The hologram of Prosper glimmered in front of the crew.

Augustus had kept Chimera in a stationary orbit above Teal’s moon, just in case the knife-like ship had figured out their ruse and came looking for them. No other ship appeared, though, so Natalya told him to plot a course for Prosper.

At first, Natalya thought Augustus would object, or seem concerned. He merely stated, “Pomegranate wine here I come!” and flipped on the opalescents.

The rest of the crew stood in Ptolemy’s quarters, planning the mission.

“You’ll have to make your way to the Zhou Chairman’s office. It’s the only location with a universal transmitter,” Ptolemy explained, the hologram zooming into the planet to show the massive Zhou building.

The Zhou resembled an enormous crustacean, its tiers of tiled roofs like a layered exoskeleton. It had a wide, high-walled base with portraits of the Zhou Chairmen who’d led the planet in the past, some of whom were interred in the building’s first-level tombs. The building was rectangular, each story of a symmetrical shape. After about fifty stories, the tiered roofs became narrower, until they tapered into a tower that loomed over the surrounding capital city of Prosperity.

A district of low buildings surrounded the Zhou, an expensive group of single-story homes and offices in the crowded city. While the Zhou was by no means the tallest building in the capital, the intentional contrast of small buildings made the Zhou an impressive display even from space, like a masterpiece given greater beauty through its gilded frame.

“The most heavily defended piece of property in the galaxy,” Natalya noted.

“Which is why you’ll be delivering the body of Natalya Frazier,” Ptolemy answered.

“Excuse me?”

“Corruption is an interesting thing. It is steadfast against any direct challenge. Any disagreement, stamped out. Any disjointed belief, crushed. But it creates cracks. If you agree with something they know to be false but proclaim to be true, you either destroy the entire structure of corruption, or you’re able to slip through that crack.”

“We have to kill Natalya to slip through a crack?” Co asked.

It was the greatest compliment Natalya could have been given that Co seemed hesitant about the idea.

“No, Co, far from it,” Ptolemy continued. “She is recorded as dead, tortured and killed for the humiliation and loss at Farbind, and her body is entombed beneath the Zhou, where it will remain for ten years before her body will be jettisoned into the sun. Of course, that’s all just for show. Qin has kept the tomb empty, waiting for Natalya’s actual body. Because, you see, corruption means the truth doesn’t matter. All that matters is what the leader says is true. It’s up to reality to catch up with what they already know.”

“An interesting crack,” Jasper noted.

“Indeed. We will enter as the team designated to bring Natalya’s body to the tomb. There will be no records of the grave being empty, no records of the need for the body to be brought in. But a DNA scan will show that this is truly Natalya Frazier. And luckily, we have a platform for constructing a coffin.”

“And I can poison you!” Sisi said. “Well, not poison, it’s like poison but it just makes you look dead when really your heart rate has gone down to—”

“Brilliant,” said Natalya.

“An entire fleet wouldn’t be able to break the Zhou’s defenses. But with this crack of corruption, all we have to do is walk in, and they’ll open the door for us,” Ptolemy said with a grin.

“What about getting on and off planet?” Jasper asked.

“Chimera can still broadcast as a Prosper Capital ship. We’ll use that, use Natalya’s DNA, slip through with a lovely set of Zhou Guard uniforms I happen to have lying around, then you’ll just need to infiltrate the Zhou Chairman’s chambers, get to his office, and cut the transmitter outside his window.”

“Sounds easy,” Natalya said.

“And you’re in luck, Co. I did go ahead and requisition that neutron bomb you wanted.”

The neutron bomb was a distraction, meant to send the planet’s defense network chasing a supposed threat in case Chimera needed to get away in a hurry. They dropped the bomb, along with a remote detonator, far enough away that it wouldn’t be picked up by the planet’s scanners, then resumed course.

Prosper glistened like a gem in Chimera’s viewscreens. Masses of glowing satellites orbited thick enough to form rings. From a distance, the cities of metal and industry gleamed with wonder. There were no continents on this planet, just one massive formation of land. Tectonic plates shifted at a geologically normal frequency, but only to raise and lower mountains, cut new rivers, or form new lakes.

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Lakes were Prosper’s largest bodies of water, millions of them speckling the landscape with myriad rivers running in between. All this created such a lush climate, such fertile soil, that Prosper never ceased to live up to its name. In fact, the planet was so prosperous that resources were never an issue. Overcrowding had plagued the planet since before history was written.

Cities had to be dense, buildings tall, people living on top of one another to allow the planet’s lush farmland to thrive. Over the centuries, Prosperites had adapted, sometimes building floating cities atop lakes. Natalya had once rented an apartment where you could fish from chairs in the lobby.

Prosperity, the great capital city, had no such central planning. It was built layer upon layer, new infrastructure on top of crumbling old, right in the center of some of the most fertile farmland. Buildings jockeyed for position, while crops were grown in gashes in the street. It would have been even lusher if not for the thick smog that clung to the air.

“Broadcasting now,” Sisi announced, flicking on Ranger’s old transmitter that would signal a Prosper-built ship coming to land.

Three real Prosper capital ships orbited the planet equidistant from each other, their massive, block-shaped bodies silent sentinels. Defense satellites capable of decimating an entire fleet mixed with the communications and fertilization satellites. Prosper’s moon, Harvester, had even more death-throwing launchpads. Harvester had been Prosper-formed long ago, and shared its mother planet’s fertility, both in terms of humanity and farmland.

“Ship designation and registration,” came the command from a planetary Defense Monitor, the voice that of a bored bureaucrat sitting in an office outside Prosperity.

“Coming right up. What a lovely voice you have. Is that Alexander? Hello Alexander,” Augustus said.

“This is Ian Lee.”

“Oh, you sounded like someone I knew. Perhaps we can get to know each other?”

“Umm…”

Augustus brought Chimera through the central channel. Ranger’s registration had been ancient even before the battle at Farbind, which was why it took so long for the Defense Monitor to give Augustus clearance to land. That, and his flirting with the guy.

“You don’t seem to be showing up on any of our systems,” Ian said.

“Oh, don’t I? How about this: you tell me where you are, and I’ll come by, say hello, and you and me can work this through together. Say over drinks?” Augustus suggested.

“No-no, you can land. Here,” Ian said, broadcasting coordinates for a landing zone. It was a good distance from the Zhou, but still in Prosperity. It was the bureaucratic equivalent of making Chimera someone else’s problem.

“You think he doesn’t like me?” Augustus asked Natalya.

“I barely like you,” Natalya replied.

“That hurts, Captain.”

“I only like you because you’re pretty. He probably just hasn’t seen you.”

“That makes me feel a little better.”

“And you can thread this ship through a needle, so why you don’t you do that and you’ll have at least two qualities I like.”

“You have yet to give me a chance to make you like me further…”

“I think we can cut the innuendo for now,” Ptolemy said, standing beside Natalya and closely monitoring the scanners.

“You forget, Ptolemy, Augustus performs best when he’s… stimulated,” Natalya said with a smile.

Augustus laughed and plunged Chimera through the atmosphere. He made a beeline for the landing zone, never altering course and going just fast enough to avoid visual scanner pickup, but not so fast they made a vapor trail. The last thing they wanted was to be mistaken for a missile.

“Ooh, there’s Victory Square. Last time I was there we had the biggest buffet in the history of Prosper,” Augustus said, pointing to a spot on the viewscreens. “We also got blown up with tanks and kicked off the planet. Good times.”

“That doesn’t sound like good times at all,” Sisi said.

“You’d have to be there I guess.”

“Auggie’s family was rich, once,” Natalya explained.

“Independently wealthy. Which is exactly the kind of wealthy Qin didn’t like. Can’t control someone who doesn’t need the Zhou to be rich.”

“Jasper, those protests you told us about, where you stopped an assassin, that was Auggie’s doing.”

“We really didn’t like the No-Transfer laws. My father wanted to move the family fortune to a Changyu planet.”

“The laws were written supposedly to prevent recruitment for the colony militaries, and protect Prosperites from manipulation. Really, Prosper just wanted to keep people from sympathizing with the colony planets by visiting them,” Natalya added.

“My father fought the laws. That’s why they killed him, I’m sure,” Augustus shared. “So I organized a protest after the police listed his death as a suicide. Blah-blah-blah, it turned into a really awesome, month-long party. I had fountains full of wine, food trucked in ten times a day, music too. Then the tanks came and kicked us out and now I fly Chimy.”

“What about your family’s fortune?” Jasper asked.

“All gone,” Augustus said.

“Qin took it?”

“No! What do you think the food and drink was all about? I figured if Qin wanted to rob my purse, I might as well spend my family’s fortune on a history-making party and leave him with an empty bag.”

“That’s tragic,” Sisi said.

“Not at all! The money was gonna burn anyway. At least I got a feast out of it. Saved enough cash to bribe my way onto a freighter and hooked up with Co and Natalya not long after. Ptolemy heard about this bit where I landed a freighter on a fighter platform. Hired me then and there. After all, I come cheap.”

“Cheap or not, you do a good job,” Natalya said, patting Augustus on the back.

“Ah, you say the nicest things, Tally. I do wish I could have more of those crab cakes we had at the party, though. Those were good. That, and Qin’s head on a plate, but beggars can’t be choosers. Ooh, speaking of parties, looks like we’ve got one to welcome us.”

“Better get into character. Sisi, let’s load me into that coffin.”

As expected, a team of Planetary Defense soldiers were waiting by the busy landing zone. It was a wide, flat circle surrounded by warehouses and factories, with homes haphazardly built on top. Not quite the slummiest part of Prosperity, but far from the platinum-gilded landing zones of the inner city.

When Chimera set its legs down, the soldiers fanned out around it, standing with guns ready.