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Dramatis Personae

Malaki

“What are you working on, Malaki?” Lavanya sat down at the Skybreak‘s mess table and peered over the flexiplast and computer displays he’d spread there. “I thought you were waiting until we got to Wireburn to put any more brainpower into the Hutchinsons.”

“The better to think about Wireburn itself, my dear. Did you know that there’s a species of intelligent, telepathic jellyfish native to the planet? Xenobiology departments went crazy when they learned gas giants could support native lifeforms yet somehow the whole thing is unknown off campus. Just one more crime of the University Pact.”

Lavanya traced a finger along a diagram laying out a ferrovine, some kind of huge, plant-like lifeform that grew on the gas giant and served to anchor most of Wireburn’s human settlements. “You’ve found out about them.”

“I have connections that give me access to a lot of information normally only available to research departments and graduate programs. Normal people can’t see this kind of thing.”

She chuckled. “I struggle to think of five people I’ve met in my life that would care about helium jellyfish, Malaki, and I’ve traveled through the galactic core and along both of the spiral arms.”

With a swipe of his hand Malaki moved most of his open files back onto the computer and brought another batch out onto his flexis, sorting them from most to least likely to have what he wanted. “That doesn’t mean those five should go without. There’s so much here we could be doing and it all goes undone because the Universities hoard their knowledge like misers.”

“You know what you remind me of?”

Malaki paused, one sheet of flexiplast dangling from his fingertips, sensing that this was some kind of trick question but not sure how. “No. What do I remind you of? Nothing flattering, I hope.”

“You remind me of one of those artists who complains about how museums buy up all their work instead of letting the public display it somewhere prominent. You know the type. Like that fellow who weld’s together scrap metal into pyramid things.”

With a pained groan Malaki dropped his flexis and grabbed his chest. “Are you calling me a hack sculpture Lavanya Brahmin?”

“If it fits…”

“Unforgivable.” His eyes narrowed as he jabbed an accusing finger at her. “For this I shall carve a marble bust of you and hide it somewhere on this ship.”

“What? No!” Her hands flew up in front of her face defensively.

“Some day, far from now, a hapless client will find it and wonder what kind of pilot thinks so highly of herself as to commission such a thing!”

Lavanya waved her hands helplessly in surrender. “No, no, no! No carving anything with my face, Malaki, if you do I swear I’ll dump you out the airlock when you’re asleep.”

“Please stop teasing her,” Lin’yi said, sweeping up to the table as she pulled on another pair of the long, satin gloves she favored. “Lavanya is my favorite courier in the dexter arm and it will be a blow to our business if she’s arrested for murder.”

“The crime would be if her remarkable appearance passed out of the galaxy with no memorial!” Malaki reached out to adjust Lavanya’s head so her profile presented to Lin’yi with maximum effect but she paused long enough to slap his hands away with a glove before putting it on.

Her bemused smile was the perfect accessory to finish her outfit. When Lavanya had lifted from Rainford Lin’yi had borrowed a state room to change into something more suited to their destination. Malaki had expected something styled like aviator’s leathers. Or perhaps a long coat and layered tunic like most BTL directors and managers favored. However Lin’yi had opted for a long, heavy coat with wide sleeves and loose, plush fabric styled like animal fur instead. It looked very warm, except the sleeves only went down to her elbows. Her gold colored gloves gleamed warmly in contrast to the dark blue coat, which was doubtless the intended effect, and the matching tunic drew attention to her womanly charms. She’d left her dataveil and other business accessories elsewhere which left her round face and smiling eyes on full display. Her hair was piled in a coil behind her head.

Malaki smiled as he stood and offered her a chair. “Of course you look delightful as always.”

“As always!” Lavanya squeaked. “So sculpt her and leave me alone!”

“I’m sure Professor Skorkowski has several pieces of both of us hidden away in his studio already,” Lin’yi said, taking the proffered chair. “It’s his one truly bad habit, sculpting people without their permission.”

Malaki returned to his own place at the table. “Nothing about art can be truly bad, Miss Wen, for it seeks to preserve and share what we find most valuable about the world. However, I’m afraid the two of you pose a particular difficulty. I have yet to find a good medium to express either of you.” He offered Lavanya an appraising look. “Although there may actually be some merit in working with found items in your case. Do you have any engine parts from the Skybreak I could-”

“Stop,” Lin’yi said, rolling her eyes. “You’re going to give her a stroke and then you’ll have to apply that genius intellect of yours to flying the ship until we find a good doctor to fix her. What are you working on?”

“Well, I was reading up on Wireburn’s biome, since gas giants are mostly light elements that are abundant in the galaxy so the local life is going to be the only thing of interest.” He shuffled the pages quickly to lay out the train of thought he was grasping at. “One of the known traits of etheric radiation is its tendency to align with magnetic fields, which is one of the reasons coral can function as a reservoir for it.”

The two women peered at the plastic sheets, confusion evident on their faces. Lin’yi nudged one to face her directly but Malaki quickly twitched it back to place. She gave him an annoyed look and said, “Anyone who works with sliptech knows that, from full slipknot engineers to basic maintenance swabs. But there’s no coral native to Wireburn.”

“That we know of. It’s a gas giant and it doesn’t even have a full beacon network built in the section of the upper atmosphere humans bought from the natives.” Malaki finished arranging the flexiplast on the tabletop. Each was marked with a series of coordinates and showed an image from a deep scan survey over the relevant sector of the planet. Hints of deep shadow ran through each of them. “The natives report some kind of thing living in the deep atmosphere, where the atmosphere turns liquid beyond the point we can safely go. They’re terrified of it. There’s a handful of place we know of where they say it’s common and these are the scans the settlers have taken of them. I only needed to see three of them to realize there was a pattern.”

Lavanya ran a hand along the shadows, sketching out the vague pattern they would make if connected. “It does look a little like a magnetic field. But it’s not the right size for a planet on the scale of a gas giant, it’s far too small, isn’t it?”

“Correct. This is closer to the size of field you’d find in a very small planet with a nickle iron core, something in the 10,000 kilometer range. I don’t think it’s intended as a 1-1 reproduction of the planet’s actual field.” Malaki pulled up a different image on the console. “It’s more in line with this.”

Lin’yi glanced at the screen and sighed, sitting back in her chair. “I should have known.”

“What is it?” Lavanya studied the strange, half finished sphere on the screen. “Is that some kind of light fixture? A diagram for a new beacon? I don’t understand why the apertures for the light source are on the top and bottom. Doesn’t seem very functional.”

“No. This is the Andromeda Array. One of the oldest and least understood structures in our galaxy.” Malaki manipulated the image on the screen to zoom in on the Array, revealing it as a structure of astronomical scale, an incomplete sphere around a star with a diameter comparable to a planetary orbit. “It’s not obvious to the naked eye but the Array is built as if it were the magnetic field of a planet the size of a star. I’ve run the numbers on it myself to be sure. It’s built around the star in the Milky Way currently closest to the Andromeda Galaxy.”

“Why?”

“No one knows for sure.”

A small spark of interest lit in Lavanya’s eyes. “And you say the thing deep in Wireburn is built on the same pattern?”

“No.” Lin’yi sighed and got up from the table. “There’s never enough data to say any of these things for sure but I know it’s important to you, Malaki. Just… if it’s not true this time around don’t do a repeat of the last time.”

Lavanya watched their employer walk out of the room in consternation then turned back to him and asked, “What happened last time?”

“She hired you to keep an eye on me. Very expensive. But I like to flatter myself that I am worth it.”

Lavanya nudged his hands as he tried to work the computer console again, jostling him away from his work. “What happened before that, Malaki?”

He considered just lying to her, which wasn’t his preference but also not something he shied away from. However he settled on an edited version of the truth. “I went back to Rainford, clear cut the back lot where the landing pad is now and carved the big arch in the entry hall. I call it the Triumph of Lost Cities, it’s themed on the slower than light colony ships and explores the themes of persistence and disappointment in the composition of-”

“Why does she care about that?”

“Because I didn’t take her calls for six months. I let her sell some of the smaller carvings I couldn’t use in the final piece, though, and she made decent money. We fell behind Agamemnon, though.”

Lavanya could tell he was leaving something out but she didn’t pry. It was for the best. He didn’t want to revisit his misguided visit to the main campus of Vinland University or all the problems he’d created for himself by going back there. However there was a price for his lack of candor. She left the table, too, calling over her shoulder, “Ten minutes until the next jump, three more to Wireburn. As I recall landing takes another fifteen minutes or so. Don’t get too caught up in what you’re doing, okay?”

“Of course. I’ll be on the bridge before we start planetfall, I want to see what it’s like landing on a gas giant.” He spent the next few minutes collecting his flexis and dumping the documents on them back into the computer. Wireburn was a nice little windfall. Sometimes things just worked out in his favor and he was grateful when that was the case. A more scientific mind would be annoyed at how randomly things worked out. But after more than two years without any hints about the Array and the difficulties securing funding for another expedition Malaki was happy to have a break even if it didn’t stem directly from his own research.

It made artistic sense. His entire career had collapsed after his last attempt to answer the Andromeda question. Now, after years sifting through the ruins, he had a new lead. It was perfect composition. Better yet, his career was already ruined so he was quite confident there was nothing on a simple gas giant that could do him greater harm.

Next Chapter

Previous Chapter

Dramatis Personae

Malaki

In the grand schemes of galactic politics Rainford was only moderately important. It was located halfway out along the dexter arm of the spiral in a relatively dense cluster of habitable worlds. The planet was in a major trade corridor but wasn’t a hub world. Those kinds of major crossroads came about when there was only one habitable planet in the sector and people had no choice about where to stop.

However the very fact that it wasn’t a high traffic world gave Rainford some perks. It was easy enough to slip down to the surface without attracting attention yet the local economy still had a lot to offer the traveler passing through. The local government was relatively independent as well. It wasn’t entirely in the pockets of a business concern or the Universities and the large tropical belt that gave the planet its name produced breathtaking mountains and forests that brought in some tourism.

On top of it all the planet had a particular appeal to Malaki. He had been born there.

The Skorkowski homestead was located on the Serrata Verde range, half an hour’s flight from Greenhaven spaceport. When Malaki had inherited it from his great uncle he’d installed a studio where he’d done some of his best work. It was also where he received his guests when they came to call.

Lavanya and Lin’yi were used to the half shaped slice of sandstone he used for a table and made themselves comfortable around it as he retrieved drinks from the minibar along the wall. He filled a kettle and held it up for their inspection. “Tea, ladies?”

“No, thank you,” Lin’yi replied. According to Bei’quan rules of hospitality it would be rude of him not to insist she take something to drink regardless but he’d learned years ago Lin’yi meant no when she told him no. She only observed her culture’s oblique form of hospitality on her homeworld.

Lavanya was not as reserved. “Black tea, if you have it.”

He flipped the kettle’s activator and set out two tea cups, the boiling kettle, two tea strainers and the pot of dried tea leaves on a tray and took it to the table. Lavanya took the offered cup and they spent a moment getting comfortable. As Malaki poured the tea he brought his patron up to date on what they’d learned, or rather not learned, on Effratha.

“You think this genetic technique would be valuable to Acropolis?” She asked once he was done.

“I’ll be a fascist if I know,” Malaki admitted, “the monetizing of that kind of thing is not my specialty. They could just want it because it’s an ancient technique. You know how the Hutchinsons are.”

Lavanya took an experimental sip of her tea and added, “Not that we know for sure that the experiment or assassination were funded by the Hutchinsons. It could just be the normal academic nonsense. Effratha has a fairly sizable Acropolis Trading hanger on its northern continent and you know how Agamemnon is about shady business in his own back yard.”

“It would be unlike him to have illicit and legal activity on the same planet,” Lin’yi said. “However his daughter is another story. I’ll have someone look into what they were bringing on and off planet and see if that sheds any light on things. Let’s assume for a moment ancient gene modifications are a part of the Hutchinson’s plans. How does that fit in to their other activities over the last year?”

“I’ve been asking myself the same question,” Malaki said, sipping his tea as he looked out over his studio. Half a dozen sculptures in various states of completion were scattered here and there. The largest, intended to be an enormous human hand fashioned from abandoned coral, sat half finished under the main skylight, it’s grasping fingers half emerging from the lumpy surface. He’d started on it six months ago to help him get into the Hutchinson mindset.

Art, like the sidereal, was a study of juxtaposed specifics and abstracts. He’d chosen a grasping hand because it embodied what he saw as Agamemnon Hutchinson’s philosophy on life. The man had a passion for things. Not in the metaphorical sense, either, he was obsessed with matter and the ways he could sculpt it. In that respect he was very like Malaki. However, instead of shaping simple blocks of stone, wood or coral he shaped the placement of things in the galaxy itself. That was why Malaki had chosen to sculpt the hand on such a large scale.

The problem was the medium.

Malaki found himself pacing around the half ton lump of coral, the contents of his tea cup cooling in his hand. He’d chosen coral because the pylops could serve as a reservoir for etheric energy. Other than the human mind, living coral was the only thing known to human science capable of such a thing. Etheric energy was rooted in the sidereal and the sidereal was the light of distant stars. When he’d started on the Agamemnon sculpture he’d assumed that the interstellar scope was a foundational part of why Agamemnon created Acropolis Trading. Over time Malaki had come to suspect that was incorrect.

Neither Agamemnon Hutchinson nor his daughter Athena ever took any interest in the ships that hauled their product or the planets where their new offices were opening. The trade routes they used and the planets they operated on were chosen by underlings. Yet four times out of five when BaiTienLung tried to expand its operations in the dexter arm Acropolis Trading would find some way to shut them down and one of the two Hutchinsons would be personally involved every time.

At first Agamemnon had handled the job himself but lately Athena had been handling it more and more. It made sense. The old man wasn’t getting any younger, after all, and no one lived as long as…

Malaki slowly finished his tea and stared at the half finished coral hand as if seeing it for the very first time. “That’s an interesting notion.”

The two women were still seated at the table, talking to each other in low tones. Lin’yi straightened and turned towards him. “What have you figured out, Skorkowski?”

“It’s a bit of a wild guess.”

“If I wanted someone to make a stolid, rational inference from the available data I’d have hired another detective. Out with it.”

He crossed back, sat down at the table and refilled his tea. “Cold sleep and the confines of a colony ship are not the only hurdles the old colonists faced when they set out to cross the stars without jump ships. Even with the greatly reduced metabolism a person has in cold sleep, they won’t live forever.”

“Well you can’t gene therapy away old age,” Lavanya replied.

“My dear, that is exactly what you could do.” Malaki leaned back and stretched his legs out along the side of the table. “Believe it or not, genetic decay is a leading contributor to the aging process. With the right knowledge and more forgiving genetic therapy techniques its entirely possible that the aging process could be slowed or even stopped.”

“They’d have to be very forgiving techniques,” Lin’yi mused. She propped her elbows on the table and folded her hands under her chin, staring off into space. “I’ve seen virological DNA splicing studies. It’s a good way to treat extreme genetic defects but the toll it takes on the body makes it useless for anything else. It’s a field ripe for investment if the right breakthrough comes along. If Agamemnon could crack it then he’d be wealthier than even he’s ever dreamed of.”

Malaki studied her profile. The form fitting silk gloves, high necked, sleeveless dress and cinched waist pressed the woman into a tightly wound spring. It was a hard, severe look. When she’d removed her hat and veil a few strands of hair had pulled free from her bun and now drifted aimlessly around her round face and warm, dark eyes. As he often did Malaki found himself wondering if the contrast was deliberate. He wouldn’t put it past her. “It’s not about money, Lin’yi.”

She started slightly, as if the statement was so shocking it hit her like cold water, and gave him a sideways look. “What do you mean?”

“He’s fifty seven years old and his business empire is starting to slip into the hands of his daughter and their business partners. Is it so strange that he’d be willing to spend some of his spoils to be young again?”

“No.” She straightened up and sighed. “No, I suppose it’s not. It’s just not what’s usually on my mind when I think about him.”

Lavanya cleared her throat. “It’s a nice notion, I suppose, but it strikes me as silly for a couple of reasons. First of all, wouldn’t the human civilizations of two thousand years ago have less advanced gene therapies than us? And why would Essene University work on the ooze thing if that’s what they were trying to do?”

“A lot of technologies were lost during the galactic upheavals, along with the history and the lives,” Malaki said. “It’s hard to put together a list because some of them were forgotten entirely. But to give just one example we’re almost certain hard light projection was something ancient humanity had mastered. Now we only remember the concept. The Agartan resequencing is a genetic engineering feat of a similar kind. I’m not familiar enough with the field of genetics to guess why rediscovering it would be beneficial to lifespan extending therapies.”

“I know one or two people I could ask about it,” Lin’yi said. “Although with the unwritten taboo around human genetic tampering I don’t know how much there is to learn.”

“I should have used granite.” Malaki sighed and finished his tea and started clearing the serving tray.

“For what?” Lavanya asked.

“Agamemnon’s sculpture. I didn’t realize he was so concerned about his mortality otherwise I would have used something more durable as the base. Coral is a fine medium for certain kinds of work but it’s too pliable. I should have used something that really embodies a desire to resist to the bitter end, like granite or perhaps a hardwood.” He stood up and cleared the dishes away. “I’ll have to start all over again.”

“I don’t know if I can afford to wait two months for you to finish another sculpture,” Lin’yi said. “Do you have any other leads to follow up on?”

“I can put out some feelers but not at the moment.” He placed the dishes into the washing rack and slid it into the minibar’s small washer then hit start. A blinking light on the counter caught his attention. The house’s computer reported a message waiting in the communication center, addressed to BTL’s Regional Director. Malaki didn’t recognize the origin code attached to it so he looked it up. “Message for you, Lin’yi. It looks like its from a regional office somewhere called Wireburn?”

“Bring it with you, please?”

Malaki flicked the message onto a sheet of flexiplast and brought it over to her when he returned.

“You have an office on Wireburn?” Lavanya asked. “What could you possibly want there?”

“It’s the only settled gas giant in the galaxy. There has to be some kind of opportunity there, just no one has figured out what it is yet.” Lin’yi put a thumb on the flexiplast then scribbled some kind of code with her other finger. The message decoded into something ledgible.

“There’s a habitable gas giant out there?” Malaki considered that then shrugged. “Sounds like a downright tyrannical place to live.”

Lavanya shrugged. “I stopped by once while transferring from the dexter arm to the sinister but never broke atmosphere. Still, the moons seemed nice.”

Lin’yi folded up her flexiplast and stuffed it into her handbag. “I think I need to go back there soon. Today, if possible. Malaki, if you’re not planning to travel soon I’d like Lavanya to take me on the Skybreak. If that’s alright?”

Lavanya shrugged. “My retainer is paid up through the end of the month.”

“Is there an Acropolis outpost on this Wireburn?” Malaki asked.

“Not on the planet although there is one on one of the moons.” Lin’yi’s eyes narrowed. “There’s no indication the issue on Wireburn has anything to do with the Hutchinsons but I can’t rule it out.”

For a moment Malaki continued staring at the half finished coral hand. He’d stopped carving it because he didn’t feel like it was bringing him any closer to understanding Agamemnon Hutchinson and he wasn’t sure starting a second sculpture would do him any better. “No indication doesn’t mean much when they’re involved. Besides, you said you didn’t have two months to wait for more progress.”

“It’s not like the Skybreak can’t fit three people,” Lavanya added. “If he wants to come, why not?”

Lin’yi threw up her hands. “Fine. But I want to lift off planet in five hours.”

“Of course.” Malaki left the studio and headed towards his room, already assembling a list of things he’d need to bring on this new expedition. If Lin’yi was right about the unrealized potential of gas giants then she wasn’t the only one who would see it. The Hutchinsons would be there in some capacity as well. The only question was whether it would be as a legitimate business or something less savory…

Next Chapter

Previous Chapter

Dramatis Personae

Malaki

“Tyranny, they got everything.” Malaki threw down his pastiscreen in frustration, the report still scrolling past with additional details he’d have to read when he had a clearer head. “Get us off planet, Lavanya, the longer we’re here the further behind we are.”

He started breaking down his etheric disruptor and slotting the pieces back into the case with a little more force than was strictly necessary. A few seconds passed and the deck plates under his boots began to rumble. The Skybreak was preparing to launch. Lavanya must have been waiting on the bridge already, running the preflight. She must have flagged the message when it came in and guessed it would require they get moving sooner rather than later. Malaki tossed the weapon’s stock and reef into the case then slammed it closed.

Lavanya’s voice drifted down from the bridge overhead. “Where are we headed?”

“How many jumps are we from BTL HQ? Six? Seven?”

“Seven. Ashland-at-Rainford is three.”

“Take us to Rainford, then, I’ll give Lin’yi the no-go.”

“Got it. We’re lifting in eight, jumping in fifteen unless Effratha Control denies us the core.”

Malaki tossed the disruptor case into the cabinet beneath his bench and locked it down then started up the ladder to the bridge. “I thought we had enough etheric reserves to make a jump or two.”

“We do. I’d like to hang on to it. Y’know, just in case Essene and company picked up on your poking around the last day or two and realized that the most famous history heretic in the quadrant was asking questions and put us on the list of people causing trouble.”

“I’m already on that list for any college that’s signed the University Pact.”

“Which makes it so much better.”

Malaki reached the bridge as the floor began to gently tilt underfoot. The Skybreak was taking to the air, it’s hoverpads filling the flight cabin with a soft rushing sound. Lavanya sat in her pilot’s chair, goggles pulled down and glowing softly with the light of the ship’s visual data superimposed over the physical controls. Her long, glossy black braid was tucked into a special channel on the back of her chair to keep it out of the way. She was in serious pilot mode.

How adorable.

“It’s okay, Lavvy, your souped up cloudskimmer has got to be faster than anything the Universities could find to throw at us.”

“It’s not a cloudskimmer, it’s a windrider. And no matter how many upgrades I’ve put in it there’s plenty of better ships out there.” She spared him an arch look. “What if we run into someone with a Kashron ship?”

“Not even a University can afford people who buy from Kashron Yards, Lavvy, they make sportcraft for the rich and black ops ships for planetary confederacies.”

The Skybreak’s console chimed and Lavanya turned away from him, although her goggles made that unnecessary. Malaki smirked and sat down at the comms console. A message had just come in from Effratha Control but the computer had forwarded it to the pilot’s station immediately. He wasn’t really interested in the boring minutia of getting off planet anyway. Instead he typed out a coded message to his sponsor, full of prearranged gibberish about nonexistent contacts and meaningless information he’d supposedly gleaned from them, sprinkling in the occasional code phrase that would let Lin’yi know they’d come up empty. He’d composed dozens of such messages in the last year and knew them practically by heart. It was logged in the Effratha comm hub, waiting for a ship to take it to BTL Headquarters, two minutes before the ship was ready for jump.

It was an odd sensation, riding a jumpship as it turned sidereal. Deep in the bowels of the Skybreak a microreef sat in a five hundred gallon tank, the carefully cultivated coral serving as a huge secondary reservoir of etheric energy and a pivot point for the inanimate ship to turn towards the stars. The bulk of the ship cut its inhabitants off from the vertiginous spin as they left the terrestrial. Slipknots activated and drew power from Effratha’s core and the Skybreak’s hull thrummed with the increased potential it housed.

Lavanya threw a switch on her console and the ship tunneled. With the ship’s added reserves and refined sensors they could go much further than any human in a single jump. Even among those with etheric senses few could manage an interplanetary jump on their own. With a jumpship even those with a weak sense could cross the galaxy in a month or two.

When they arrived at their next stop, a small lunar colony around a gas giant in the Vera system, they were forced to wait an hour before Vera Control would let them tap the planetary core to top up their reserves. Given all the unknowns in the situation Malaki chose to wait rather than draw down the reef to jump. Lavanya had a valid point about a full etheric reserve, when you worked in the fringes of academia you never knew when you’d have to make a sudden exit. Best to have the power for it on hand if you did.

“So,” Lavanya said once they were in a stable orbit waiting for the okay to top off their tank, “what went wrong? You didn’t even get on campus this time.”

“No, but someone did. My contact told me that everyone involved in the project died in a freak chemical accident two days ago.”

“Even Dr. Schuyler?”

“Even the late and unlamented bastard Evan Schuyler, who was not in the laboratory when things went wrong.” Malaki rocked back in the chair and drummed his fingers against the communication console, considering possibilities. “It’s an interesting puzzle.”

“How so?” Lavanya locked in the autopilot and pulled her goggles down around her neck so he could see her quizzical look. “Obviously someone in Admin had them killed. My money’s on the Dean of Students or the Director of Research, they have the most to lose if word of that kind of slip up got out.”

“As always, my dear, you think about the what but not the why. If Schuyler was killed because he was a potential embarrassment to the school then it was undoubtedly Dean Gifford whereas if it was to keep the research itself quiet then it was most likely Director Vellar.” Malaki absently twirled the waxed point of his neatly trimmed goatee. “The good Doctor’s hovercar was found wrecked on the side of the street with a shattered windscreen. What do you make of that?”

“Not a terrible way to go,” Lavanya said, throwing a glance to the plastic dome that protected the cockpit from space. “Takes a lot of force to get through a superpolymer. That kind of impact would have killed him almost instantly once it was through the screen. But it’s pretty blatant.”

“That’s the thing that bothers me. It’s too obvious.” Malaki pulled up the ship’s database and started flipping through entries. “The University Pact limits what weapons people can bring on campus and Effratha is a University world – the whole planet is bound by the rules of the Pact. Anything that could do that kind of damage is illegal there. Lancers, shredders and other flechette weapons, plasma throwers, lasers, you name it you can’t legally own it unless you’re Essene Security Forces. I don’t think ESF carried out the hit themselves.”

Lavanya was reading through the news report Malaki had gotten right before they lifted off half an hour ago. “The Security spokesman said flechettes were used. Sounds like a Shran or Hash’ish job. University security forces tend to favor energy weapons although most of them have a little of everything on hand, right?”

“That’s my experience.”

She folded her arms and cocked her head in thought. “An obvious hit right after a failed research project supposedly kills six people clearly sends the message that the university doesn’t want to be associated with the research. You think it looks so much like a face saving move it must be cover for something else?”

“Agartan resequencing was a technique developed when space travel was in its infancy, before we dreamed up jumpships. No one’s quite sure what it was meant for. The prevailing theory was that before it was lost it allowed people to be stored in suspended animation with greater ease but we don’t know. Only a handful of cold sleep ships were sent out in the early days…” Malaki trailed off, realizing Lavanya was staring at him through narrowed eyes. “What?”

“Malaki, when you say the prevailing theory do you mean the prevailing academic theory or one of your own pet theories based on a few scraps of data and your daydreams?”

He snorted. “Come on, Lavvy, you’ve been been running these jobs with me for almost a year now. Do you really think there’s any difference between academic theory and daydreaming about scraps of data?”

“So you think that Schuyler was trying to recreate this ancient, cold sleep technique and the Director of Research had him killed for it because it has to do with the early interstellar era.” Lavanya tilted her head, thinking. “That’s not a direct violation of the principle of historic neutrality even if it does stretch pretty far back. Unless cold sleep theories contradict the Pact’s Principles of Shared History?”

“Not directly, although the official line is there was no genetic modification done on any of the known sleeper ships that were sent out. It was even more illegal then than it is now. However that is a useful secondary line of obfuscation that could be deployed if needed. What I think is going on is that Acropolis Trading funded the research and these layers of confusion exist to hide that fact.”

Lavanya leaned twelve degrees away from him with an arch look. “Really? Not everything in the galaxy comes back to the University Pact and the Hutchinson family. I don’t see how either one benefits from turning people into oozes. If that’s really possible with gene editing.” She straightened and spun her chair back around to her controls. “Sounds like wishful thinking. Seriously, Malakai, not even your powers of free association can find a serious link between that resequencing technique and Athena Hutchinson.”

“A man can dream, can’t he?”

“That Acropolis Trading is looking to sell gene edits to the general public?”

He had to laugh at the absurdity of that idea. “No, not that particular dream. Even with my skepticism of the accepted historical narratives I believe we outlawed those procedures for good reason. I was dreaming about finally having something about her to give Lin’yi. When I agreed to do this little errand for her I didn’t expect it would take me a year or more.”

“We’re ready for the next jump.” Lavanya’s fingers flew over the controls, topping up their etheric reef before spinning the ship sidereal again. She spared him a glance as she ran through the jump procedure once more. “You know, I thought you were enjoying going back to your old stomping grounds and giving the stuffed shirts on campus a run for their money.”

“I am.” Malaki spun his chair around to his own console, breaking eye contact. There wasn’t any message there from Lin’yi yet but expecting one before Rainford wasn’t realistic. “The ultimate run for their money would be proving my theories. I’m close, you know.”

Their second jump ended and Lavanya started the same exchange with Granger Control as she’d run at Vera. As her eyes flicked over the controls she said, “Lin’yi doesn’t think so. She told me you’re no closer to proving the Homeworld theory than you were before your last expedition.”

“Well when I get back to Andromeda Proxima I can show you-”

Her hands came to a stop, resting lightly on the control console. “I won’t be on your next expedition, Malaki. The Skybreak doesn’t pay for itself and it’s not big enough for the kind of payloads you talk about taking on those trips anyway. Not even Lin’yi can afford to pay my retainer if I’m just along for the ride.”

“I see.” Malaki blanked the comm screen and digested that. “You’re not the least bit curious about it?”

Lavanya cast her gaze up as if asking the galaxy for strength. “I’m not like you, Malaki. I don’t need to invent new ideas just because the old ones bore me.”

“You can’t possibly-”

“Yes, Malaki, I do believe we still occupy our planet of origin and we’ve just forgotten which one it is. Humans started settling the stars twelve thousand years or more before now. We’ve nearly gone extinct twice since then.” She spun to face him once again. “I’m sorry. I think it’s a very interesting thing to think about and listening to you talk about it makes it twice as interesting but proving or disproving it is your obsession. Keeping the Skybreak running is mine. I’m happy to fly with you as long as those things are in alignment but not any longer than that.”

“Of course.” Malaki got to his feet and started towards the ladder.

“Granger Control says we’ll be able to top up in about twenty minutes,” Lavanya called after him. “We’ll jump to Rainford right after, planet fall will take another hour or so. Let your contact know you’re coming.”

Malaki paused at the stop of the ladder. “Earth.”

An awkward pause followed the non sequitur. “What?”

“It’s not called the Homeworld. It’s called Earth.” He started down the stairs to gather what he’d need on Rainford.

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