A fire crackled in a stone circle, and Juliyana rested in a fold-up camping lounger, wrapped in a plaid rug, a mug in her hand that steamed gently.
I hesitated.
“It’s fine. Come in, Danny,” she said.
To her left, an identical chair rose up from the earth and formed properly. A folded plaid blanket laid on the seat.
One of the wheeled platforms bumped over the flattened grass and weeds, up to the chair. It held another steaming mug.
“Coffee at this time of night?”
“It’s hot chocolate.”
I settled on the chair and put the blanket over my knees. It wasn’t cold, but the blanket just felt right. The chair was at the right angle to lean back and study the stars.
“The hot chocolate is the perfect touch.” I picked up my mug. The wagon melted into the ground. “I thought Lyth might be here, too.”
Juliyana grimaced. “I wanted to be alone.”
“I can go,” I offered.
“I don’t mind you. You’re…” She frowned. “I want to say you’re peaceful to be around, only things happen around you all the time. I guess…you know how to stay silent, when you need to.”
I stayed silent and sipped, gazing up at the stars. There was no moon to steal their light and no nearby city to throw up a masking glow. It was a pitch black night sky. Stars reeled in their circuits. Nebula glowed pink and purple and red.
I didn’t recognize any of the constellations, but the thick white mass of stars banding across the sky I did know. “The galactic hub,” I murmured.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Juliyana replied just as softly. “This place is perfect. Seeing this—it’s just what I needed right now.” She hesitated, then added, “I love the stars. Space. I love being out there.” She glanced at me self-consciously.
“You don’t need to apologize. Star-faring is in our blood, you and I. I didn’t join the Rangers to be a soldier, or even for the free rejuvenations. I joined because it would get me into space, out there.” I nodded at the stars.
Juliyana gripped her mug in both hands and stared at the contents. “I’ve been on permanent below-surface duty since Noam died.”
“That’s pretty standard for grunts,” I said as gently as I could.
“The bowels of ships, the basements of buildings, the deepest interiors of stations.” She said it in a monotone, looking up at the stars. “They won’t put me back in the combat cadres. They won’t leave me in a unit long enough to make friends or even prove myself. I get moved around, every few weeks or months, with my record just ahead of me, priming COs to distrust me right off the bat.”
“But you’ve out-lasted them, so far.”
She nodded and lifted her chin to indicate the stars. “Because of them. Because I want to be out among them once more.” She looked at me. “So fuck ‘em. Fuck everyone. I won’t cave because they’re prejudiced assholes. I will see this thing through and I will get out there once more.” She drained her cup with a convulsive jerk of her wrist.
When she thought I wasn’t looking, she turned her chin and discretely wiped the tear tracks on her cheeks.
I let her have her privacy, while I picked out the nearest stars, trying to see if I could discern globular bodies with my newly restored vision.
“Whatever it takes, huh, Danny?” Juliyana said. Her voice was normal.
I kept my gaze on the stars. “All my money. The backpay, danger benefits, health…all of it.”
“All the money which is gone now?”
“Yeah. I used it for bribes.” I glanced at her to catch her reaction, then away, my heart thudding harder that it needed to. “Bribes, travel, ‘investments’. None of it worked. I couldn’t even get his remains back, let alone a millimeter of truth.” I kept my chin up as if I was studying the heavens but closed my eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever felt quite so foolish and exposed.
After a moment, Juliyana said, “You did try, then!”
The genuine pleasure in her voice made me look at her, startled.
She was smiling. “You let me think you didn’t give a damn.”
“I didn’t. Not after all this time. Although I’m here—still here, despite what we know, now, so I guess I really did mind, after all.”
A soft coughing sound came from overhead. Lythion spoke, his tone apologetic. “I thought you should know. I’ve found Moroder.”
“Acean isn’t a station at all,” Lyth explained, as we stood around the navigation table on the bridge. “It’s Alkalost’s moon—an airless, point one gee orbiting rock.”
A crescent edge of a green world turned beneath a moon radiating sunlight. Then the view shifted to focus upon the moon and the sunlight faded as the moon revolved to reveal the nightside. The view focused in, while I hoped Lyth was still using archives for this. I would have asked, only I had jumped on him once before, and if he was more stupid than the average AI, and was using live feeds, then it was too late to do anything about it. I concentrated on the display, instead.
Low, half-buried buildings were revealed, most of them bunker types—windowless, armored against weapons and radiation, and impenetrable. The buildings were connected by a star of enclosed catwalks. I’ve seen dozens of barracks that look exactly the same, but they were in atmospheres, or under domes. This place looked bleaker than hell.
“It is an Imperial Shield research and manufacturing post,” Lyth continued. “They use pseudo gravity in the living areas and research labs, but the manufacturing plant takes advantage of the near-absence of gravity. It makes it possible for a single grunt to move heavy objects around.”
“What do they manufacture?” Dalton asked, as he studied the moon and rubbed his stubble-covered chin. His hair was ruffled. I suspected Lyth had pulled him from deep
