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The refinery had finally finished processing the construction materials from our salvage run. And then I still had a few containers that nobody in Levski wanted to buy—because they were marked as stolen. Why stolen? They were just lying around abandoned. You can keep what you find. So I just had to make a stop in Pyro on my way to the Stanton system. Nobody there asked about the origin of the goods. I sent Pike and Zwiebus a message asking if they wanted to come along. Shortly after, both of them showed up in my hangar.

While loading the containers, Zwiebus asked.

“Are we selling the construction materials in Stanton?”

“Yeah, exactly,” I replied. “That’s where we’ll get the best price.”

“And the other containers—what are those?”

“I found those. I want to sell them in Pyro on the way.”

“Pyro,” said Pike, raising his eyebrows. “Then I’ll man one of the turrets right away.”

Zwiebus squeezed into the co-pilot’s seat. A little later, we passed through the wormhole into the Pyro system. Dark brown gas clouds, shattered asteroids, debris from old space stations. Even though I’d been here many times, it never lost its menacing feel. I immediately set a course for Ruin Station.

We reached the old, dilapidated space station in the asteroid belt of the planet Terminus without incident.

“Isn’t that…,” Pike said, irritated, and stopped in the station’s entrance area.

A woman’s body was suspended by chains from a Gatling gun. Her limbs and head hung limply downward.

“Yes. Amelia Boyd—the leader of the Frontier Fighters,” I stated impassively. “She’s been hung here before and was taken down in the meantime. No idea what message they’re trying to send.”

We stood in front of the hanging body for a few seconds, then moved on, past debris and trash. A distant babble of voices swelled, growing louder until we were right in the middle of it—in the market made up of makeshift stalls offering food, weapons, and clothes. It smelled of burnt meat, sweat, and alcohol.

I pointed to a corner and said:

“There’s Rust back there. I’m going to the admin desk to sell the goods we found. I’ll be right back.”

The guy at the admin desk looked at me intently, tapped on his terminal, looked up, and grinned.

“Tex wants to talk to you. He’s waiting upstairs.”

I felt hot and cold all at once. Tex—the gangster from whom I’d bought the protective suits for Levski. The bill hadn’t been paid yet. Whatever he wanted from me, it couldn’t be anything good. I told Zwiebus and Pike to wait, then ran up the stairs with weak knees.

Once again, I sat on the shabby sofa like a little schoolboy and waited. Flames flickered on the grill, licking at the charred meat skewers. I nervously wrung my hands. Then Tex came in, two bodyguards in tow. He stood directly in front of me, folding his arms across his dirty tank top.

“Zero. You took your sweet time settling your debt,” he growled in a smoky voice.

I leaned back and looked at him.

“You know, the favor you still owe me,” Tex continued.

I nodded slightly. Tex clapped his hands, sat down on the sofa across from me, and motioned to one of his men. The man handed me a tablet.

Pickup location Ashland: 2 SCU SLAM, 2 SCU Neon
Pickup location Devlin Scrap & Salvage: 4 SCU E’tam
Destination: August Dunlow Spaceport

I looked up from the tablet and met Tex’s gaze.

“A piece of cake.”

Damn it—I should’ve kept my mouth shut. In the end, Tex might’ve thought that wasn’t enough and wanted more. Seconds ticked by. The fire crackled, the voices of the market faded. Time seemed to stand still.

Then Tex motioned for me to leave. Let’s get out of here! I went down the stairs, grabbed a bottle of water from the first stand I saw, and chugged it. Zwiebus and Pike showed up.

“Everything okay, Zero? What was going on up there?”

“I’ll tell you in the hangar. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

*

It was night when we reached Ashland. Darkness enveloped the buildings. A fire burned in the middle of the settlement, casting an eerie glow over the surroundings. Shadows danced in the flickering light of the flames.

“Isn’t that a Headhunter outpost?” asked Zwiebus. “What do you have to do with them?”

“Nothing,” I replied tensely. “We’re picking up the drugs, that’s all.”

The Headhunters weren’t my friends, but they weren’t my enemies either. I was more worried about the other riffraff that frequented the settlement. We landed right next to a freight elevator. The tailgate opened. I looked nervously into the darkness. The flickering lights revealed no movement.

“Zwiebus, stay in cover and watch my back.”

I ran down the ramp. Zwiebus stayed close to me, while Pike covered us from the ship. The cargo lift rumbled as it hauled the containers upward. It took forever.

“It’s so quiet. Where is everyone?” whispered Zwiebus.

“There are some hanging around on the rooftops,” Pike noted. “They’re armed.”

“We’re not staying a second longer than necessary,” I warned.

When the containers were finally on board, Pike said,

“The sensors show there are Decari pods back there. They’re worth a lot.”

I thought for a moment—a risk, an opportunity—why not. There was a farm on the edge of the settlement. Probably belonged to the Headhunters. Pike went out with Zwiebus; I stayed in the pilot’s seat, ready to make a quick getaway. Would the Headhunters see this as theft? Then Zwiebus came over the radio.

“The guys on the rooftops are noticing us. I don’t like this.”

Damn it, I’d feared this.

“Hurry up,” I whispered.

After Pike had harvested everything, I went full throttle. The White Rabbit roared off into the darkness of the night. It wasn’t until we were in quantum flight toward the Stanton Gateway that the tension on board eased. Zwiebus asked if I did this kind of thing often. Could I answer honestly? During our last conversation, Zwiebus had emphasized that he was glad drugs were illegal.

I told him about my mission to organize the protective suits and that I’d only been able to get them at Ruin Station. The smuggling had been part of the deal.

“I had to make the deal; otherwise, there wouldn’t have been any protective suits in Levski during the epidemic. And yes,” I admitted. “Every now and then, I transport things without asking questions. Haven’t you ever done anything that others would consider wrong?”

After a brief pause, Zwiebus began to talk—and didn’t stop, as if he wanted to get something off his chest. He wouldn’t have a problem taking the drugs to Stanton—as long as it wasn’t to Levski. Then he told me he’d worked at Archangel Station, where he’d stashed military equipment and sold it off. That’s where he’d met Alaska. He’d forged the shipping documents.

Well, well, we all had our little quirks.

“We’re reaching the Stanton Gateway. Full attention,” I interrupted Zwiebus’s stream of talk.

We dropped out of quantum flight. With a minimal signature, the White Rabbit glided almost invisibly between asteroids and debris toward the wormhole. Then it plunged into the tunnel. The dangers of Pyros lay behind us and the safe Stanton system ahead. But safety was a threat to us. Security force checkpoints loomed.

The wormhole spat us out into Stanton. Soft light from the central star flooded the cockpit. I quickly set a course for the outermost planet, Microtech. As quickly as the White Rabbit had emerged, it vanished again. Another long quantum flight lay ahead of us.

So far, everything had gone smoothly. One more stop, one more drug load, one more risky place—Devlin Scrap & Salvage, the scrapyard on the moon Euterpe. It was night again; Zwiebus and I went out again, and Pike secured the ship. And again, there were no incidents. It went smoothly—too smoothly?

All we had to do was make the delivery and settle the outstanding bill.

“Why Orison?” Zwiebus asked as we plunged into the clouds of the gas giant Crusader.

“Probably someone’s peddling the stuff at the Voyager Bar when the rich and powerful are partying there,” I surmised.

“Aren’t you worried we’ll get inspected?” Pike wanted to know.

“No, they know me here. I used to work in Cloud City.”

“You did what? You’re full of surprises.”

After we’d handed over the drugs, we flew to our final destination—Terra Mills Hydro Farm on the moon Cellin. There we unloaded the construction materials.

In the warehouse, I tapped the terminal in frustration.

“Damn it, I can’t sell the construction materials.”

I tapped the display again.

“Hey, careful,” the guy at the counter whispered to me.

“Well, then we’ll just buy as much fresh food as we can. I’ll come back to finish the sale.”

In the meantime, Pike had found an ATLS Geo. You can keep whatever you find. Zwiebus loaded the cargo containers with the food into the White Rabbit, and Pike loaded his newly acquired Geo.

Then we set off on the long journey back to Levski. Plenty of time for old stories. Zwiebus had a lot to tell. At some point, he brought up the topic of drugs in Levski. He also mentioned the death in the catacombs back then again. Why did Kylo’s murder bother him so much? What was Zwiebus up to? I casually mentioned that the drug chemist Wallace Klim had once lived and worked in Levski. I kept quiet about my connections to Kylo and the drug smuggling.

We all had our secrets, but some things were better left in the dark.