The extra immersion interface had barely taken an hour, delivered outside their door per usual. Mike scanned for new signals and found nothing before he opened the door, but just to be on the safe side he spoofed all the building cameras to see an empty hall. They'd set that up right away of course, but it wasn't going to fool anyone long-term since the building was well aware that they'd opened the door. But it was better than nothing.

Reema had spent a final hour with her research and then showed him everything. He agreed that the most sensible place was the primary Oort embassy to the inner system.

It's where the spies will cluster, but probably the most direct connection to their government as well.

He really didn't want some private Corp from way out there trying to keep everything for themselves. A government would do the same of course, but their perspective might at least be wider.

In the end they arranged a group trip out of it. Mike, Reema, and of course Seema had full immersion headsets, and Meela had to make do with the limited spare that left her floating invisibly over Mike's shoulder.

Aventine would have a stroke if she heard about this, but fuck it, we're doing something new together.

Plus he was confident enough in their basic setup that it was a calculated risk that didn't seem completely irresponsible.

He was pretty sure he thought so at least.

They all logged in from a variety of points globally, and met up at the Charon Prospect Nexus. It was a small gray entrance to a huge vaulted dome.

Looks incredibly dull.

The girls were ordinary human women, but they'd retained their basic forms so that Reema was shorter and dark-haired, while Seema was a striking blonde woman with the sculpted body of an athlete. But more importantly neither of them stood out as unusual in any major way. They were easily forgotten faces in the crowd.

He'd done a bit of basic research on his own of course. This place was in theory a public-facing facility for diplomacy and education. Schoolkid tours and so on, so it was open to the world and anyone could just show up for a look around.

Walking inside was an improvement at least. They were in some kind of huge domed space with parkland and trees, and rows of low white buildings scattered about. It was very pretty. Above was a simulation of a deeply dark blue sky with scattered clouds, and a sun that was barely more than a bright star. The ambient light was dim, but not so much that they couldn't see. It was roughly like early twilight. Distance was hard to judge but it was likely a few tens of kilometers to the other side of the dome.

An enormous crescent Pluto covered half the sky, and the sharp-edged mountains of Pluto's huge and rugged moon Charon lurked on the horizon.

It was a nice simulation, but he could see this and much, much better without a lot of effort online. But of course this also existed in the real world, and if you took the time to go there you'd see exactly the same thing. Not much of a selling point, but seeing the most exotic human civilization had a certain level of appeal to some minority of people.

School tours were likely a big part of their clientele. Plus the chance to talk to a few real members of the most distant tribes of humanity.

"Welcome," the tall woman coming towards them said with a smile. "I'm Tatjana. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you. But feel free to just walk about if you prefer."

She had a strange accent with hints of Nordic and Asian languages at the same time.

"It's very nice," Peter said. It never hurt to compliment someone's home. "Is it really this warm? I always imagined everything being cold and dark out there."

She smiled and nodded.

"Keeping the temperature livable is as important as having enough oxygen. The cold might kill you slower, but it's relentless. That said, we're probably more comfortable that most people with lower temperatures. This is set to Earth standard, but the reality is only a few degrees colder."

"Is this really home? You're from Charon Prospect?"

She nodded again, obviously settling into her tourist patter.

Mike detected a series of probes against his own software. The place - or Tatjana herself - was already trying to scope them out.

Master, Meela's voice piped up.

I know, he said.

His own configuration was solid, and they weren't doing anything illegal in any case, so there was no point in making a fuss about it. Seema was giving him a pointed look as well, but he just smiled and waggled his eyebrow at her.

"Born and raised! I went to university at Farpoint though, which thirty light-days out." She pointed up at the tiny sun. "The Sun isn't much brighter than Sirius out there!"

Not being an astronomy fan, Mike had only a bare notion of what she meant, but he nodded and tried to look impressed all the same.

"What made you decide to actually come to Earth?" Reema said. She and Seema had both been looking around very seriously, as if they were appraising it.

Tatjana laughed.

"I was a history major. How could I not spend some time on the home world? It seemed like the natural thing to do."

She strolled along with them for a while, showing them the sights. Apparently this was a residential area, with most of the serious industrial facilities deep beneath in the rock and ice.

"It's important for people to have a place away from all that," she said as they strolled through the low buildings and parkland all around. It would have looked at home on some sunny coast on Earth, except for the nearly black sky overhead and the tiny, dim sun. And the crescent of Pluto overhanging it all.

"I guess I assumed you'd all be at home in wires and metal and glass out here," Mike said.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"We are," she said seriously. "But it's bad for anyone to never have a break. Our bodies and minds are still meant for grass and trees and open spaces after all."

It was nice enough, but it really wasn't what they were looking for. Though it was a little reassuring to find Tatjana to be fairly normal and pleasant, and not some half-human creature of deep space.

"Is there anything you were particularly interested in?" she asked eventually.

It was an obvious opening for them.

"You don't get a lot of casual tourists, I guess?" Mike said.

She smiled, but her eyes were suddenly more serious.

"It's fairly frequent we have visitors who are looking to... find a new start, as it were. If that's not what you're interested in, no worries. I haven't even shown you the entertainment district yet. There's lots to see down there!"

Seema and Reema would have made excellent poker players. Their expressions never shifted from alert interest, and they looked quizzically at Tatjana's dangling lead.

No point in playing games, her job must be to scope out the foot traffic.

"What are the parameters around that?" he said. "For the people looking to emigrate? Is it a non-starter?"

"Oh no," she said. "Not at all. But I'm sure you can understand that it's not a free-for-all. Everyone depends on everyone else in the Cloud. Unreliable people put everyone in danger."

"Makes sense. Last thing you need is a nutbar making trouble."

She nodded.

"Skill sets are important as well of course. There's a lot of work to be done, but we need people who will be assets."

Mike nodded.

Out with it.

"I've hear you're building generation ships. Planning to go fully interstellar."

She smiled, and a door opened up in the air beside her.

"That's a rather elite zone," she said. "Imagine spending two hundred years with no maintenance or repairs other than what you bring with you. The competence and reliability of the people is the most important thing. We have a pretty steady stream of dreamers who want to join those projects, but most have never been away from Earth. They have no idea what it means. It's a challenge even for people who've spent their whole lives in the dark between the worlds."

"So you're saying don't get your hopes up?"

"Sorry," she said. She looked like this was a speech she'd given before. "My advice is see about somewhere like Charon Prospect. It's an easier transition. If it turns out you've got talent and competence, maybe think about joining up after a few years. You'd have more credibility at that point anyway."

She gestured to them to go through the door. As soon as they walked through, they were somewhere else entirely. It was definitely deep space. The stars were brilliant and uncountable, and the band of the Milky Way slashed across the sky, glowing brighter than it ever did from Earth.

There was no attempt to make them feel like they were on a platform or anything, they simply drifted in space.

"It's beautiful," Reema said, looking all around in wonder.

"Isn't it?" said Tatjana - though she was clearly referring to the ship that floated a few kilometers away, surrounded by scaffolding and lit by brilliant lights.

"Where are we?" Seema said.

"About the same distance as Farpoint," Tatjana said. "Thirty light days out from the Sun."

Mike wouldn't have called the ship beautiful. It was a long, lumpy cylinder, off-white and covered with domes and projections.

"That's a real starship," Reema said. "Incredible."

Tatjana nodded.

"Packed with everything they need to set up an industrial base in another solar system, and to start a new civilization. Don't get me wrong, I understand the attraction. I hate to discourage you. But it's a one-shot deal. They get it right or they die, so nobody leaves anything to chance."

"Very nice," Mike said. It didn't really leave him gaping. Maybe it would have more impact if he'd been seeing it in real life. "What's the destination? Is that a secret?"

She smiled and shook her head.

"Not at all. The Tianshin is bound for Tau Ceti, seventh planet out. The astronomers named it E2, but the people who end up living there will give it its true name."

Peter remembered seeing something about it in the news. Pictures of a green-gray world that was apparently smaller and colder than the Earth but with oceans and clouds and breathable air all the same.

Even if we went, it would arrive after I was long dead.

It was hard to get too excited about.

"How many others are there? Ships like this I mean."

"Just two," Tatjana said. "They look more or less the same, but they're not so far along in construction."

"I understand the launch of the Tianshin is scheduled for two years from now," Reema said.

Tatjana nodded.

"You've done your homework. That's correct. So the crew roster is solid at this point."

"Don't worry," Mike said. "We heard you. But just out of curiosity, suppose we had something unique to offer? Could you put us in touch with someone with authority to make those kinds of decisions?"

Tatjana stared at them blankly for a moment. The local network traffic around them bumped up suddenly. Nothing threatening, but enough to make it clear that their host had focused additional attention on them.

"Master, should we break our link?" Meela said in his ear. She had said it so that Reema and Seema could hear. Seema was frowning.

Mike didn't reply.

"Can you give me some idea of what would be significant enough to justify that?" Tatjana said. Her tourist demeanor had dropped down to something colder and more efficient.

"Not like this, no. We would have to set up a much more secure conversation."

Tatjana frowned at them again.

"Break everything on my say-so..." Mike said to the girls.

Suddenly Tatjana's expression warmed up, and she nodded.

"If you wish, I can set up such a meeting immediately."

"Master..." Meela said in his ear.

"I know," he said.

"I'd rather see about security from my own end too. You know how it is."

Tatjana pursed her lips and fell silent again for a moment. She was clearly in communication with someone.

"Of course. If you can give me an address I'll have someone get in touch as soon as possible."

Mike sent her a link.

"Appreciate the tour, Tatjana, honestly," he said. "It's all very outside of my experience, but this really is an amazing thing your people are doing here."

He indicated the starship.

She beamed at him.

"Isn't it? I hope we have a chance to meet again, all of you. Naturally the right topics might change everything."

Mike's stomach dropped.

And break, he said.

Their link broke instantly and he was back in the apartment with Reema sitting on his lap. He ran his fingers along her tail while she took the gear off of her head.

Meela stood up behind him, and Seema walked in from the living room.

Did we just get made?

It may have... it probably was a foolish thing to have done. The Oort colonies were bound to be among Aventine's bidders.

"Master," Meela said, "She became very cooperative quite suddenly. It is possible their government may be aware of the search for us."

Damn straight they are.

Now there was a damn good chance he had made things difficult or impossible for Aventine. If the Oort colonies thought they had a line on all three catgirls, not just one...

Yes. This was a fuckup.