Liezl expelled the glass from her lungs with a single exhale.

  Moments later, a metallic clanging echoed up the ladder tube, preceding Shoji's arrival. A rhythmic sound, his case banging off the walls with each step. He stepped into the cockpit. He held the case with reverence, like a priest carrying a relic, but Liezl couldn't see past the flaring anger to care.

  "Don't ever do that again," she said. "You can't just get out of the ship and go for a stroll and leave us in here wondering if you're going to come back before we get ambushed by Baz forces."

  Shoji sat. He placed the case on his lap and ran his hand over the surface. He didn't seem to hear her, which only stoked her anger.

  "If I'm the copilot then you need to treat me like the copilot." She stopped short of evoking Beck and asking if he'd ever done this sort of thing with her. She remembered the wild look on his face when she mentioned Beck before.

  Shoji opened the case. Her curiosity bubbled over her anger, but she couldn't see inside. She could only see the red light flashing against Shoji's face and the tears welling in his eyes.

  He reached inside and removed a small device that looked like an old tape recorder. He snapped the case shut before Liezl could get a peek inside.

  "What is that?" Liezl asked.

  "A tracker," Shoji said. "And it's still active." His voice cracked with relief and surprise and sounded more human than he had since his return to Earth. "We can find them."

  8

  Goodwill wasn't something a commander necessarily needed. Subordinates followed orders because they were orders. In a traditional military, anyway.

  This wasn't that.

  The Vhast did as they were told without question because Shoji was warlord. They never questioned, never faltered. There were no rules governing what Shoji could demand of them.

  But Liezl and Wiggins were different. They’d embarked on an EDI-sanctioned mission. They set off with the understanding that EDI norms and protocols would dictate their actions and what was expected of them. Those norms and protocols disappeared when they went rogue. The relationship between commanding officer and subordinate dissolved.

  There were no boundaries on what Shoji could ask of them.

  But there was no guarantee that Wiggins and Liezl would obey. The threat of court martial was no longer a specter that held them in line. Shoji could employ other means, other threats, but he didn't wish to.

  Instead, he would need their respect. He would need goodwill. And he was already running low on both.

  He felt Liezl's eyes on the back of his head. He heard her unasked questions.

  What's in the case?

  Where are we going?

  He would give her all the answers she wanted. When he was able to. When he was sure the answers he gave were still true.

  Tin Man rendezvoused with the fleet above Myazarene. Shoji ordered them to follow in a tight formation—civilian transports in the center, fighters on the wings, destroyer at the rear.

  They did as ordered.

  They flew slowly, navigating around a cluster of moons, taking scans as they approached to ensure they were unpopulated. The moons this far out were uninhabitable, but some of them, like Myazarene, housed monitoring stations or forward bases for the front line in case of a system invasion.

  "The stations are still active, but the bases are mostly abandoned," Shoji said. "The Baz have gone unchallenged for long enough that the idea of an invasion is seen as ridiculous." He knew that sharing information only opened him up to more questions.

  How do you know that?

  But he would give some answers if it meant not having to give others.

  "That tracker," Liezl said, slow and cautious, as if approaching a deer. "What exactly is it tracking?"

  Shoji swallowed hard. He imagined his feet rooted to the forest floor, trying not to dart into the cover of the trees. "I hid a tracker with them before I escaped. The data that we have on this system is very macro, large scale—some names, some locations—but most of the moons are just faceless orbs in space. I downloaded more data from the monitoring station on Myazarene before I jumped." Cold sweat rolled down the back of Shoji's neck. "Anyway, I knew that once I left them, I wouldn't be able to find my way back on my own. I'm just..." His voice broke.

  "Glad it's still active," Liezl finished. "The Baz didn't find it. Our people are still safe."

  Shoji appreciated the leap. There were a lot of reasons the tracker could still be active even if the Baz had found it. They could be setting a trap. They could have launched it to the other side of the system.

  Our people didn't need to be safe for any of those situations to be true.

  He chose to believe for the moment anyway. His people were okay. That was true until it wasn't.

  "Approaching our destination," Liezl said after just twenty minutes of silence.

  Shoji tried to manage the calculations in his head. After he escaped, it took him nearly thirteen hours to reach Myazarene. Most of that was done under the power of his propulsion pack, which was significantly slower than their current speed, which was intentionally slow to avoid detection. He’d hijacked a fighter for a portion of it, covered a good distance before he had to ditch it. Any way he adjusted his estimations, there was no way he could make that trip and this one match up.

  "They moved," Shoji said.

  "You sure?" Liezl asked.

  "We weren't this close to Myazarene." Shoji studied the map, trying to make sense of the moon formations and layouts. It was a waste of time. It could have been the exact same spot and he wouldn't have recognized it. Back then, he’d been too focused on surviving to take in his surroundings.

  Two moons hung in the space before them.

  "I think it's on the other side," Liezl said.

  Tin Man slowed to a stop. "Munk, hold here," Shoji ordered. The entire fleet stopped. For several seconds, Shoji stared out the viewport as though waiting for something. The two moons didn't move or give any indication that they cared for Shoji's presence.

  Something finally spurred Shoji to move, a sudden surge of urgency. "Munk, keep the fleet hidden here behind these moons. Tin Man is going in closer to scout ahead."

  The fleet drifted away to the left and clustered together with the fighters along the wings. They were all completely hidden from the view of whatever lay on the other side.

  Tin Man flared its thrusters and pushed itself slowly toward the surface of the other moon. The ground was chalky, and Tin Man's feet sunk in nearly a foot with each step, forever leaving its mark. The moon was about the size of Myazarene. The horizon was only minutes away. When they reached the crest, what was beyond came into view. A perfect metal orb cut a circle out of an otherwise black space. It was small, half the size of the moon they stood on.

  "Run scans," Shoji ordered.

  Liezl tapped on her panel. The instrumentation flashed and returned a list of data. "Scans are having a hard time penetrating the shell of that thing, but we've got readings on lifeforms. There are...a lot." She scrolled through the readings again, confused. "The estimated square footage and the number of lifeforms aboard, that thing is densely packed. The Baz really live like this?"

  "No," Shoji said. "That's a prison."

  9

  This was the sort of situation that seemed perfect for a Vhast commando crew. Rush through, grind everything before them under their feet, bask in the glory of battle.

  But that glory would only beget more opportunities for glory until, soon enough, they would be drowning in it. This needed to be a stealth mission, and the Vhast were not built for stealth.

  "I suppose you're going to run off on your own again?" Liezl said.

  "No," Shoji answered. "You're coming with me."

  Her mouth fell open. "That's... Okay."

  He put Tin Man into standby mode. Krust and Wiggins would be able to fire the engines to full power at a moment's notice if needed, and then Shoji could take it from there. The two engineers promised not to kill each other or get otherwise distracted while the ship was in their care.

  Shoji and Liezl descended to the airlock. They outfitted themselves and helped each other with their suits. Propulsion boots and packs. Rifles, strapped to their chests, though Shoji reaffirmed this was a stealth mission—rifles to be used only if necessary. He checked his metal arm, unsheathed the blade, checked the ejection system, and ran a full diagnostic.

  "What are we going to find in there?" Liezl asked. The shadow passed over his face again. His eyes seemed to glow in the darkness. "You know, don't you? You've been in there?"

  The blade snapped back into Shoji's arm, making Liezl flinch. "Not in that one exactly, I don't think, but a few like it. The layouts are all the same. They mass produce those prisons, deploy them in every system they conquer. So..." His voice grew heavy, packed full of sand and broken glass. "I know my way around well enough."

  Liezl checked her weapon. Again. She tightened the straps, made sure she couldn't be separated from it. She continued to fidget, searching for something else for her hands to do.

  Shoji checked to ensure her helmet was secure. Then she did the same for him. He grabbed her harness before she could turn away, forced her to look at him. "I wouldn't take you if I didn't think you could handle it. I know you've trained since I've been gone. Three levels of combat training. Proficient with every weapon an EDI soldier would ever handle. Even courses on Vhast weapons. You've gone out of your way to be good at this."

  She shrugged. "I wanted to be ready. In case...something like this, I guess."

  "And you are." Shoji released her. "And I need your help. I need someone watching my back. I need to get my crew back." The desperation in his voice was not a tactic to sway, it was part of him, and he could not hide it.

  Liezl nodded.

  "Wiggins, Krust, Tin Man is yours. Munk, keep the fleet at the ready. We may need a distraction." Shoji opened the airlock. He and Liezl stepped outside.

  There was little cover, but they didn't need any. The moon was barren, and the station was far enough away that no one would see two people walk across the surface with their naked eyes. Even so, Shoji could sense the unease roll off Liezl as they neared the station.

  "These prisons are minimally staffed," he said. "Some guards but mostly automated."

  Liezl wasn't soothed. "What about their defenses? Prisons on Earth have giant walls topped with razor wire and guard towers with machine guns."

  "To keep people in, not out. They're not worried about anyone coming to bust prisoners out. Not in this system, at least. Any resistance around here is too small right now." He said it like that was only a matter of time.

  "What about you? They aren't worried you'll come back?"

  Shoji stopped. He used the instrumentation in his suit to calculate the distance between them and the station. "Here's good." He felt Liezl's tension focus like a laser on him.

  "For what?" She was becoming practiced at letting her questions go unanswered.

  "To jump."

  "Pardon me?"

  Shoji jumped and floated ten feet in the air before coming gently back down. The low gravity would make this easier on his propulsion pack. "How did you think we were going to get there?"

  "I hadn't really." She forced the words out in a squeak.

  He keyed the controls for his propulsion system on his wrist. "Dial the jets down. We don't want to go in too hot, end up a smear on the side." He noticed her clenched jaw. "It's just like shooting a gun."

  "But I'm the bullet."

  Shoji smiled. "Exactly." He took her hand. "On three." He counted down, then launched.

  They left the moon behind. Their boot thrusters pushed them up and away. Shoji gave the order to cut their thrusters. The force died, but they continued to move along the same path without anything to deter them. Minutes passed as they floated toward their target like impotent missiles. As the prison station grew and its details became more discernible, Shoji said, "Shit."

  "That's not what I want to hear," Liezl said.

  "We're a little off target. See that port there?" Shoji pointed to a square recession in the face of the station. "That's where we need to be."

  "That's just a few degrees. We can correct for that."

  Shoji stopped her before she could activate her thrusters. "Running silent from here. I have another way." He pointed his fist at their destination and gripped Liezl tightly with the other. The wristblade shot from Shoji's arm with a burst of gas. It impaled in the station. With a soft whir, the cable that connected the blade to Shoji's arm began to recoil and pull them toward their target.

  Shoji released Liezl when they arrived at the station. She gripped the ridge of the metal that rimmed the indentation, which, now that she was close, she saw as an access hatch.

  "The station has a labyrinth of maintenance tunnels running through it," Shoji said. "Accessed only by maintenance bots. They're all networked to the main station server though, so we need to avoid them."

  Liezl acknowledged and then waited for the next step. Which did not come. Unless the next step was to hang off the station and wait for someone to invite them in. "Aren't we going to open this?"

  "They're all triggered with an alarm," Shoji said. "If we force it open when it's not scheduled to open, the system will read it as an unauthorized breach and activate lockdown protocols."

  "So..."

  Shoji started like he heard something. He quickly maneuvered around Liezl and pulled her down below the hatch. He pressed her against the station as if to hide, but she didn't know what they were hiding from. Seconds later, the hatch opened, and a small bot on treads rolled outside. It turned away from them and rolled upward without ever suggesting it was aware of their presence. It stopped at the gash Shoji's blade had put in the hull.

  Shoji nudged Liezl, and she understood his intention. She pulled herself up and into the hatch. Shoji did the same right after her.

  "Keep going until you see a hatch beneath you," Shoji whispered. "Should drop us down into an airlock." They arrived at the hatch ten feet later.

  Liezl looked back at the hatch they’d just entered through, waiting for the maintenance bot to reappear and see them and blow the whistle on the whole thing. She wondered what it would be like spending the rest of her life in a space prison.

  Shoji pushed her to the other side of the hatch, clearing the way for him. He extended his wristblade and slid the point between the hatch and the floor. Before Liezl could voice her concern, Shoji had popped it open and was pushing her down. He pulled the hatch shut above them.

  They floated down into a long, rectangular room that had the atmosphere of a broom closet. Maintenance bots like the one they’d just seen sat in a row along the wall, each docked in little compartments. They looked like mechanical pigs all lined up in a stall. A light on each compartment blinked red.

  "Aren't you worried that prying that hatch will activate an alarm?" Liezl pointed at the ceiling.

  Shoji stuck to the floor as he activated the magnets in his boots. "The alarms are only on the exterior hatches. None of the maintenance tunnels are sealed. If an escaped prisoner managed to access one, they'd be dead in seconds." He waved her down. "Get down here.”

  She grabbed Shoji's arm and pulled herself to the floor. She activated her mag-boots. "Your knowledge of this place is unsettling."

  He stood at the door on the small wall at the end of the row of bots. He looked through the small window set in the door before pulling it open. "I spent a lot of time trying to escape one just like it. And I was locked up with some very smart people."

  The next room was an airlock chamber. They waited inside until they were sure there were no Baz soldiers nearby before they sealed and pressurized the room. They exited the chamber, deactivated their mag-boots, and familiarized themselves with the new gravity and atmosphere.

  "The tracker puts them below us, probably two levels, but they aren't far after that, maybe a hundred feet." He looked from side to side, trying to place himself within the vast structure. "There should be an elevator that way."

  He ran off without waiting for any sort of reply.

  Liezl gripped her rifle as she ran. The way it bounced off her chest made it difficult to catch a rhythm in her stride. They stopped at a bend in the corridor. Shoji peered around. When he pressed his head to the wall and closed his eyes, Liezl didn't realize he was doing anything other than catching his breath. It wasn't until he sprinted around the corner, and she heard his blade extend and a series of slick wet sounds, that she understood what was happening.

  She stepped around the corner, her rifle raised, though she was sure the time to use it had passed. She stepped over the bodies of two dead Baz. She realized in that moment that she had never seen a Baz in person, though she wasn't sure if it counted as "in person" when they were dead. The Baz were humanoid. Their skin looked almost fluid, like it would disperse if you touched it. It was blue and emitted a soft light. They were hairless, completely smooth. Even their features—eyes and nose and mouth—barely added any contour to their faces. They were beautiful in their simplicity, like statues of light and water.

  Or they would have been, if their throats weren't sliced open and spilling orange blood.

  The elevator was just feet away from the small pile of dead people. That was probably where they’d been headed. Maybe their shift was over, or they were going to get some food. Liezl forced the idea out of her head.

  Shoji swiped an access card across a reader mounted on the wall. Before she could wonder where it came from, Liezl noticed the splatter of orange across the front of it.

  They stepped in and felt their stomachs drop as the elevator did the same. The need for precaution seemed to dwindle the longer they were aboard the station. With each step, the urgency built. The closer he drew to his destination, the thing he crossed a universe to find, the less time he had to stepping lightly. As soon as the elevator doors opened, he ran.

  A Baz guard turned at the sound of footsteps only to find a blade stabbing into his throat. Shoji didn't slow, so he didn't see the second guard round a corner to find the other dead on the floor. He aimed a pistol at Shoji's back.