> (Shipyard, Ceres Station)

The past two months on the station had been far busier than Aaron Corwin was used to, and frankly he was happy to have it behind him. He'd handled the final arrangements for the Roses for Jolene, including the termination arrangements for himself and the crew, met with Station Management for a full review of the ship's arrival, negotiated the new employment contracts with Charis Research and helped oversee the final work on the spaceship.

All while trying to guide a covert investigation into the sabotage of the Jolene.

Now, for nearly the first time since they'd arrived at Ceres, he finally had a moment to relax.

Of course it couldn't last.

Corwin had just closed down the terminal in his room and was considering heading to the station's dining section to have a relaxed dinner when the door chimed.

"Hey Boss, you got a second?"

"Come on in, Seamus." Corwin sat back down and waved the engineer over to sit on the corner of the bed.

"Won't take long." Seamus pulled a scanner from his pocket, fiddled with it for a moment, then set it on the bed. "Right, that'll take care of the ears."

"Did your security measures pay off then?"

"And how. Three attempted intrusions, a stealth drone, half a dozen hack attempts and a nanoswarm. I've tracked most of them back to Charis' competitors, on and off station."

Corwin had assumed that something was going to happen, but nothing on this sort of scale.

"A nanoswarm?"

"Oh yeah, beautiful little buggers too. I've got them in a scanner right now to see if I can decode their instruction set."

Seamus seemed far too happy about that. Nanoswarms were military grade infiltration tech developed during the last Corporate War. Depending on their programming they could assemble into a variety of composite objects, infiltrate systems or do directed damage to people and systems alike. Just the sort of 'toy' Seamus would probably be thrilled to get his hands on.

"Let's just pretend that you don't have a war crime in a box somewhere. You're sure we're secure?"

Seamus' shit-eating grin made a brief appearance. "If a sucking nanoswarm can't make it through my net, we're secure. And it's not a war crime to have a swarm, just to use one."

A yellow light began to flash on the 'scanner' beside Seamus.

"Well, private time is about done." Seamus deactivated the device before continuing. "So, we're ready for the crew to move in any time. Won't be ready for launch for a couple of days."

"Good work. I'll let the bosses know."

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> (Charis Research Offices, Ceres Station)

Another day, another boring - and probably pointless - meeting. Mike would much rather spend the time refining the field equations she'd developed with Doctor Roche. She was sure there was a pattern forming in the field establishment descriptors that hinted at a much simpler common derivation.

Of course, that was the whole purpose of tablets, and she had all of the data safely stored on hers. Maybe she'd get a little closer while the meeting was dragging on.

She arrived at the meeting room a few minutes early, as usual, and found the Warp Physics team already present. It had been a few days since they'd all been together in the same room, so she took a moment to greet them all before sitting next to Basil to discuss some work she'd been doing for him.

They were so deep into it that she didn't even notice the Director arriving. Basil had to draw her attention away from the work before she realised.

"Thank you all for coming. I have just been informed that, despite the numerous delays, the construction on the ship is almost complete."

Oh, that was good news. As much as she'd hated the experience on the freighter, Mike was really looking forward to having her own living space aboard the new ship.

"The engineers have cleared the ship for habitation, so you'll all be moving aboard tomorrow. You'll have a chance to familiarize yourselves with the ship over the following few days. At the end of that time, I'll expect a report and a list of any shortcomings you may have found."

Mike already knew most of what she needed to about the ship itself. She'd done the field calculations, which relied on precise measurements of both the geometry and the mass distribution of the ship, but until she'd lived in it for a while it was just a collection of numbers to her. Elegant numbers, yes. But even she couldn't really get an idea of how it would feel to live on from numbers alone.

"During your familiarization period the four of you will be working on installing and tuning the field emitters and the FTL drive core. Doctor Eastman assures me that it did not suffer any damage from the... impromptu test."

Of course they all knew this already, since they'd all been involved somewhat in checking the drive core. Even Basil had contributed, despite being the least knowledgeable about the drive system itself.

Director Simms tapped at his tablet for a moment and brought up a test plan. "This is the abridged testing schedule we've agreed on. While the emergency test has demonstrated the unit's feasibility, the Board requires a minimum set of safety and data collection tests before they will clear the drive for the first long-distance operation."

Well, of course they would. Mike was looking forward to sinking her teeth into that data too. It would help immeasurably with the work. And, unlike some people, she was content to wait to be one of the first humans to officially exceed the speed of light. According to the data from their unexpected little adventure they'd only managed about point eight C. If her numbers were right - and she was confident that they were - she'd be moving a hell of a lot faster than that soon enough.

"We're all very excited about the outcome of these tests," Director Simms said, without a hint of excitement in his voice. "Ceres Station Management however have raised some concerns. Thanks to Doctors Carter and Geitzmann we've managed to address those concerns adequately. Unfortunately, the Station Manager is very firm on one point: she will not allow any tests within five hundred thousand klicks of the station itself."

That was a lot better than Mike had been expecting, to be fair. The Station Manager had been pushing for a minimum safe distance of around five light seconds.

Ted made a few annotations on his tablet, then turned to Mike. "Any idea what our travel time is going to be for that distance Mike?"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"That will depend on our final mass, and I need to confirm our flight plan with Flight Control, but at a first estimate... forty-eight minutes and change."

Director Simms frowned at the interruption, then continued.

"Once at minimum safe distance you will proceed with the test plan. A copy of the full test instructions will be sent to you on ship prior to departure.

"Now... any questions?"

None of the group had any questions that the Director would be able to answer. They were all ready and eager to get on with it. Moving out of the research block would be a welcome relief from the stifling atmosphere.

"Very well. Ted and I need to go over the test schedule. The rest of you, go pack."

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> (Shipyard, Ceres Station)

Erica was happier than she could remember being in a long time. Helping to build a ship almost from scratch was possibly the coolest thing she'd ever done. Not only that but she'd managed to get some of her own needs filled during the numerous planning sessions. This might be the first ship anywhere outside of Io's undersized shipyard that had been built with her dimensions in mind in the engineering spaces.

And of course she'd found some time in her busy schedule to get some more... personal things accomplished. One of the yard workers had been more than happy to help her scratch an itch during their downtime.

To top it all off, today was the day she got to actually start living in the beautiful machine she'd helped to build. What more could a girl ask for?

"You got everything you need Erica?"

Seamus had arrived with several crates of engineering supplies, passing each of them through the security field he'd set up at the entrance to the ship itself.

"Yeah, I'm about ready," she replied. "Replaced a few things that didn't make it off the Jolene, added a couple of others that fit the budget."

"Nice." Seamus has one crate left to scan. Instead of passing it through the field he cracked the seals on it and started unpacking the contents, scanning each item individually. "This is the last of the new gear ordered by the science team. Field analysis stuff, mostly."

Normally Erica would have asked why he was scanning each piece, but with how tight the security measures had been in the last couple of weeks nothing really surprised her anymore.

"Finally. If you don't need me, I'm going to go pack."

"Nah, I'm good. You better go see June first though. She's doing the final provisioning and stuff."

That probably meant special meals. Erica could maybe cut back on the the supplements, which would be nice.

The day just kept getting better.

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> (Charis Research Offices, Ceres Station)

"Director Simms?"

Richard sighed, scowled, then turned to find out what this latest interruption in his very busy day was.

"Oh. Major... Peyton, isn't it?" Wasn't he the one in charge of Search and Rescue? "What can I do for you?"

"I have an official communication for you from System Navy Command. Do you have somewhere secure we can review it?"

Richard nodded, then led the Major towards one of the nearby labs. Once inside he enacted the security protocols, effectively cutting the lab off from the rest of the complex.

"OK. This is as secure as you could wish. Now, what's this about?"

The Major withdrew a tablet from a pocket in his uniform, passing it to Richard.

"The message is encrypted to your retinal print, Director. I haven't read it." The Major sat, apparently completely at ease. "My guess? Someone found out that you're about to launch a ship chock-full of new, untested tech and decided to invoke the Jupiter Accords."

Richard unlocked the tablet and started reading. Page after page of government-level red tape scrolled past - defining terms, listing relevant points of law and precedent. It was almost as dense and boring as the minutes of the last meeting of the Science Council. Finally he arrived at the "Required Action" section, which was the only thing about the entire document that was even vaguely interesting.

"It appears that you are correct, Major." Richard frowned, scrolled back and re-read a section of the document. "No, this is unacceptable."

"Not my call, Director, but if I remember the relevant clauses," which he quite clearly did, "then you'll find that the penalties for non-compliance are quite... rigorous."

Quite. Summary destruction of the ship was the least serious of the potential outcomes. Charis Research could be shut down. Richard himself could be imprisoned!

"What's wrong, Major?" Richard's practiced arrogance covered the moment of fear and he sneered at the relaxed Navy officer. "The Navy afraid someone will make their ships obsolete?"

"Actually, no. The System Council is afraid that somebody might do something stupid. You know, like crashing Amalthea into Europa, killing thousands and wrecking half the colony."

Right, the Jupiter Accords. The Major had mentioned those earlier, hadn't he? Richard vaguely remembered them from a talk thirty years ago but hadn't really been paying attention at the time.

"So, Director, your ship goes out with supervision or it doesn't go. Period."

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> (Charis Research Ship Unbounded Series, Ceres Shipyard)

Bill Peyton, intrepid explorer.

Yeah, right. More like 'Bill Peyton, unwanted cargo.'

Honestly, Bill would rather have passed the stupid job on to his adjutant, but Command had sent explicit orders. And yes, he was the ranking Navy man on Ceres, but he wasn't exactly qualified for a tech oversight role.

But here he was, reporting for a duty nobody here wanted him to be doing. Maybe that's why the ship's engineer was putting him through security screens that made Fleet security look like a disinterested mall cop.

"Won't be long, Major. Just have to scan the last of your luggage."

Again? He'd passed through two security fields already. A third scan on two bags was either paranoia or hazing. Bill hoped it was hazing - paranoids were just tiresome.

"Take your time, Mister. But if you want to do a cavity search, you'd better buy me dinner first."

Seamus snorted. "Not my department. I could get Erica over if you like? She's no proctologist..."

"...but she'll take a look? Old jokes never go out of style I see."

"Not around here they don't." Seamus checked the readings on the last bag, then waved Bill through. "All clear. Welcome aboard, Major."

"I'll take him from here, Seamus."

The new voice belonged to Paul Desmond, according to the Fleet Intel dossier Bill had studied. Average height, athletic build, brown hair, blue eyes. Luna born, gravball player for a few years until he'd been dropped from the team due to a "minor health issue."

"Mister Desmond I presume? Major William Peyton, System Navy."

"I know who you are Major. Follow me please."

Bill grabbed his bags and followed Paul into the ship. As they passed through the open airlock Paul paused, a serious look on his face.

"No doubt Fleet Intel have given you all you need to know about all of us.

"More than I needed to know, to be honest." Bill shrugged. "What can I do about it? Intel are a pain in the arse, but they're useful sometimes."

"I'll take your word for it. Just... try to act surprised, okay? Most people would rather not know that the Navy keeps track of their calorie intake."

"Understood. And honestly, I only skimmed the outlines. If there were any red flags Intel would have sent someone down here to really investigate."

Okay, so Bill had done a lot more than skim. He knew that 'minor health issue' was cover for some poor life choices involving a promoter's daughter. But, as Paul had pointed out, nobody was going to benefit from knowing just how much scrutiny their team had been under.

And there really hadn't been anything concerning in the dossiers. They were a fairly clean crew, not to mention competent.

"Well, you did haul our arses out of the fire recently, so you've got some cred with the crew for that."

"Yeah, was kind of hoping that might help."

Paul stopped at a hatch and dug a passkey out of his breast pocket, passing it to Bill.

"This is your quarters. Stow your bags and we'll go see the Captain."

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> (Ceres Traffic Control, Ceres Station)

"Hey Lisa, did you check these departure tracks for the Unbounded Series?"

Steven Dobbs was not a superstitious or paranoid man. He didn't believe that the universe had it out for him. But after being dragged up to the Station Manager's office last time he'd dealt with this group, he wasn't taking any chances.

"Ran them myself, everything checks out."

Steve ran the full traffic plots again, just to be sure. He highlighted the departure plot in question and checked against all the other traces, confirming that they had a clear run out of his space. And because he was being extra cautious, he made a couple of minor adjustments to some of the other plots, making absolutely certain that the ship would have a clear run.

"I'm sending you a list of traffic adjustments. Double-check them for me and send them out, will you?"

It only took a few moments for Lisa to double-check his work and send out the corrections to the relevant ships. The master traffic plot updated over the next few minutes as ships made minor corrections.

Thirty minutes until the launch, then they'd be out of Steve's hair for a couple of weeks minimum. Thirty long minutes during which... thankfully, nothing happened.

"Ceres Control, Unbounded Series requesting departure on filed plan."

"Roger, Unbounded Series, you are clear for departure."

"Thank you Control. Unbounded Series departing."