“Impossible,” Natalya said.

“Actually—” Sisi began.

“Okay, possible, but stupid,” Natalya said, not wanting to hear Sisi’s no-doubt lengthy explanation. “The second Prosper or the colonies get wind of it they’ll take it away.”

“Which is why it needed to be kept a drastic secret,” Ptolemy said. “Thankfully, most people are like you, Captain, disregarding it as impossible. Even rumors, what few exist of this station, are disregarded. And those who may think it’s not ludicrous are assured it was destroyed.”

Ptolemy backed away toward the aperture hatch.

“What are you doing?” Natalya asked.

“I’m putting a healthy distance between myself and you,” Ptolemy said.

“Why?”

“Because of what I’m about to tell you, the reason my station is thought to be destroyed.”

Natalya felt her cheeks flare red, not sure if she was embarrassed or angry Ptolemy would insinuate she couldn’t control her temper.

Ptolemy stopped at the hatch and said, “It’s in the Farbind system.”

Natalya felt a chill run up her spine. She froze a moment, wondering if she was at fault in something even greater than what had happened. Then she narrowed her eyes. If Ptolemy was even partially responsible, would things have spiraled so out of control?

The only thing that kept Natalya from slamming Ptolemy’s skull into the bulkhead was that she didn’t want to give the man the satisfaction of being right about her inability to control her anger. Instead, she crossed her arms, touched the pistol at her side, and waited for Ptolemy to explain.

Sisi chimed in and said, “Oh, so that’s what we were working on.”

Natalya raised an eyebrow.

“Didn’t you know about it? You were the Duke,” Sisi said.

“Apparently there was a lot about that planet I didn’t know,” Natalya said.

“The furthest habitable planet from the center of the Jade Galaxy, and the only one with a sizable enough Palladium Mine to generate the materials necessary to construct my station,” Ptolemy said. “I contracted with Farbind’s Duke, your predecessor, to construct a research lab, supposedly to investigate new methods of forming shield emitters.”

“We were researching how to Prosper-form planets more quickly,” Sisi added. “Shields too, but that was less interesting. It got interesting when Qin came in, but only interesting in a scary, inhumane sense.”

“Qin took your facility?” Natalya asked.

“Apparently the Duke informed him of my status, and Qin insisted he take a share. It was all I could do to placate his ownership, give him free reign of the facility but limit his access to its true purpose,” Ptolemy explained.

“I kept a video log,” Sisi noted, holding up a little orange stick about the size of her finger. “No, wait, that’s lip gloss.” Sisi popped the cap off the stick and rubbed it over her lips, making a smacking noise. Then she took a similar-sized, pink stick out of her other pocket. “This is the video log.”

Sisi tossed Natalya the memory stick.

“It shows how Pul was created, and probably why he wants to kill me. Pretty sure he wants to kill you too. He’d want to kill Ptolemy and Qin if he knew what really happened, though,” Sisi explained.

Natalya ran a hand across her forehead. There were too many things happening, too many variables at play. She felt a familiar pain, but now realized that something had happened at Farbind that might not have been her fault. Still, it felt like stabbing a knife through an old scar.

“Consult the videos at a later date, Natalya, the point is the Duke got wind of what was happening. We, unfortunately, discovered a platinum mine on the planet. That got Qin’s attention, and the attention of others. Therefore, the old Duke needed to be replaced,” Ptolemy continued.

“You killed the Duke of Farbind?” Natalya asked. She remembered the man, an old statesman with a thick, white mustache, puffy red cheeks and a hefty gut. He wasn’t the most, or least, corrupt of Prosper’s administrators, but he didn’t deserve to be murdered either.

“It got you your promotion, didn’t it?”

“I don’t care! I’d still be on Prosper if you hadn’t killed him!”

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“Is that a good thing, Natalya?”

Natalya blushed again, turning away. She wanted to punch Ptolemy, wanted to jettison him out the airlock. But a part of her wanted to thank him, wanted to ask his forgiveness for her failures. And a burning part of her wanted to see what his plan was. Because no matter the initial cause, it had been her decisions that wrecked Farbind.

“The Gaozu Hegemony learned of the platinum mine, and the Changyu Confederation as well. Farbind was a branch colony, set up during Prosper’s civil war and with limited ties to the home planet. Its relative isolation was one of the reasons I was allowed to work in secret. But that was quickly going away. Qin wanted the Duke to exercise more control and oppose colonial incursion at all costs. I needed to bring in someone who could stabilize the situation,” Ptolemy explained.

“I was trying to bring Farbind into closer ties with Prosper,” Natalya countered. “I wanted to prevent a war, not start one, and definitely not help an egomaniac build a space station.”

“No. But I read your record, paid off the right people, and got you appointed. I knew you’d handle the encroachment of the Gaozu and Changyu, and even keep Qin away. You didn’t fail.”

“You manipulative…” Natalya said, not sure how to feel. “Of course I failed!”

“The space station remains intact. A final piece of its construction was lost in the conflict, but that has since been recovered. And as I said, even rumors of its existence are stamped out because no such station could have survived what happened.

“But it did survive, Natalya. It’s there, waiting for us. We can escape this galaxy, found a new colony, a colony far enough away to be beyond the reach of any ship or government or anyone. It will be all ours, no war need be fought and no political might need be exercised. All we need to do is go and get it, and turn it on.”

“You forget, Ptolemy,” Jasper interjected. “The Prophets are watching the Farbind system. It’s been declared a demilitarized zone and still claimed by Prosper. All agreed that after the battles there, no ship of any kind can enter.”

“The Whites are monitoring it, yes, but we need not fear them,” Ptolemy replied.

“Why not?” Natalya asked.

“I have my methods, but you’ll have to trust me on this one, Natalya.”

“And the defenses? Prophets might look the other way for one or two little scavenger ships, but Prosper put a defense grid of drones in the debris field.”

“That’s the beauty of it. The Prophets are aware that a scavenger ship will be blown to smithereens and any capital ship entering will violate their observations, and face the consequences of whatever pain the Prophets want to inflict. But a small ship, one that can deactivate the defense grid—”

“Would need government approval,” Natalya said, waving her hand in front of her face as if wiping away the concept.

“Would need the bio-access of the Duke who commands the system, and the transmitter to broadcast such a code. We already have that Duke.”

Natalya felt naked, felt an itching sensation crawl across her skin. The urge to scream flared up like bile.

“Natalya’s a Duke!” Sisi exclaimed, clapping and oblivious to Natalya’s fury.

“Indeed. All we need, it seems, is the Duke of Farbind’s transmitter,” Ptolemy said.

“But, how—”

“Sadly, the former duke’s did not survive the incident at Farbind. But there is a universal transmitter in the possession of the Zhou Chairman.”

“On Prosper?” Jasper asked.

“Indeed. Simple solution, really. Move in, get the transmitter, move out,” Ptolemy explained.

Natalya had heard enough. She stormed toward Ptolemy.

“Now, Natalya…” he said.

Natalya stopped, leveling her pistol at the man’s nose.

“Captain Frazier,” she fumed. “You can call me Captain. You can call me sir. You can even call me that bitch who runs this ship when I’m not looking, but you will call me Captain to my face. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Captain,” Ptolemy said.

Natalya holstered her pistol and stomped through the hatch. As she walked along the corridor, her boots echoing against the metal hull, Ptolemy called out after her, “I told you I made a bet, Captain. I bet on you. That wager has yet to be called on, and the game has yet to end. As you always say, Captain, never bet against you. I certainly haven’t.”

Natalya stopped only a moment, then continued to her quarters.

A knock at her door broke Natalya away from her memories.

“Captain, I have a question to ask, if you don’t mind,” Jasper’s voice came from the other side of the thick, round hatch.

Natalya’s quarters were in the Prosper-made section of the ship, square-shaped and ringing with a metallic echo at every step.

“Door’s open,” Natalya announced.

Jasper entered, shutting the door behind him with a loud creak of its aged hinges. He found Natalya at her desk, staring at a thick, leather book. The desk was empty save for a datasheet that listed ship necessities, and a viewscreen displaying the ship’s relative speed, position, and weapons status.

Empty shelves lined the walls. The room was white-washed bare, no pictures or trinkets of any kind. Her bed was folded into the wall, and in the compartment beneath, Natalya kept only more of the same clothes she wore, in marginally different cuts and colors.

“You think you need to punish yourself?” Jasper asked, sitting in the chair that folded out from the other side of Natalya’s desk.

“I think I have all I need,” Natalya answered. “What do you want?”

“Everyone seems to know what happened at Farbind. Everyone seems to have a story.”

“Yeah? What’s yours?”

“I fell in love with a doomed woman, and couldn’t save her. But that had nothing to do with Farbind.”

Natalya’s fingers clicked against her datasheet.

“You blame yourself for losing Dana now, too,” Jasper continued.

“That’s what happened,” Natalya answered.

“I know what happened on Teal, Natalya. I can tell you I wish it happened different, or that Sisi’s scan of the planet had found her, but I know that’s not true. Ptolemy is asking for us to do something that will help us all.”

“How will a suicide mission help you?”

“I will have a chance to prove Qin’s involvement in Farbind. If that proves a deadly revelation, so be it. If not, it will allow me an opportunity to prove my innocence. And kill Qin.”

“That’s pretty weak.”

“A weak chance is still a chance. What do you want?”

“From Ptolemy?” Natalya asked.

“In general,” Jasper said with a shrug.

Natalya bit her lip, staring at the leather book.

“Will you tell me what happened?” Jasper asked. “From your own lips. I know intimately what it means to have your story told by someone else, to have personal tragedy warped into treason. Tell me what happened at Farbind.”

Natalya took a deep breath, set the book down, and began.