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Torri glared at the vidscreen and went through the data again, scanning the lines of information and Saryl’s findings. Damn. This completely ruined the original plan. There was no way they could drop the spice cargo at Burnside Holdings then conduct recon at Tinsdale without attracting Coalition attention. She looked up at Saryl, seated across from her at the same table, glad they were alone in the mess. Saryl brushed at the front of her shirt and exhaled in frustration.

“I’m always grateful for your cryptographic and hacking skills,” Torri said. “But sometimes, I hate it when you’re right.” She sighed and sat back, interlacing her fingers behind her head as she stared at the smooth metal panels of the ceiling. “This adds a new dimension. And not in a nice way.” Damn again. Why can’t anything be simple? And why can’t I just let things remain as they are between me and Kai?

“We just can’t make a traditional merchant run to Vegas Sector,” Saryl said, a shrug in her voice. “So we’ll come up with a plan that either demonstrates our complete lunacy or complete brilliance.”

“The two not mutually exclusive.” Torri continued staring at the ceiling. “Why is the Coalition limiting merchant traffic in that part of the sector?” She dropped her gaze back to Saryl. “There are few outposts. There’s no need for a constant stream. How many merchant runs does that sector get every year?”

“Fifty or so. Maybe four every month.”

“Exactly my point.” Torri leaned forward again and rested her hands on the table, where a map of Vegas Sector glowed from within. “Offworld merchants only?”

“No. Earthbound as well.”

Torri glared at the red-highlighted area, which encompassed the entire Tinsdale holdings north of Burnside and unclaimed territory further north of Tinsdale, too toxic for human life. And probably most life in general. Residue of the Fortunata Wars three hundred years earlier, when the Empire came to power on the carcass of the Planetary Alliance. The Empire hadn’t been perfect—what governing body was? But even at its worst, the Empire couldn’t match the scale of brutality and scope of venality that defined the Coalition—barely in its infancy, snapping the Empire’s neck not ten years ago. Torri sighed. How I dread its adolescence. “Where in Vegas Sector do the comms originate?”

“North of Tinsdale Holdings. About thirty standard Earth miles.” Saryl glided her fingertip over the tabletop, adding a blue tinge to an area of the map that might have been ten square Earth miles.

Torri contemplated the spot. What would the Coalition want to trace out there? Kai had said two months ago that the Coalition was mucking about on her family’s holdings, but limiting traffic in this way indicated they were up to something more than just simple training missions. Were they beaming comm signals as locators in addition to warnings? “Run another analysis on mineral content in that area. And water sources. A full geophysical overview.”

Saryl complied, her long fingers barely grazing the opaque surface of the table’s control panel.

What’s there? Torri replayed her last visit to the region, two years before she graduated from the Academy. That was . . . maybe eight years ago. Nine? Barren desert landscape broken by ragged buttes and irregular rock formations. Wind-battered and dirt-laden, valuable for few resources beyond minerals and what the most intrepid settlers coaxed or forced from the soil through tech-farming. Kai had taken her all over her family’s holdings, beyond the tea fields, to the borders of the unclaimed territory. What does the Coalition want? She looked up as Jann entered the mess, yawning and stretching.

“We’ll be in Earth’s orbit in thirty hours,” he announced. He scratched his abdomen through his customary black shirt, then tucked it into his trousers, also black. “Any further instructions—” He stopped tucking and stared at the map glowing from within the table. “Don’t tell me,” he said after a few moments. “Coalition trouble in Vegas Sector.”

“Are they that transparent?” Saryl finished running a data access code and looked up at him. “We should let them know. Their actions aren’t secret and their code shields don’t work very well. Maybe we’ll get a reward for our efforts.”

“Good idea,” he said, finishing his ministrations with his shirt. “And they’ll forgive us our past transgressions against them, and we can retire to our own holdings.” He looked at Torri. “How bad is it?”

She motioned to the bench next to her for him to sit, which he did. “It’s the Coalition.” She pointed to the area in red on the map. “It’s always bad. The question is the matter of degree.”

He leaned forward, studying where she pointed. “So they’ve got . . . what there?”

“I’m guessing the beginnings of a new military base,” Saryl said. “And the comms are limiting merchant travel throughout Vegas Sector. That’s a new directive, by the way.” She glanced at Torri. “Within the last two weeks. I can’t track who ordered it.”

Torri tapped her chin, thinking. Too bad. That might tell them something more, whether it was a local Coalition order or if there were higher-ups behind it.

“Damn,” Jann muttered, voicing Torri’s thought. “Why do they always go slagging around in our schemes?”

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