The ramshackle two-story hut also bore the hammer-and-axe logo the Free Human League were still using, but they’d changed from the red and black color scheme they’d used under Waters to a green and blue. It was more restful and made me think of Earth, which was probably the plan.

I stepped through the door, my senses on alert. No violence was allowed on Threshold — enforced by the System — but I wasn’t sure if that extended to “we grab you and tie you to a chair until you do what we want”. I’d shout for Grandpa as soon as that happened, if it did, but it would be awfully embarrassing for me.

Warren and his wife Linsey were waiting just inside. They looked nervous. I nodded to them. “How’s it going? Backstab and betray anyone recently?” I was still angry about how they had pretended to be on our team before trying to serve us up to Waters on a dish. They could have gotten me or my family killed.

“I’m sorry about that,” Linsey said. “Waters had a way of making things seem right. I know now we never should have done what we did.”

“Seeing as you’re here on his behalf I don’t know that I believe you.”

“Oh, trust me, we’re clear on what we’re doing this time.” Warren held up a hand. “Waters still has some supporters in my coalition. They persuaded me to help him arrange this meeting, that’s all. He’s upstairs.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because we betrayed you once and we owe it to you this time to make sure he doesn’t try anything,” Linsey said. She crossed her arms and thrust her chin out. “I said we wouldn’t be any part of this unless we were here to make sure it’s all right.”

“If I could trust you, that’d probably be reassuring.” I shrugged and sent Grandpa a message. Going to talk to Waters now. If you don’t hear from me in fifteen minutes, shout at Veda. “See you around, Black.” I climbed the staircase at the back of the room, leaving the Blacks behind.

The upstairs was all one large dimly-lit room. The wood had a pale blue tint to it. I recognized it as a resource harvested from one of the Phase One farming levels. Cylabor trees had a valuable heartwood that could be used for armor, and a lot of people in Threshold had started building structures from the less valuable outer layers. They were bizarre trees with perfectly cubic cross-sections. I’d seen a forest of them once, like some sort of computer’s idea of the perfect grove, all right angles and harsh lines.

Drapes covered the windows, these seemingly salvaged from Earth scraps. One of the windows had a yellow-and-black flag repurposed as a covering, the other a dingy blanket.

Waters waited for me in the center of the room, sitting in a rolling office chair. He had his hands flat on his lap. There was a three-legged metal stool off to one side. Otherwise the room was bare, but there had been more furniture here recently. Lighter colored square patches along the walls showed where shelves or something similar had rested.

Waters was wearing his dress uniform, same as the other night. If he was trying to impress me he failed. I folded my arms and leaned against the wall, ignoring the stool. “I’m here. Start talking.”

Waters said nothing for a moment. He let out a loud sigh. “You have a way of fucking things up, Williams.”

“I hope so.”

He passed a hand over his face, looking old and tired. For a minute I got a glimpse of the man he’d been a year ago. What I knew about him told me that Waters was a similar age to my grandpa, and that like Grandpa he’d been terminally ill when the system picked him. Unlike Grandpa he was a complete asshole and I’d have been happier if the aliens had chosen literally anyone else on the planet. He’d even, apparently, gotten his fellow abductees killed during the Initiation Chamber event.

Team Twofeather had lost one person abducted with us, but in fairness, Delores would have probably picked [Social Worker] as her class choice and we were all better off without her meddling.

“I have work to do,” I said as Waters stayed silent. “So you can talk, or I can walk.”

“I know you think badly of me, Captain Williams. Mustangs always regard career officers with suspicion, and you have not been properly equipped to make the sort of difficult decisions that are necessary here.”

I held up a hand. “Ok, this sort of bullshit is exactly what I am not here for. The fact that I started as an enlisted man just means I know how to work for a living. I have perfect respect for those who’ve earned it. Like my grandfather. Major Twofeather. And we’re working under the direction of a colonel, who outranks you both, and we’re half a million miles from Earth and the American chain-of-command is pretty damn thin out here so if that’s all you’re going to say I’m out of here —”

“You are pissing off some important people. I’m here on their behalf, to issue a warning and make an offer.” Waters was still sitting. He looked tired, defeated.

“Is it Proxima? I don’t want to hear what those assholes have to say.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“It doesn’t matter what you want, it matters what they can do to you. To us. All of Earth. Proxima, Alabaster Sky, and ConSweGo divvied up the spoils from this engine years before they ever arrived in our system. They let their smaller cousins take a piece of the action, like your friend Veda, because it’s convenient for them. That doesn't mean they are letting us in on it. You are throwing a wrench in their plans, and if you don't stop, all of Earth is going to suffer.”

"Dramatic much?" I paced around the room, lifting the blanket curtain and glancing down into the street below. A couple of miners were trudging along, carrying a heavy basket between them. “We know the best outcome is to pick up a fraction of one percent of the ownership of the Reality Engine. It's our engine, why shouldn't we try for a piece?"

“You’re making them look incompetent on the galactic stage at a period where Proxima especially is desperately raising funds and backers for their next exploit.”

I made a mental note to ask Veda if she knew what he was talking about later. “So sorry.”

“You will be. Letting an indigenous species actually beat their contracts and take a fraction of ownership? They’ll be humiliated. Proxima has asked me to spell things out very clearly here. You know what their plans are for the Engine?”

“Yeah. Subdivisions and condos. Move a couple trillion aliens in.”

“That’s the good option. Bad option is they turn on the construction option, instead. Make this whole place a manufacturing facility for starships and stations like the Hub.”

“That’s an option?” I turned back away from the window. “Really?”

“So they tell me, and they showed me proof.”

“I don’t see why that’s so bad. Might keep the system from being so crowded.”

“Are you really that slow, Williams? Where do you think the Reality Engine would get the matter it needs for large-scale construction?”

I shrugged. “I dunno, everything about this seems like black magic.”

“It can’t just create from nothing, you know. It’s efficient but not that good. The reality engine will harvest matter from the rest of the solar system and use it to turn out ships by the hundreds of thousands.“

I felt a chill run up my spine. “Matter. Like — planets?”

“Now you’re getting it.”

“Surely there’s a law against that. I mean, they weren’t allowed to kidnap all of Earth, just a fraction of us, because they have rules about indigenous species.”

“That’s right, and feel free to run this past your alien friends. They won’t touch Earth. That would be against the rules, to consume a planet with intelligent life on it. Our moon, on the other hand —”

I groaned, seeing the implications. Without our moon, Earth would undergo ecological disaster. The loss of tides for one thing — and I had some vague idea that the Moon interacted with plate tectonics, too. Plus it would probably screw with nocturnal species and who knew what else. “Really? They’d do that out of spite?”

“You want to bet they won’t?” Waters looked me over. At last he stood up, with a ponderous reluctance that made me imagine him as a much heavier, less able man. “Proxima recognizes your personal skills. They’ve authorized me to make you an offer similar to what they gave me. That’s you, Williams, not your grandfather. Be sure you get that.”

I wasn’t going to accept a damn thing from Waters or Proxima, but I’d learned that information was a valuable resource. “Make it.”

“You persuade your coalition to forfeit this phase. We’ll arrange for a nice buyout for your closest allies. Cushy retirements, regular rejuvenations. They can apparently look forward to three centuries of life, by the way, with all their needs tended before the ethereum toxicity get too great. Not too bad compared to 70 years of disease-ridden existence.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said.

“I get it. That’s not enough for you. You’re a man of action. Proxima knows that. They like it. They want to offer you a place on one of their future exploit teams.”

I caught my breath. Mak’Gar had implied a similar deal, but hearing it from Waters was another thing. “What, and do to other worlds what was done to ours? Move in and take their stuff, force them into servitude, all for our own profit?”

“Someone’s going to do it. We don’t make the rules, we just play by them.”

As long as he was being open and honest, I wanted to see how much I could get. “They make you the same deal? What are you getting here?”

Waters’ eyes unfocused. He suddenly looked almost pensive. “They need people they can trust, liaising with Earth. We’ll be neighbors. Someone who understands both our needs and theirs will be a perfect go-between.”

So Waters would get to be puppet-king of Earth. He’d more or less accused Grandpa of having those sort of ambitions, back at the big party. Made sense he was already thinking along those lines.

I felt ill, like the room was suddenly too stuffy. Being this close to Waters made me want to punch someone, probably him. “Ok, great, thanks for the word of warning. I’ll take it under advisement.”

“You’d better decide fast. Proxima has teams in your valley. If you get in their way, they’re going to be even angrier.”

“Sure.” I checked the time and mentally swore. “Anyway I’ve got to get back, I promised to peel a bunch of potatoes for Mama Grace. You know how we uppity enlisted types are good at that manual labor.”

His face was red. “You really think you’re clever, don’t you?”

“Nope. Just good at doing what I’m told. Talk to you later, Major. Or hopefully not. Enjoy your second retirement.” I headed back down the stairs without waiting for Waters to respond.

As soon as I was out on the street I took a big breath of fresh air, or at least what passed for fresh inside an enormous cavern miles below the surface of Ganymede. Then I started sending messages to Veda as I walked back to our portal, reporting on what Waters had told me and asking her for her opinion.

She didn’t take long to respond. Yes, the ruling coalition could try to change the zoning classification from residential to commercial. They’d lose a lot of money. We have more shipbuilding capacity than there’s demand, and people are always looking for slots in a less crowded engine.

How come? What’s the advantage?

More processing power per user means a more detailed experience, plus your waiting list for kids is shorter.

What about the idea we’re making them look bad?

The reply took a minute. I wondered if she was hesitating. That is… possible. I’m not really tuned into galactic news but… Proxima pulled strings with my family to put pressure on me. I ought to be about as far beneath their notice as you are. And they are looking at a potentially historic exploit coming up, with the rogue world they told us about. I’ll look into it.

Wait, what sort of pressure? You mean your mom showing up?

I’ll explain later. You’ve got work to do, right? Give me a day or three and please trust me, if you can. Good luck with Podaga.

That was a brush-off if I’d ever heard one. I let Grandpa know I’d be back in five minutes and stepped up my pace.