Events had taken an unexpected turn at Haveskon.

"Investigator Heusten, you have found something; I take it?" Greymus met the investigator once again in his private office.

Heusten's demeanor was no longer as collected as before. Scratching his now unruly beard he answered, "Yes, Sir. We have been hard at work. Thanks to your generous donations, we have gained access to some data sources that are strictly speaking not quite legal, and some new facts have come to light."

Patience was never one of Greymus's strengths. He snapped, "Quit the theatrics Heusten, and get to the point. Do we know anything about who killed my son or not?"

"Look at these transport logs, Sir. According to these records, Remus took a flight out of the academy as scheduled for the Fiera Azakus system."

Greymus was getting irritated now, "Yes, we have gone through this a dozen times. What is your point?"

"If we look at the translation device logs, however, we see a different picture."

"Translation device?"

"Yes, one of the many clues that the translation device uses to better predict the context of the content is location. From the logs from the translation server, we see that the device was somewhere in Galactic Sector 59."

That was not quite what the Senator had expected to hear, "Sector 59, why would he be in this isolated location in the middle of nowhere?"

"What is more interesting, sir, is that the location the device was pinging from seems to be an uncharted planet. We know for a fact that the device was taken out of the ship, used in an alien atmosphere, and used to translate Yaskin text."

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"Yaskin?" Remus had never had anything to do with the bygone Yaskh culture.

"Yes. The more interesting part is that we have no record of a Yaskh settlement anywhere close to that area. And that location is not easily reachable through any of the known wormholes."

"So not only did my son find an uncharted planet, he traveled to it through an unregistered wormhole. I am willing to bet every penny in my account that he didn't go there himself."

Senator Ortimus had no delusions of grandeur about his son. Remus had always needed a kick in the arse to accomplish anything in life. The coward wouldn't dare to do something like this on his own.

"There is more, Sir. The devices the institution issues are configured to interconnect with each other to prevent redundant lookups. There was another student present in the same location."

"You have identified an accomplice? Is it the girl?" The senator's face lit up.

"Yes, sir. We have also discovered that her profile is not quite clean."

"What do you mean?"

She has been in contact with Helicon rebel groups. We have uncovered evidence of her trading Irvanian designs for weaponry and shields with the Helicon network.

"How does a student of the Illustrious Academy get entangled with Helicon rebels?" Greymus was astounded. It was not like any random rebel could go and sign up for the academy. The students had to undergo a very rigorous scrutiny as part of the selection process. And once in, the academy closely monitored all their activity. After all, they were being groomed for the most elite positions in the empire.

The investigator swiped away from the logs, and opened Kiri's profile. "She is from Naasdal."

Ok, that made at least some sense. Naasdal was brought into Irvanian rule only a decade ago. And it was also close to the Helicon base. It was not difficult to believe that some Helicon insurgents still had some presence there. "She had been connected to them even before being accepted into the academy."

The Senator sprung into action, "That should be enough to qualify as ground for suspicion. Bring her in."

Heusten fidgeted, "Here is the thing, sir; strictly speaking, we shouldn't have access to that data. And the evidence is circumstantial at best. We would not be able to push through a warrant based on this."

A dark glare from the senator told Heusten all that he needed to hear. "Do what needs to be done."

While the Irvanian civilization may make a huge fuss about fairness and prosperity in the public, it was an open secret that one could not rise to the senate through sheer talent and will alone. There were so many hidden hurdles and political labyrinths to be navigated that one needed deep connections and unparalleled ruthlessness. And ruthlessness was something Senator Ortimus had embraced a long, long time ago. And when it came to his son, he would go to whatever lengths necessary.