keep on your guard, not all of my crew are loyal to me, so we announce that you are on board to analyse the damage to determine whether it involved Caxis after agreeing to renounce your planet and work for the Alliance. It should give you some cover to move around the ship, and we may even get you some quarters."

"For now, sit tight and stay patient. You're doing a great job."

#

Through the airlock, Marcus saw the station was a mess, even after Chi-Young and the work crews had spend almost a day sifting through the wreckage. Dry blood was splattered over the floor, and scars from beam hits stretched all over the walls. Bulkheads lay collapsed in places which forced the relief workers to bend down under them, and there was a strong smell of burning.

"You can't keep standing there, Mr Fenig," the Admiral called out behind him, stuck on the hopper because Marcus blocked the exit.

"Sorry, Admiral." He jumped out of the way to let him through.

"Don't mind the mess," the Admiral said without smiling.

"My God," Marcus breathed as he looked around.

"Those seeking independence are much stronger than the ordinary man would expect."

"What were they after? What even is this place?" It was like nothing he had ever seen.

"I'll show you. This way."

Allison set off through the corridor. He bent under where the ceiling had collapsed and gave a wide berth to the sparking wires which protruded from the walls. Twice they had to stand aside as crewmen from the Mandrake ran past carrying injured people. Marcus needed a moment to compose himself to avoid throwing up after one one of them. They moved deeper into the station past wrecked dormitories, a mess hall charred and scorched, and also rooms which looked like they contained firing ranges and laboratories. The deeper into the station, the more uneasy Marcus felt. It was another side of the Alliance he had never seen before.

Allison stopped outside a nondescript door. He pressed the panel, but the door only got part way, so he pushed it open the rest of the way. "The station took a bit of a beating, the superstructure has bent so the doors keep getting stuck."

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Marcus followed Allison in and found a room filled with monitors on almost every spare inch of surface safe for a small slot on the far side of the wall. He ignored the screens and readouts flashing around him and walked over to it. To his surprise, it was only a window into what looked like a narrow metal tube.

"You're an observant man, Mr Fenig. Do you know what that is?"

"Honestly, no."

"Take a guess." Allison perched himself on one of the nearby consoles.

He looked again, the curve bent out of view, but that was all. Marcus gave up on the slot and turned his attention to the surrounding screens to search for clues, but the vast majority of them seemed to show error messages.

"I'll give you a hint; did you see anything in the news about the Audearn bomb?"

Marcus racked his brains. The name was familiar. He remembered some headline about a new weapon the Alliance developed as a deterrence, though for what he didn't know. He thought back to the rooms they passed on the way, and things made more sense. "Was this station involved with that bomb?"

"More or less." Allison nodded. "This is a particle accelerator, where the Alliance tested some early concepts. The accelerator goes around the circumference of the station. Doesn't work now, though."

"Is this what they came for? Or can I not ask that here?" Marcus wasn't used to this cloak and dagger stuff.

"We can speak here, I swept it. PO Silas believes the insurgents are trying to building a bomb; this facility is part of that picture, but not all of it."

Marcus considered this. "If a facility with an accelerator this size isn't big enough to build a bomb where in the Arm was the first one even built?"

"That, Mr Fenig, is the most important question. The records will be on this station, I've got people looking through the wreckage. To be honest, I wasn't aware of this station until Silas told me."

Marcus stopped himself from asking how the insurgents knew about the station. He was sure Allison had something to do with it given the time they spent in the Candover system before the attack. "What will the Alliance make of all this?" He gestured at the damage around them.

"They won't like it. For them to realise that someone is trying to get the information and materials to build a bomb one--well, it won't be pretty. I would imagine the Secretary General will get involved."

A wave of nausea passed over him. As if things weren't bad enough--that man creeped Marcus out. "What happens now?"

"We mop up here and we'll take a list of ships, that might help with our enquiries. The most important thing is to ask Silas whether we can be part of the operation to protect the station that constructed the bomb."

"How much do you know about it?" Marcus said.

"It's name, but that's all we have found so far--it's called the Forge."

"The Forge," Marcus tried out its sound. "A bit melodramatic?"

"It makes more sense than the name of this station." Allison cracked a rare smile. "The 'Sorrel Repository'. The records show there are several other repository stations around the Arm, each responsible for a different research project, which is why the ship data is important. Marcus, I will need your expertise to analyse the ship data."

"You want to use the diffusion records to triangulate where they've been."

"Have you done it before?"

"No, but I've read the theory. Not the easiest thing to do, I--I'm not sure it's possible to get much accuracy."

"The Mandrake's computer is better than yours on the Compound Interest." Allison stood up and folded his arms leaving Marcus with no doubt the conversation was over.

Marcus didn't share Allison's confidence, but at least it was something useful for him to do. He deliberately ignored that it was an integral part of a plot that could cost the lives of billions, and one that he wasn't sure he agreed with. The nausea started coming back with a vengeance.

"Let's head back to the ship." The Admiral stood at the door and held out his hand to show Brie and Marcus out.

Marcus was glad to leave that room behind. There was something eerie about it.

#

Marcus sipped on a cup of coffee and continued staring at the screen, but the algorithm failed to fix itself. He had been sitting there for hours, though at least he was in a cabin now rather than a cell. It was small and sparse compared to even the Compound Interest, but he was loving every minute. He even had his own shower.

Normally what Allison was asking for would be impossible, but due to the way Alliance ships operated when they moved through jump gates there was a slim chance. Whenever a ship passed into a new system, Alliance ships send out a signal notifying other ships of its arrival along with any other relevant data. Alliance vessels all had their own ledger that recorded these transmissions, and to make sure the records were accurate these ledgers synchronised whenever an Alliance vessel entered a new system. In theory, Marcus could use these ledgers to trace a ship; specifically, the twenty-three ships that had docked with the Sorrel Depository in the last six months.

The idea was easy enough, but in practice it was a nightmare.

He tapped a few keys to zoom out to look at the entire code. Still no inspiration, so with a sigh, he gave up. There would be no more attempts to fix the algorithm until he had a break and being in a cabin gave him an opportunity he hadn't had in weeks--he could record a message to Sophia.

Marcus picked up his tablet from the table and headed for the bathroom. He turned the shower on to drown out any microphones that might listen in and slid his back down the wall to sit on the floor. It felt strange to key in the familiar sequence to open up the messaging software.

"Hi Sophia." It felt awkward saying it, like he was out of practice. "I--I don't know what to say... I was so close to seeing you, you don't know how much that hurt, how painful it was to be almost within touching distance only to be snatched away again. Well, maybe you do... I'm sorry. I feel responsible even though there was nothing that I could have done.

"You won't believe where I am." He shook his head, almost not believing it himself. "I'm on an Alliance warship. It's crazy, like I've fallen into a river and being sucked along the current. Nothing I can do but try to keep my head above the water.

"I don't know how much time I've got." He glanced over to the locked door of the bathroom. "They've got me working on a project, I don't understand what it's for, but it's something to do at least. I'm in way over my depth here, Soph.

"I keep trying to work out what you would want me to do in this situation. I just want to get back to you, but let's face it, that's not on the cards anytime soon. There's something going on here, something I don't understand yet, but it seems important. I'm worried that if I get deeper into whatever this conspiracy is, it'll just take me away from you. Is anything worth that?" Marcus sighed. "I don't know, but I think I will have to decide, eventually.

"I can't imagine what you've been going through, raising Lio on your own. I'm missing so much of his life." His throat caught. "I don't even have a picture of either of you anymore. They're stuck on the Interest, I don't think I'll ever see her again either.

Marcus laughed bitterly to himself. "I thought messaging you would help, but it's reminding me of everything I've got to lose. I'll keep going, I have to, just for the chance to see you and Lio again. I love you Soph. I miss you."

He turned off the camera and just sat listening to the shower as it carried on pouring down next to him. The moment in time felt balanced; one of those instants where you know you'll look back in years to come at that point. There was something of the past in him recording a message for Sophia. He hadn't just done it after the secession of Caxis, their early relationship was much the same after Sophia returned to her parent university following her placement year with Marcus on Icheon. Those had been a long two years before they could be together in person again. He had turned down a well-paying job on Icheon to settle down with Sophia on Caxis, their homeworld and had thought that was the end of their time apart.

Now that he thought about it, things could have been so much different if he'd stayed on Icheon. But there was no use dwelling on that now. He had work to do--to look to the future. It terrified him, but what choice did he have?