Back on The Pharaoh, I escorted @auroraloon to the large commons area to place her under guard. I really wished we had a brig. It wasn't that @auroraloon was a prisoner exactly. I hoped she was an ally. But I also realized I couldn't trust her yet. I had Rufus and Doofus, still with their little wrist cannons on their heads, guard her.

  "Stay here and don't … make trouble. I know they look like harmless flamingos, but these two are programmed to shoot. I don't want to be responsible for death number 16." I still couldn't believe that @auroraloon, a supposed Infiltrator, had only died 15 times.

  "What am I supposed to do?" she pouted angrily. "Just sit here."

  I walked over to a shelving unit and retrieved our Scrabble board, placing it on the table in front of @auroraloon. "Here. Play Scrabble."

  "By myself?"

  I shrugged. "Get creative."

  She threw her hands up to protest, sighing and giving me a this is so dumb sort of look, but I thought she had it pretty good. She was lucky I didn't ask @biclops to have her sedated. I did think about it, but I had cameras to monitor what was going on, and I was grateful that I had brought Rufus and Doofus with me to do guard duty so that I could meet with the full crew.

  We huddled together on the bridge, and @zerogstar briefed us on the contents of the quantum drive from Black Balloon Girl. I felt kind of stupid for assuming the starlab we were looking for to find the origin of the virus was on an asteroid, moon, or planet. Of course it was a ship! They could stay on the move. If it was a registered Solar Union ship, it could move freely within near-Earth space and neutral territory. And it was the perfect distribution system. Wherever the ship made port was a potential outbreak site.

  It seemed that Black Balloon Girl was most interested in protecting the Gravemind Syndicate's business and financial position. She didn't care where the people she trafficked went or what happened to them. She'd lost her humanity. I wouldn't be surprised if her authenticity score was below 10%.

  The information we got was of three types.

  The first was the identifier for the ship carrying @foxcutter. It was a basic transport vessel named Royal Starjumper, which was part of the Royal Transport Company's fleet. They ran passenger lines across the solar system. I had to wonder if they knew a ship was involved with the trafficking operations of the Gravemind Syndicate. Someone probably knew and was making good money on it. More importantly, we found out that Royal Starjumper was going to make a stop at the Ida colony. Her intel indicated we would find @foxcutter there on Ida, more specifically on Ida's orbiting moon, Dactyl.

  The second was the "starlab" ship. Through her various transactions, Black Balloon Girl had identified that the outgoing ships, like Royal Starjumper, frequently would rendezvous with another ship bearing the ID of Repulser. Whomever operated Repulser must have pissed off the Gravemind Syndicate because giving up information like this was the equivalent of permanently ending the contract. I wondered if she knew what they were doing, or if it was just another bad contract to deal with.

  The third extended the list of ships from Repulser out to more ships that the Gravemind Syndicate wanted eliminated. We received specific ship routes for freighters and cargo ships that were on the exception list, not to be inspected by authorities. That list was short. We surmised that it was Black Balloon Girl's competitors or people with delinquent contracts that needed to be eliminated. She clearly wanted the Alliance Starmada to do something about those ships.

  Unfortunately for me, I had decided that even though I couldn't trust the Alliance Starmada, someone needed to go after @foxcutter and Repulser right away. It just wasn't going to be us.

  I had to talk to @horus.

  @horus reacted exactly how I thought he would. Prudent. Official.

  kittyboy: "Let me get this right. Even though we were attacked by a ship that wanted to prevent us from following Valentine, you want us to abandon the chase?"

  horus: "Yes. Your primary objective is the virus. From what you've sent us, that means you need to find Repulser."

  kittyboy: "What if Valentine leads us to Repulser?"

  horus: "You're reaching. What do the percentages tell you?"

  Fuck him.

  kittyboy: "Ida."

  horus: "Exactly. The last shipment, per your contact at the Gravemind Syndicate, was the one with @foxcutter on board, via the ship Royal Starjumper, which went to Ida."

  kittyboy: "Can't another ship do it? We did our part. And we're hot on the trail of Valentine."

  horus: "Hot on the trail? You're following residual radiation and particle signatures that are hours old. You have no idea if you are 10 minutes away or 10 hours away."

  That was true, but he didn't understand. He was too impartial, too logical, and he didn't have my futurecasting to tell him we would succeed.

  horus: "You are blindly confident in an uncertain outcome. What you need to do is follow your orders and head to Ida?"

  I wasn't ready to give up.

  kittyboy: "Who else can you send? You should send the whole fleet if you ask me."

  horus: "No can do. We have peace talks coming in 32 hours. The ceasefire hours from now, all warship activity has to pause. We're on the cusp of real peace."

  kittyboy: "But you'll risk The Pharaoh?"

  horus: "You're close to all this. You have the contacts now and know the players. I already authorized an Infiltrator to join you, but we need to keep this discreet and under the radar."

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  kittyboy: "That's it? This virus gets out, and who knows what could happen."

  horus: "That's why the peace talks matter. We find peace, and no one needs to use the virus."

  kittyboy: "The peace talks could just be a ploy, a distraction."

  horus: "We've run the numbers. Go to Ida. That's an order."

  kittyboy: "Understood."

  horus: "Good. The Infiltrator is @awesomedog. He'll meet you outside of Ida. He's been briefed. I'll transmit the rendezvous coordinates."

  kittyboy: "@awesomedog?"

  The dumb face of @horus smiled at me, his mustache curling up at the sides.

  horus: "He has an animal name. Thought you'd like that. @kittyboy and @awesomedog fly into battle. Has a nice ring to it."

  How dare he try to humor me and show thoughtfulness! Stupid boss person. I smiled and added a little laugh.

  kittyboy: "Thank you, I guess."

  horus: "Trust me, and follow your orders."

  That didn't go exactly as I had hoped. In my mind, the heart of the Alliance Starmada would descend on Ida, then wreak havoc on the Solar Union forces. Our part in the mission would be over and done with. We would go back to Eros for a well-deserved bit of shore leave, or maybe they would send us to Apophis to vacation there and watch a theatre performance. We did our part. Shouldn't we get a reward?

  Instead, I had decided to defy a direct order and piss off the same people who promoted me to Vanquisher.

  I summoned the crew to the War Room to talk it over. I had made my choice, but they needed to make theirs.

  The War Room was for official mission briefings, with a series of chairs in a ring around a table that housed embedded computer consoles so that we had full access to information and ship controls. In the center, we could pull up a large holographic display to share mission information. It wasn't nearly as fun as the Commons area and a Scrabble board, but it did convey the seriousness of the situation.

  "I'm going after @bitchfrog," I said, standing to address the crew. "Now that we have information from the Gravemind Syndicate's quantum drive, that is a direct violation of my orders."

  They sat quietly. I wasn't sure how many of them had thought about this. Generally speaking, they follow my orders as Captain and Vanquisher. I didn't need to tell them this, but it was important to me, and I cursed myself for not saying anything sooner. I tried to make myself feel better by reminding myself that we had been too caught up in the chase.

  "Our orders are to go to Dactyl, the tiny moon orbiting Ida. Not to rescue @foxcutter, but to look for this ship, Repulser." I pulled it up on the display. It was a gorgeous ship, large, sleek, and aggressive. "Repulser is a Valkyrie ship, like Oblivion that we encountered at the starlab. We are not supposed to engage. That would be a losing battle. Just to locate."

  @astrowave raised his hand. "Isn't that a job for Infiltrators? Why send us?"

  "They are sending more resources," I explained, "but there are peace talks about to start on Ceres." I shook my head in frustration. "Because of the peace talks, the Alliance Starmada has to proceed with caution."

  "@horus tells me they're close to reaching a deal on a ceasefire," I continued. "This will go into effect in 32 hours, assuming all goes as planned. Then peace talks will commence in earnest. Anyone caught will be met with swift justice from both sides, Burner and Darksider alike, for breaking the ceasefire. As such, we are ordered to investigate Repulser, but to do so carefully. Why us? Because for some reason we keep getting results."

  I paused and changed the display to a picture of @bitchfrog.

  "But I'm not going to do that. I'm going after @bitchfrog. Once she is safe, I'll head to Ida." The crew nodded along with me. Our plan had always been to rescue @bitchfrog, but that was before it was a direct violation of duty.

  "Then let's go," @zerogstar said, looking around the room. @biclops and @astrowave shook their heads in agreement and started to rise.

  "Hold on," I said. "@zerogstar and @biclops, you are not officially members of the Alliance Starmada. That protects you a little bit. Maybe. But if we do this and you are caught, you'll be put on trial anyway. Who are we kidding?"

  Then I addressed @astrowave. "@astrowave, you'd face similar consequences as I do. As your commanding officer, the harshest penalty will be mine, and I'll do whatever I can to protect you, all of you, but … we haven't had a shot at peace in nearly a century. They'll make an example of us."

  "Deletion?" @astrowave asked. I could see his mind playing this out and his growing concern.

  "It's possible. Look, I decided to tell you all of this because I want you to know what we're getting ourselves into. You have to decide. Each of you. As for me, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't go after her."

  They sat quietly. I cleared @bitchfrog's picture from the holograph, leaving us in the dim light with our own thoughts. I thought I had laid it out as best I could.

  "Please put your heads down and close your eyes," I instructed. @biclops raised an eyebrow at me. I smiled back. "Just do it. I don't want you to see what the other people decide. This is your decision and yours alone."

  One by one, they lowered their heads onto the round console in front of us. I gave them a moment to think.

  "When you're ready," I said, "I want you to raise your hand. If you raise a fist, then it means you want out. If you give me a thumbs-up, it means you will join me in rescuing @bitchfrog. Clear."

  "Fist or thumbs-up," said @biclops. "Got it."

  And then I waited for their decisions.

  One by one, each of them raised a hand. An immediate thumbs-up from @zerogstar, followed by @biclops. @astrowave raised his hand as well, slowly, as a fist. I took a deep breath. He was a soldier of duty. This would be hard for him.

  And I also wondered what I would do with him. Confine him to quarters?

  But then @astrowave popped his thumb up. I waited a moment longer, to give him time to let that thumb stick out there, exposed, proclaiming his defiance.

  "Open your eyes," I said.

  Relieved sighs and smiles spread through the room. @zerogstar clapped @astrowave on the back, leaning over to bump his shoulder with hers.

  "All right," @astrowave said, more sure of himself, his tone taking on a positive ring. "If we're going to do this, let's do this."

  But I had one last thing to do before we went after @bitchfrog.

  "One last thing," I said, motioning them to remain seated. "Let's leak the information to the XStar Times. The routes, Gravemind Syndicate's involvement with Royal Transport Company, everything except details about @foxcutter and Ida. We can't jeopardize his safety, but maybe we can expose the trafficking operation."

  The Xstar Times was one of the more popular news sources in Alliance settlements and civilizations. If they published anything, other news organizations would rush in to republish and start investigating. That was my hope anyway. It would piss @horus off, and he would suspect that I leaked the information, but it could create enough of a clamor that if @zerogstar monitored communications, perhaps we could get a better idea of who from the Alliance Starmada was involved.

  Leaking the information would tip off the offenders, but it could lead to a more comprehensive exposure, a small step toward crippling the trafficking operations of Gravemind Syndicate more holistically.

  And it would piss off Black Balloon Girl.

  "I can do that," @zerogstar responded. "But when do you want to leak it? If we put it out there now, couldn't it endanger @bitchfrog, or @foxcutter, or others?"

  She had a good point. A cleanup effort might result in eliminating evidence, and for some of Gravemind Syndicate's customers, that might mean people. There was always a risk.

  Is saving someone just coming to the rescue and giving them their freedom, or is it also allowing a life of misery to end? If it led to the end of the trafficking operation, was that worth the trade-off? Wouldn't other organizations just step up to fill the gap? And who was I to make that type of decision?

  Maybe all of this rationalization led me to the belief that none of it mattered anyway. In a life of horrors, our small actions were meaningless.

  "As soon as @bitchfrog steps foot on this ship, leak the information," I said confidently. Stupid fucking world, I told myself. I secretly hoped I could watch it all burn.