One hour later, the hospital ship „Defiant“ left the low orbit around Dangorod it had been stationed in for the past week. The ship was a sleek, crescent-shaped meta-metal object the size of a building. It was one of the most modern ships in the Dangorod fleet, having been put into service only four years ago.

Within the crescent, almost exactly in the middle, both length- and height-wise, was an unusual sight for a space ship: A section of glass windows, three stories high and with that more than half of the height of the entire ship. Behind the windows was a park, green grass, bushes and trees. A small stream was running alongside one of the paths winding their way through it, ending in a small pond complete with a handful of ducks.

The park served a purpose, of course. Patients would come here to relax, and both being in nature and being able to see outside were factors known to speed up recovery and support the mental health especially of long-term patients.

The two wings of the crescent were the patient wards on one side and the crew and guest quarters on the other. Several operating theaters were housed in the thick middle section, as well as the bridge, engineering and kitchens. There was also a small sports center for both crew and patients.

Now the ship set course for the pirate outpost called Binary Bloom. It would take them a bit over two days to reach it.

Meanwhile, on the planet below, messages were being one-time-pad encrypted to Erulas to exchange the information both sides had learned. A few hours later, Depyhr finally joined the conversation.

This time, the conversation was mostly text with a few images here and there. The one-time-pad sent out was several Petabytes in size, but if it had been used for a holographic videoconference, it would last only a few hours.

On Erulas, Amara Vance had a really bad day. The explosion downtown that had destroyed any evidence of the listening post they had hoped to get their hands on was just the beginning. The latest update from Dangorod explained how the traitors had known they were being investigated, and it meant that other listening posts were also shut down and dismantled, probably in a less spectacular fashion.

And as if all that was not bad enough, no: „What do you mean escaped?“

„Madam President“, the officer of the orbital patrol said from his holographic image, „one minute before our interceptor could reach them for boarding, they jumped into hyperspace. We tracked them flying in formation with the Xylar ship they had earlier met up with, leaving the system along a route we had no interceptors stationed. And, if I may add, at a speed we had not expected from their ship.“

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Sibastyan, who was sitting to her right, raised a hand and spoke: „Given that you had only minutes of warning, intercepting them the first time was already noteworthy. I assume you have ships in pursuit?“

„Yes, Sir.“, the officer confirmed, „Though they are moving faster than any of our ships. We will not catch up with them, but wherever they go we should get there not long after. They refueled at the space port, but our estimate is that even fully refueled they will barely reach the edge of the Junkstorm.“

„Wherever they are headed, assume that someone is meeting them.“, Amara added.

After a few more details, they concluded the call and Amara turned to the small group in her office. Aside from Sibastyan as the minister of defense, she had invited Colonel Sato and Krisi Burez, the minister for alien affairs.

„So“, she summed up, „human spies working for the Qyrl, and pirates working with the Xylars. The same pirates who allegedly stole the hypercore that started all this. What am I missing?“

Krisi tried first: „We can only speculate, of course. To me the most reasonable assumption is that they made a deal with the Xylars in the same way we made a deal with the Felindar.“

„Who“, Sato interrupted, „gave the Xylars a lift here as it seems.“

Krisi nodded and continued: „None of this makes any sense. I agree, Amara, there’s a central piece of the puzzle we don’t have, yet. How are we on Operation Moonlight?“

„Gordon has put every available man and woman on the job.“, Amara explained, „And they are tracking down the corporate structures behind the organizations uncovered here, on Dangorod and on Dephyr. Now that Dephyr has a secure line, information is flowing. We have seen the same pattern several times already: Corporate ownerships distributed over all three planets. Some linked even outside the Junkstorm. But we are on it.“

Colonel Sato raised a hand and, after a gesture from Amara, spoke: „Do we still need the one-time-pad communication if the traitors have shut down their listening posts?“

„Probably not.“, Sibastyan explained, „But we want to make sure.“

Amara continued: „Gordon has promised me results by the end of the day. Until then, I think another meeting with the Felindar envoy is in order.“