As she sat through the meal, and kept talking to the crew, she learned more about the Imperium; and, amusingly enough, about the Alliance. Most things she already knew... but she was actually surprised to discover that the Alliance had the fifth biggest navy in the known galaxy... and while it was at least a century behind the most advanced navies out there, in sheer tonnage there was only one navy that just flat-out out-classed them; the Republic had more than twice as many ships as the Alliance, or any other fleet, and also the largest population.

"So. I've heard about the ASU, and Alliance Intel believes that the United Worlds is behind them. They always want to find proof, and I think they have before, but considering that was from torture victims... is it true? I know they lie about so many things..."

Photino studied her for a moment, and smiled. "There's a star system called Ash, that I've been to before. Its a dub system. The site of the biggest battle in galactic history; at the time, like now, the Dubs had the most advanced navy in all of space, and the Empire had their weird biotech, and thought that, working together, there was no way they could lose. The Federation and the Directorate had bigger fleets, yes. But they'd need to lose two ships for each one they killed. Nobody would be willing to do that, right? Keep throwing ships at them until they won, losing a whole fleet just to inflict a handful of kills?"

Seraph chuckled. "I know about that one. The place was operating in defiance of the AI research ban, and basically everyone but those two nations was against them. It used to be called something like... New Reykjavík, but the Directorate burned the whole place to ash when they finally won."

"Exactly. Biggest starship graveyard in existence, and a massively industrialized world... with no biosphere anymore. The dubs learned an important lesson in that battle; technology is great. But you need numbers. There's millions of dead starships in that system. They have specific cleared lanes you have to travel through to avoid debris. The dubs never liked to have their own soldiers die in the war, and they liked to hire mercenaries to do much of the fighting. But every single mercenary fleet in the galaxy wasn't big enough to stop the Directorate, or even slow it down."

"...What does that have to do with the ASU?"

The woman shook her head. "I'm getting there. They turned Ash into a mercenary training hub. When its time to decommission ships, they add them to the debris field, and the scrapyards there take ships from around the galaxy. Nine out of ten mercenary and pirate crews in the galaxy get trained and equipped there, with a mix of new and scavenged parts, and all of them know that if another galactic war happens, the dubs will welcome them with open arms.... and wallets. Every ASU member just about got trained on Ash and fed propaganda about how evil the Alliance is. So when they go out to get work as a mercenary...."

Seraph nodded. "They didn't actually make the ASU. They just... deliberately engineered a situation where it would form."

"And give them extremely lucrative mercenary contracts sometimes. Ones that don't target the Alliance, but help curb its expansion. Honestly, the dubs do the same thing with us Karhaginians; they pay us to protect colonies near Alliance space. Most of the time, those colonies end up as part of us. The dubs want to make sure that if there's a third galactic war, the Alliance is surrounded by either enemies, or at the very least people who won't fight for them... and can defend themselves."

"...Crazy. So.... this is all leading up to a third galactic war?"

"Eventually. Every year, the Alliance gets bigger, and its enemies do too. Gonna suck when it happens."

Seraph sighed. "Alright. Well. Thanks for that. I thought I had a good picture of everything, being in intel, but I guess I was a bit behind. See you at dinner?"

As she rose to her feet, the three crew nodded. Charles smiled. "You should check out the viewing deck. There's a dome of armored glass that actually lets you look out into Darkspace while we travel. I think its ridiculous... some people think its beautiful. Or go crazy, looking at it."

***

When she left the cafeteria... and didn't return to her quarters... Perry decided to act. After checking with one of the other operatives, he discovered things would be easier than he thought; that drone that was following her around was actually an Alliance soldier, a Corporal Wallace, who'd died and volunteered as a drone operator. There were two actual flash-and-blood operatives and one drone; they might even be able to dispose of her out an airlock without anyone realizing it. As he settled down in his own quarters, eyes closed, two of his drones; tiny, spider-like things; were carefully opening the air vent inside her quarters.

The air vents were all designed to seal off in an emergency; but normally simply had grates to prevent pests from spreading in the ship every couple of meters. It was painstaking work; disabling the alarms that would warn of a rat infestation, opening the grate, moving two meters, doing it again... but he'd made it to her room while she was eating. And now, however much time she spent elsewhere, he could spend inspecting her room.

It looked normal enough. A decent space; a bed, a desk, a shower. And.... there we go. A standard heavy luggage piece and a carry-on bag. The luggage was locked up; someone had sealed it before it had been loaded, but the lock wasn't really an obstacle. It was mostly a noisemaker; something to make sure the ship's crew knew if someone opened the thing, since they put those locks on if possibly dangerous devices were inside.

Still. He'd check the carry-on bag first; one of the drones carefully undid the straps holding it down, while the other did a scan of the luggage from the outside... and then the two both opened the carry-on, taking video of the contents.

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The first problem jumped out immediately. There was a brain chip inside. A computer, sure. A bit of a bulky, older model. But... the drone inspected the brain chip. It was an officially produced model, with a serial number..... and it matched one Corporal Wallace.

She'd removed the brain chip of the corporal, and left the drone running on auto-pilot, or was just remotely controlling it herself.

One of the drones started carrying the chip up to the vent, while the other simply re-sealed the bag, and started re-doing the straps.

That was all they needed to know. They'd pay the captain for the luggage, just letting him know she was Alliance Intel, and claim they'd make sure it reached her family; the girl was an orphan, so no-one would be claiming it; and give it a more thorough inspection at the next Alliance port the ship stopped at.

He contacted the other operative onboard. They'd find her. Wait til she was alone. Kill her, and dump her body out an airlock at the next stop if the injuries couldn't be faked as natural causes.

Obviously the first priority was getting her comm; it was both a hidden gun, and what let her control the carrier. After they had the comm... well. She was a pretty enough thing. Nothing against having a bit of fun before the end, if they had the time.

***

Stepping into the dome was.... interesting. There was a couple, seated on one of the benches, which appeared to be either deep in conversation, or making out... and didn't even notice her enter. She did her best to ignore them, staying at the other end of the large chamber... which while the ship was in transit, seemed to be made up of a dozen balconies, each with a few seats to let you look out into the darkness.

At the moment... the view was a bit scary.

Mostly grey-black. No stars. No nothing. Just, off in the distance, a tiny orb of darkness, and whatever the grey was surrounding them sort-of swirling into it.

A black hole. Generally called the 'Core', it was the source of the tiny bits of matter that made FTL possible... and deep inside the ship, in the engine, a tiny bit of matter that had once been exposed to it formed the connection that let it work. This other place, this 'Darkspace', wasn't a real place. It was a... projection... of the black hole. It looked wrong. And people who stared into it for too long, sometimes went crazy.

It was the cause of the first galactic war. The source of most FTL travel. And.... it was beautiful.

Now that she could actually see it, with her own two eyes... it wasn't just black, and grey. There were other shades of iridescent light, tiny ribbons twisting and arcing into it... always there, like a delicate spiderweb. They might be stars that fell into the black hole eons ago. They might just be tricks of the light. But.... she had never seen it before.

She stared, in awe, having no idea why they never showed this in film, wondering if there was some significance, some meaning, behind the lights... until the sudden flicker, as they faded out... and suddenly, she saw... stars.

They were back in the real world, flying through actual space. The next stop; passengers would get off. Passengers would get on. They were at some space station in orbit of a colony world; who knew what might be loaded on, or taken off. Soon enough, they'd be docking... and she had no idea which way the floor would be, then. Should she go ahead and strap in? Was it going to change?

She wished she had a crewman around to ask as she watched the stars shifting in the glass, the ship moving.... and the couple was getting up to leave... making her completely alone in the dome. Aside from the drone.

She sat there in silence, watching as the ship twisted; she got a view for a few seconds of the planet it orbited; a vivid blue-orange, likely some sort of native life being slowly pushed back and tamed by humanity as they made the world their own. She wondered if this was a world normal humans could live on... or one of the thousands that would need centuries of extensive terraforming before anyone but an augmented could dream of walking in the open air.

There was a reason most people were augs, after all.

A man entered the dome on one of the other balconies; just a few steps he could climb to reach her; she wasn't familiar with his type of augment, but considering his hair was a row of bony spikes instead of anything normal, it was probably one of the older combat augments; there were probably more of those spikes in other places. She grimaced. If he knew she were alliance intel.....She slid her hand into her pocket, and gently unfolded her comm into its pistol form. The drone... or Tyler, rather... should be able to handle things. But just in case...

Another man stepped onto the balcony with her; she didn't recognize him, as he nodded at her; but he was a normal human; a bit pale for her tastes, but the black hair was a good style. No apparent adjustments. Which meant, most likely, not someone who would have an issue with Alliance intel, if he knew what she was. She was slightly relieved, and smiled at him... as he glanced her over for a moment, then out into the stars.

"Stargazing, eh? First time in space, or perhaps lived in a city and didn't have a good view of them?"

Seraph nodded. "Both, actually. I saw the stars when I visited plantations for work a few times... but never this clear. The difference is amazing, though... the difference in Darkspace was even more. I'm surprised they never showed how beautiful it was in all the shows."

The man nodded, and looked up; spotting the man with the spikes for hair as well. "Huh. What sort of augment do you think that is? Don't think I've seen spikes like that before. If it were on the arms, I'd think combat... but why put spikes on the head?"

She glanced back at the other figure, thinking as she studied him below her. "... You know. I..."

There was an audible pop... and a sharp, intense pain. The man had something in his hand... and had just jabbed it into her back, sending a powerful jolt of electricity through her. She grabbed hold of the hand; surprised that this stungun didn't seem to be strong enough to actually stop her, she thought they were supposed to make all of your muscles seize up... and with a solid yank, tried to take the stunner away from him... only to hear... a series of terrible cracks.

The man looked down at his arm in surprise, dropping the stunner... and started to duck down, reaching for it again.

She didn't know what to do; she'd trained in unarmed combat basics, years ago, but... was she supposed to....

She just grabbed him by the shoulder, and shoved, tossing him off the balcony... leaving him to fall to the bottom of the dome, perhaps ten to fifteen meters below... where he hit with an audible crack.

As the man below her stared, shocked, she could hear the blaring of a siren, and the red lights flashing. Strap in. Find a spot to hang on, the gravity was about to switch, or they were going to undergo heavy acceleration.

She glanced at the carrier. It was going to be fine, it had magnets, could just stick to wherever it was.... and... there.

There was an extremely awkwardly placed chair with straps on it against the wall; she settled in, and started securing herself. She lost sight of the spike-haired man down below.

Good lord. Did she just kill that guy? Why did he try to attack her? And there was a witness! As she could feel the ship shifting, moving, and it started to feel more as if she were laying on the floor rather than sitting down, she considered her options. Surely, there was a security camera in here. If not...

She glanced at the drone. She'd be fine. It had seen the whole thing, and had built-in cameras. She.... should be okay, right?