Captain Hansen didn’t waste a single second. She ruined everything by ordering me to report to the bridge. I could feel my plans to share a quiet evening with Ana slipping away.

  I glanced over at Ana to see how she was taking it. She looked pissed. She knew as well as I did that the captain’s orders weren’t to be ignored—but she didn’t much care.

  “Hey, I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t know what this is about, but I have to go. I’ll make up for it, I promise.”

  Ana lifted her lip in a snarl. “This is all some kind of trick.”

  “What?”

  “That witch has a plan—and I don’t like it.”

  “Uh… what?” I asked again. For a few blinking seconds, I thought she meant Freya. I figured maybe she’d caught me eyeing my ex-girlfriend once too often—but that wasn’t it at all.

  “You’re dumb,” she declared flatly. “The captain is into you, Devin. Only a fool wouldn’t know it.”

  “Oh, come on!”

  She crossed her arms tightly over her breasts and fumed.

  I tried to slip my normal arm around her, but she shrugged me off. “Hey, girl—I’m into you. The captain is too old for me, and she acts like she has a yardstick up her butt most of the time. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

  Ana still didn’t warm up, but her face softened. She liked it when I insulted the captain. I figured I’d played my cards as best I could, so I turned away and headed toward the bridge. My brain was wondering about what could be so damned important it couldn’t wait until after my damned shore leave.

  As I entered the bridge, I saw Captain Hansen in a heated discussion with Accountant Blackwood. I approached cautiously, not wanting to interrupt, but curious about what was going on.

  Blackwood’s tone was sharp. “Captain, I’ve just received a report from headquarters. Apparently, over two weeks ago—soon after we left that desolate chunk of drifting gravel—Captain Rajan reported us to the controller.”

  “Reported us for what? Saving his ass?”

  “For dereliction of duty!”

  Captain Hansen’s expression was a mix of annoyance and disbelief. “Dereliction of duty? We completed the mission! We made a deal with the rebels on 944 Hidalgo, and we got the Red Company captives back—including his. He can mine that rock all he wants to now.”

  Blackwood shook his head, his face flushed with anger. “Rajan didn’t want us to bargain with the rebels. He wanted them removed from the asteroid entirely! He’s claiming that we’ve left them in a position to cause even more trouble—and I can’t say I disagree entirely with Rajan.”

  I stood silently nearby, listening to the exchange and wondering if there was anything I could contribute to the conversation.

  Captain Hansen crossed her arms. “And what would you have had us do, Blackwood? Go to total war with the rebels? We’d lost most of our marines, and our ship couldn’t face their defensive guns from orbit. We made the best decision we could under the circumstances.”

  Blackwood’s eyes narrowed. “Well, Captain, it seems that decision may have consequences. Rajan will take this to the higher-ups at his company and ours.”

  Captain Hansen sighed, her frustration evident. At that moment, she glanced up and spotted me. She lifted her chin as if looking for support. “Sergeant Starn, you were there. Do you believe we made the right call?”

  I hesitated for a moment before answering. “Yes, Captain. I think we did what was best for everyone involved. We managed to avoid a slaughter and got our people back. I stand by the decision.”

  Captain Hansen nodded and turned back to Blackwood. “There you have it.”

  Blackwood made a wild, long-fingered gesture in the air. “Of course, any grunt would tell you that. Those were his men out there.”

  “We did what we believed was right,” Hansen repeated patiently. “If Rajan wants to take this further, so be it. We’ll defend our actions.”

  Blackwood huffed but said nothing more. Captain Hansen worked on her navigational displays, bringing up charts and manifests. My heart sank as I realized I was probably in for a long dull meeting. Ana and my shore leave weren’t coming anytime soon.

  Then, a sudden alert from the ship’s intercom interrupted us. “Captain Hansen, we have an unexpected visitor at the airlocks requesting entry.”

  Captain Hansen frowned, her curiosity piqued. “Who is it?”

  The voice on the intercom farted static, then spoke clearly. “It’s a colonel from Earth-Gov forces, ma’am. He’s demanding to board Borag.”

  Blackwood and the captain exchanged worried glances. Captain Hansen quickly accessed the ship’s external camera feeds to get a look at the visitor.

  As the image of the enigmatic colonel appeared on the screen, Captain Hansen’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

  “What could Earth-Gov want with us now?” she muttered under her breath. “Allow him to board,” she said into the intercom. “Escort him to the conference room.”

  The intercom buzzed in acknowledgment. Captain Hansen turned to me and Blackwood. “This could be related to the situation with Rajan and the Teklution ship—but I don’t want anyone mouthing off. Let’s just hear what the colonel has to say, first.”

  We nodded and waited for the arrival of the Earth-Gov representative.

  Chapter 13: The Surprise Guest

  The conference room doors slid open. The mystery-man himself, a man who I’d never seen named, walked in.

  The Earth-Gov colonel strode in with confidence. He was a tall, imposing figure, with a stocky build that suggested he was no stranger to physical activity. His uniform was crisp and immaculate. Numerous ribbons and medals bounced and gleamed on his chest. I wondered how many of them were fake…

  The colonel’s face was weathered—in fact, he bore all the traditional marks of a seasoned military officer. The most striking feature, however, was the thick, bushy mustache that squatted on his upper lip. That fuzzy thing was impeccably groomed. It seemed to dominate his face, drawing attention away from those piercing eyes, which analyzed everything around him.

  He entered the room, and right off I pegged him as a little bit of a nut. There was a strange air of amusement about him. He was a man who was used to getting what he wanted—so much so, that he apparently found all of us to be funny.

  Maybe dealing with lowly independent people like us was the source of a joke for him. People like us weren’t to be taken seriously.

  He took note of me at the entrance, but then his eyes slid away as if I was invisible. I took no offense—that was for the best.

  The officers all took seats, and the pompous colonel wasted no time getting to his point.

  “Crewmen, I have grave news to share. The Teklution ship Sarasvati has been destroyed.”

  A collective gasp was heard. Captain Hansen paled, and Blackwood’s eyes widened in shock. I remained silent, but inside, I was freaking out a little. After all, that could have been us. I could only think that the mutants had lost their minds and destroyed the Sarasvati. Who else could have done it?

  “Naturally,” the colonel continued, “the destruction of Sarasvati has resulted in the loss of many lives and valuable resources.”

  Captain Hansen was the first to turn her brain back on and respond. “Colonel… are there any details? How did this disaster happen?”

  He raised his arm in response. Making a gesture, he connected to our central battle-table. A holographic scene quickly arose into view. We all studied it.

  At first, it looked like he was displaying an empty region of space. Then, the point of view zoomed in until a speck appeared. It zoomed farther, as the colonel made a motion with both hands. He kept spreading his fingers farther apart.

  At last, I saw what we were zooming in on. It was a familiar rock in deep space.

  “This, of course, is the centaur asteroid known as 944 Hidalgo. Just before you reached Mars, this happened…”

  The scene shifted. We saw a ship lifting off from the rocky surface. I braced myself and squinted, expecting to bear witness to a cascade of missiles or beams striking the ship—probably from the pirate base on the far side of the asteroid.

  But that’s not what happened. Instead, Sarasvati suffered a catastrophic rupture. As if gripped by an invisible hand, the ship began to crumple inward. Its immense metallic body buckled and twisted under an unseen force.

  It was as if a bomb had appeared inside Sarasvati’s hull. The explosion was so strong that it twisted the ship into an unrecognizable mess. The rig’s vast metal framework was inexorably drawn toward the center of the ship. Some mysterious force had caused the metal to shear and fracture.

  Illuminated by the harsh light of distant stars, Sarasvati’s exterior plating began to ripple and tear. Shards of jagged metal melted. The rig’s internal systems sparked and sputtered. Electrical fires ignited within the ship’s depths, only to be snuffed out by the infinite vacuum of space.

  A dozen seconds was all it took. Sarasvati was transformed into a mass of contorted wreckage. Her once-proud hull was now an unrecognizable tangle of metal. In her death throes, she vented vapor and debris into the cold. The last remnants of the ship floated in the haunting emptiness just moments after the process had begun.

  “What the hell just happened?” Captain Hansen demanded.

  “That’s what I’m here to find out,” the colonel replied evenly. “This event is a mystery, and it’s sending shockwaves throughout the Solar System.”

  “I don’t understand…”

  The colonel’s stern gaze targeted our captain. “We are still gathering information, but preliminary reports suggest that the rebels you bargained with on asteroid 944 Hidalgo must be responsible.”

  Blackwood, whose face was turning red about now, couldn’t stay quiet any longer. “Captain, I warned you! We should have eradicated those rebels instead of making deals with them!”

  It made me sick to see the captain’s own accountant turn on her in a weak moment like this. Blackwood was clearly moving to shift the blame away from his own sorry skin.

  I clenched my fists, biting my tongue to prevent myself from commenting.

  The colonel raised a hand, and the room fell magically silent. There was no question who was really in charge, here. “I’m not here to pass judgment, but you should all be aware that Earth-Gov holds Borag and her crew responsible for this disaster.”

  Captain Hansen made a squawking sound. “That’s absurd. We were weeks away from that site. As to the pirates being involved—what evidence do you have of that?”

  The colonel shrugged. “Proximity. Motive. You said in your report that they possessed alien technology.”

  “That’s true, but…”

  The colonel raised a hand. Again, everyone shut up. “To be clear, we don’t think that this particular pirate base was responsible. There were no emissions, no energy surges registered. Not here.”

  He did some more finger manipulation, and the scene spun sickeningly. We were now near the orbit of Jupiter. A moon loomed close.

  “This is Ganymede,” he said. “At the same moment in time the Teklution ship was destroyed, there was a ripple in our gravimetrics. Our sensors indicated that Ganymede gained mass—something like ten percent of its overall volume—then lost it again seconds later.”

  Everyone blinked in shock.

  “How’s such a thing possible?” Captain Hansen demanded.

  “More importantly,” Blackwood said, “what does this all mean for us, Colonel?”

  The colonel’s eyes narrowed, and everyone could feel the weight of his gaze. “It means that you will all be placed under investigation. Until further notice, Borag is to remain docked, and all crew members are restricted to the Mars Colony area. Furthermore, this ship’s accounts have been frozen, effective immediately.”

  Blackwood’s eyes bulged at that. He made a choking sound. His long neck quivered in distress. “Colonel, this is preposterous! We need those funds to maintain the ship and pay our crew!”

  Captain Hansen glanced at Blackwood, but she didn’t have the chance to speak before the colonel interrupted.

  “These penalties are non-negotiable, Mr. Blackwood,” he said. “Earth-Gov has made its decision. You will have to find a way to manage until the investigation is complete.”

  Blackwood’s face turned a deep shade of red. He sputtered, barely containing his outrage. I could see the worry on Captain Hansen’s face as she considered the implications of these new restrictions on Borag and her crew.

  After a moment’s thought, Captain Hansen’s eyes narrowed.

  “Colonel,” she said, “I want to see the intel concerning how Sarasvati was destroyed. We need to see more than just a quick video shot from a million miles away.”

  “More like a hundred million…” he said. That weird little smile was back on his face. But then he handed over a computer scroll, which Captain Hansen linked to the holographic battle-computer table. The room automatically dimmed as the table came to life, displaying a detailed reconstruction of the disaster.

  “We received this information from the mining rig’s data logs,” the colonel explained. “As you can see, Sarasvati had just finished conducting normal mining operations. They lifted off, possibly to transport a load of ore back to Mars. About ten hours later, during her acceleration cycle, the explosion occurred. There was no warning.”

  Captain Hansen studied the holographic data in disbelief. “There was no warning? Nothing at all? Nothing to suggest a malfunction or sabotage?”

  The colonel shook his head. “None that we could find. It appears to be a catastrophic failure of the ship’s internal systems. We’re still investigating, of course, but for now, we can only blame the pirates. They probably used some kind of alien technology.”

  “No normal bomb could have blown up a ship like that,” Hansen said thoughtfully. We were all watching the ship blow up over and over again—in slow motion. It was kind of unsettling to know we were watching nearly a thousand people die in a loop.

  “There’s no sign of a missile attack,” the colonel continued. “No beam strikes. Even if there were, there were no hostile ships in the area.”

  “So… this explosion came out of the blue?” she asked.

  “Exactly.”

  “What about stealth technology? We’ve seen pirate ships that are almost invisible.”

  “We considered that. The trouble is, Sarasvati appears to have exploded from the inside.”

  Captain Hansen slammed an open hand on the table. “That’s it, then. Internal combustion—a bomb, planted aboard. Probably by a suicidal contract. They weren’t well treated on that ship, you know.”

  The colonel wrinkled his nose. “We considered that. We’ve looked for a localized explosion—but the patterns don’t fit. Whoever struck down this ship, they used technology beyond ours.”

  Right about then, I caught on to what was happening. I was willing to bet the colonel didn’t think we had anything to do with this disaster. But he knew that Borag and her crew would respond more quickly and completely to all requests if we were under pressure to do so. Freezing our accounts, all that shit—it was his form of a strongarm technique, designed to gain our total cooperation.

  Captain Hansen’s jaw tightened. “In that case,” she said, “I fail to see how we can be blamed for this.”

  The colonel made an off-handed gesture. “You were tasked with removing the pirate presence. Instead, you negotiated with them. This change in tactics resulted in disaster. The liability case is open-and-shut.”

  “With all due respect, Colonel, my crew has done nothing to warrant suspicion regarding this tragic event. We were only performing the mission assigned to us as best we could.”

  The colonel shrugged. His expression didn’t soften at all. You could tell he really didn’t care, no matter what came out of his mouth.

  “I understand your frustration, Captain,” he said with obviously fake sympathy. “But until we can determine the exact cause of this attack, we have to assign the most likely cause.”

  “It shouldn’t be us!”

  The colonel lifted a calming hand—but it wasn’t working on Hansen.

  “I’m sure you can appreciate the importance of this situation,” he said. “We can’t have more ships suddenly folding in upon themselves all over the Solar System.”

  Listening to these two talk, I felt as if a tall wave of bullshit was pouring over everyone in the room. The circumstances surrounding the destruction of the Teklution ship were suspicious, sure—but now Borag and her crew were caught in the crossfire. That was total nonsense.

  Captain Hansen leaned forward intently. She smelled a rat, now—a rat with a fat mustache. “Have there been other incidents like this one?”

  The colonel made an off-handed gesture. “A few attacks have occurred in recent months. Ships were destroyed, with no trace of the attacker or any known weapon signatures. It’s been kept under wraps, as you can imagine. We can’t have people panicking.”

  “That’s it, then,” she said in triumph. “That’s proof that this attack had nothing to do with us!”

  The colonel shook his head with fake sadness. “That’s not how these things work. The facts of the matter are simple: You didn’t perform as required. A ship under your protection was lost after you abandoned her to her fate. Just because other ships have been lost under similar circumstances doesn’t exonerate you. In fact, if anything, it points to a deeper lack of competence.”

  “That makes no sense! We didn’t even know this was a possibility!”

  “Nevertheless, the judgment stands.”

  An unhappy silence filled the room. The thought of an unknown force destroying ships without warning was unnerving—but being blamed for it was so much worse.

  “What about you?” Captain Hansen demanded. “Are you going to sit there and tell me you seriously believe there’s a connection between our mission and these attacks?”

  The colonel hesitated before responding. “That’s our working theory at this time. We need to investigate all leads and determine the true cause of these incidents—but in the meantime, you’re responsible.”