“You’ve got nowhere to run, Natalya. You have two options. One ends with my signature and us landing to make it official. The other ends with me annihilating the planet you robbed us of,” Montenegro declared, his voice echoing against Natalya’s clanking steps.

She kept hold of the book, clinging to it like a shield as she shouted, “Mr. Ambassador, this isn’t necessary!”

“Of course it’s necessary! The question is, are you prepared to do what’s necessary?”

Natalya reached the ship’s stern and turned to see Montenegro standing near the bow. He ran at her, a grin on his face.

Instead of waiting for his unwelcome embrace, Natalya charged, catching his arm and leg and throwing him to the deck. She beat him with the book again, gashing open his forehead. When she saw blood, she stopped and said, “You will sign this—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Natalya spotted a small pistol in the ambassador’s hand. She rolled out of the way just as he fired. The blast opened a hole in the side of the ship that bled atmosphere like a punctured balloon.

“It’s all or nothing, Natalya. All or nothing!” Montenegro shouted, firing at Natalya’s back as she took the only cover she could find. She leapt inside one of the yacht’s shuttles and closed the door behind her, just as another blast rang out against the seal.

Montenegro’s face appeared in the windowed hatch between the shuttle and the yacht, grinning as he raised his pistol.

Natalya yanked on the emergency release lever. The shuttle launched.

It was a triangular vessel with a plasma-burning engine down its center. It had minimal shielding, and a thick, glass front. Red silk covered its walls and ceiling, and there was a little round table in the middle with a set of empty glasses. Luxurious, but vulnerable.

Natalya barely had a chance to reach the front of the vessel when she felt the shuttle lurch to the side.

The little pleasure-craft was still rocketing away from the yacht, flickering lights of an onboard computer plotting an emergency landing, but the yacht had raced to follow. Natalya looked out the window and saw the ship pulling away, a shuttle-shaped dent in the vessel. It lined up with her once more.

Montenegro was going to crush her!

She grabbed the stick in the center of the shuttle’s blinking console and throttled forward. But the bigger ship was faster and more maneuverable than the dinky shuttle. It careened into the pleasure-craft’s side. Natalya saw the yacht’s hull dent as it struck her window, the thick glass cracking.

Warning lights flickered. An alarm rang out as cracks lightninged across the window. The yacht pulled away again, and Natalya knew she wouldn’t survive another collision.

Instead of trying to flee, she banked the shuttle away from the yacht and turned off her engines. She waited for the yacht to close, Montenegro most likely thinking her power had failed. He wanted to ram her from behind. But when the yacht came close enough, Natalya fired the thrusters.

White-hot plasma seared out the back of the shuttle and blasted a hole in the yacht. Natalya guided the shuttle around the yacht’s fuselage, its engines like a blowtorch, then gunned the shuttle forward.

The yacht chased her once more, barreling forward. Natalya had meant to damage, maybe disable Montenegro’s yacht. But when he shot his punctured ship forward, a cascade of implosions rang out along the yacht’s scarred metal side.

A shower of debris rained around Natalya. She looked at the console and saw the little image of the yacht flicker, then disappear.

The shuttle was badly damaged, and when she moved the stick, it didn’t respond.

“Mayday! Mayday!” Natalya shouted, broadcasting her position. But no signal got out. She couldn’t maneuver, couldn’t call for help, just drifted silently toward Farbind.

The scanners showed the Changyu and Gaozu fleets holding position on either side of Farbind. Admiral Ruzi’s shuttle was making its way toward Tether with a pair of fighter escorts. Natalya thought of what she would say, wondered if she could get a ride back to the moon in time to make up for what just happened. When she saw a flickering gray light on her console, she thought, with relief, that it might be Montenegro’s ship, still intact.

But it was an unknown vessel, and it had launched from Farbind. It was in visual range, and when she pulled it up on her console, Natalya realized it looked just like the Khitan ship, Liao.

“But that’s impossible…” Natalya said. “The Khitan never arrived. I was never told! I…”

While she tried to get in touch with someone, anyone, to tell them what was happening, Natalya heard broadcasted commands inquiring about the cause of the exploded yacht. Both fleets soon became aware of Montenegro’s death.

“Who’s ship was it?” Natalya heard shouted over fleet communications.

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“One of ours?” someone shouted.

“The Changyu attacked!” another accused.

“A Gaozu ship exploded!” another declared.

The signals came from ship and planet alike, confusion burning all over the system.

Through the mix of shouts, Natalya heard a single, clear communication.

“This is Qin, Chairman of the Zhou of Prosper. Duke Natalya Frazier has defected to the Gaozu Hegemony and has boarded the vessel of Ambassador Montenegro,” the voice of Qin said.

“What!” Natalya shouted.

“The Changyu fleet is requested to remain in orbit and not engage,” Qin continued.

“They already engaged!” a signal shouted.

“Get the shields up!” another commanded.

“It’s a trick!” a third announced as more voices joined the shouting match of accusations.

As they continued to roar at one another, Natalya saw the signal for the Khitan ship make its way toward Admiral Ruzi’s shuttle, still on approach with Tether. She could see the fleets out her shuttle’s cracked window as it continued its emergency landing toward Farbind.

The Khitan vessel was unmarked, and Natalya could have sworn she saw damage all over its torn hull. She had no time for confirmation, however, as Liao exploded like a tiny sun. The blast overtook Admiral Ruzi’s shuttle and escorts, and when the light faded a field of debris crashed toward Tether.

“No!” Natalya screamed, pressing her hands against the cracked window.

The shuttle continued to fall, fires of Farbind’s atmosphere glowing around the vessel’s thick backside. No more communications came in. Signals were jammed.

Natalya could only scream as she watched the two fleets silently close on one another, the lights of missiles, fighters, and glowing cannon drowning out the stars. Burning atmosphere closed in over the window, the fire hiding her view.

Natalya handed Jasper the book.

The Prophet opened it, and saw the still unsigned Treaty of Tether.

“I never had a chance to unpack my office,” Natalya laughed, biting back tears.

Jasper nodded, setting the book on Natalya’s empty desk.

“I did my best to evacuate. Got several transports away, but the fleets said they’d attack anyone trying to leave. I took off in Ranger, hoping to distract them. But they didn’t take the bait. Instead of shooting me down, they took out my transports. Tonkin was on one. I still have no idea how many made it out alive,” Natalya explained.

“More than would have lived had you not been there,” Jasper reasoned.

“No. They all would have lived, if I’d just closed my eyes, and gotten Montenegro to sign that book.”

“Natalya, you can’t—”

“I can. And I do. It was my fault. I started the war.”

“Clearly, Qin had a hand in it. A Khitan vessel doesn’t just explode, especially not one that takes out an admiral’s shuttle. It seems like he wanted this war to happen.”

“Regardless, my damned pride lit the fuse. I couldn’t even sacrifice myself as bait. Ranger wasn’t a threat, so they just disabled it and took out the transports. I wasn’t worth the ammunition.”

“I’m glad you did not succeed in your attempted self-sacrifice,” Jasper said.

“They call me the Traitor of Farbind. Qin claims he picked me up and killed me on Prosper. There’s a tomb in the Zhou with my name on it. But they didn’t even bother looking for me, wouldn’t give me a chance to accept blame, just eviscerated my name,” Natalya explained.

“Thus giving you a chance to keep living.”

Natalya grunted.

“What happened to Farbind?” Jasper asked. “After.”

“Prosper and the Prophets brokered the DMZ agreement. The Zhou was furious, but even Qin couldn’t convince them to go to war over what happened. They banned all ships from entering the Farbind system, and put up defense drones to ensure people stayed out. The Prophets now monitor the demilitarized zone for capital ships. The Changyu and Gaozu were happy to fight their war in other parts of the galaxy, but said if anyone tried to take Farbind again, there would be hell to pay. No one has tried, I’m told. Why would they want a dead planet?”

“It’s not all dead, is it?”

“Completely. The two fleets cracked the planet even further. I spent weeks adrift, as everything was destroyed around me.”

“Yet your spirit kept you going.”

“No,” Natalya said, shaking her head. She tapped a fingernail on the book, patting it like an old friend. “I couldn’t just die out there. That was too easy. I had to make up for what I did. I put on an enviro-suit, fixed the ship, salvaged what I needed from the debris of the two dead fleets, and turned Ranger into Chimera. I hooked up with Augustus and Co at the first planet I found, and hired myself as a smuggler.”

“Natalya, nothing of what you told me is your fault. You have nothing to feel guilty over,” Jasper reasoned.

“Yes I do. I started the war. Now I need a way to make up for what I did. I need to keep going, keep living. The more I do, maybe I can stop hearing Tonkin’s screams as his transport tears apart.”

“Or forget Dana’s face.”

Natalya glared at Jasper, hurt that he would poke such a fresh wound. She turned away, finding the look of patience and caring on his face revolting.

“You hold yourself to some standard of perfection no one else has,” Jasper explained. “Any flaw in how you live your life is an affront to this perfection. You tried to sacrifice yourself and failed, and now you’re just waiting for a second opportunity to give your life for others.”

“I’m not exactly eager to die or anything, Jasper,” Natalya countered.

“No. A simple death would not fit your perception of yourself.”

Jasper stood and walked to the door. He stopped, taking a deep breath as he considered his thoughts. “You’re afraid,” he said.

“Excuse me?” Natalya asked.

“You’re afraid to go back there. You’re afraid to build something. You’re afraid to try again, and want only to be sacrificed to amend your failures. Ptolemy’s building something. We’re building something. And it requires returning to Farbind. If you’re afraid, we can’t use you. But if you want to build something, here’s an opportunity.”

“He wants to challenge all of Prosper, and the colonies.”

Jasper smiled. “If he’s that bold, you should have many opportunities for a noble sacrifice.”

Jasper left the door open as he exited Natalya’s quarters and walked down the corridor. Natalya waited until she could no longer hear his footsteps, the metallic clanging of the Gaozu section of the ship replaced by the plastic clicking of Chimera’s Changyu-built sections.

Natalya tapped her fingers on the bloodstained Treaty of Tether, and stood.

She walked without hesitation to Ptolemy’s quarters, and found the man staring at a holographic projection of Teal. Natalya spotted Teal City, felt a pain of regret and failure, but swallowed it before it could surface.

The captain looked straight at Ptolemy and said, “I’m in.”