The corridors of the Aphelion Crown stretched before Seraphine in clean, efficient lines.

  Her boots struck the deck plating in measured rhythm. Officers and crew passed her with crisp salutes. She returned them with brief nods, her expression revealing nothing.

  Inside, she was seething.

  The interrogation had been a disaster. Sure, he had gathered useful information, confirmed several suspicions. But she had gained almost nothing concrete. Nicolas Beaumont had deflected every meaningful question about his origins, his training, his impossible ship. The diplomatic immunity gambit had been clever. Too clever. Someone had coached him well. Rainmaker. She was already annoyingly competent in school. She had to give her that.

  A man with month-old documentation, skills that rival our best pilots, and technology that shouldn't exist. And he hides behind a technicality.

  She acknowledged a lieutenant who stepped aside to let her pass, her face betraying nothing of her thoughts.

  The most frustrating part was how bad he was at lying. His emotions broadcast like a malfunctioning beacon. Guilt had flickered across his features with every deflection, discomfort radiating from him in waves she could practically taste. Whatever psionic field surrounded him made deception almost impossible for him.

  And yet he'd held his ground. More than she'd expected from someone so transparently guileless.

  Her quarters sealed behind her with a soft hiss, and only then did she allow the mask to slip.

  Seraphine ran both hands through her silver-white hair, destroying its careful arrangement. She threw her uniform jacket over a chair, then plopped onto her bed in a very undignified way, replaying the interrogation in her mind.

  Where did he come from? Who trained him? And why does he look at everything like he's never seen it before?

  She stood up, walked to her personal terminal and pulled up the flight recordings.

  The footage began with Beaumont's ship, the Mahkkra, entering the asteroid ring. He was clearly going for the thrill run through the halo. It was considered a very risky challenge under normal circumstances. Yet, he charged in with pirates on his tail. She'd watched this sequence a dozen times already. Her analysts had initially flagged it as fabricated data. The maneuvers were simply too precise, the timing impossible to be real.

  Then they'd recovered black boxes from the pirate debris. External recordings that matched his internal logs exactly.

  Seraphine watched him thread through collapsing asteroid formations at forty percent thrust. Watched him react to debris movements with timing that defied human reflexes. Watched him maintain perfect calm under fire, outnumbered eight to one, never once losing control.

  Where does someone learn to fly like that?

  Not in any academy she knew. Not in any military she'd encountered. This wasn't training. This was something else entirely.

  Professional admiration, she told herself. Nothing more. A good officer recognized exceptional skill when she saw it.

  She watched the recording twice more before closing it.

  Her comm chimed with a priority alert, and her stomach tightened before she even checked the identifier. Ansible call. Family channel. Highest encryption.

  Only a handful of people in the galaxy had access to that channel.

  She knew who it was.

  Seraphine smoothed her hair back into place, straightened her uniform jacket, composed her expression, then left for the ansible room.

  --- o0o ---

  The holographic projection activated, and Baron Cassius Ventari materialized before her.

  He looked older than she remembered from their last communication. The silver hair touched with more of the patina of age, the lines around his eyes deeper. But the bearing remained. It was the posture of a man used to command. His merciless eyes, the eyes of the Emperor's right hand, softened as her projection reached him.

  "Aiya, atar." Hail, father.

  "Aiya, yeld?." Hail, daughter.

  The formality was ritual, not distance. Immediately after, his expression warmed, and the stern admiral became the loving father.

  "You look tired, eleninya." Little star. Her childhood nickname.

  The old nickname made something loosen in her chest. "I've had a long week. You have no idea."

  "I heard rumors of a pirate engagement? You finally found them?"

  She laughed, tension breaking like ice cracking: "Rumors. Is that what they're calling it? Father, I have reports to file that will make the Admiralty's heads spin. Eight pirate bases, dozens of ships, FTL interdictors, fleet cloaking capabilities. And that's not even the interesting part."

  "Tell me everything."

  "Is this channel secure?"

  "Triple-encrypted, swept for intercepts, routed through three different relay stations." His lips quirked. "I know how to make a private call, child."

  "Just checking." She settled into her chair, allowing herself to slump slightly. Here, with him, she didn't have to be Captain Ventari. "It started with an unusual signal from a probe..."

  She explained the long, fruitless chase after a ghost fleet of pirates whose modus operandi didn't make sense. The suspicious signal of a combat ship doing the tourist route and then, dropping mid-battle to save a diplomat from a vassal state and her too good to be true pilot. How she obtained the flight recording and how it made no sense. Cassius listened without interrupting, his expression growing more thoughtful with each detail.

  When she finished, the warmth in his eyes had shifted to something more serious.

  "Before we continue. I had a conversation with your biological father. It concerns you."

  The relaxation drained from her posture. Her jaw tightened.

  "What has she done now?"

  "It's not about your birth mother. She remains under house arrest. No incidents. No escape attempts." He tilted his head. "She's been surprisingly well-behaved."

  "That's almost more concerning."

  "Perhaps. But that's not why I'm calling."

  "Then what does His Imperial Majesty require of me?" The title came out sharper than she intended. Not quite bitter. Not quite neutral.

  Cassius sighed. She'd heard that particular sigh a hundred times over the years, in a hundred different contexts. "Seraphine. Don't be like that."

  "Like what? Realistic?" She stood, began to pace, expressing a frustration she'd never show on her bridge. "I only hear from him when Mother causes trouble or when he needs something done. Every time, it's either to scold me and hold me under suspicion for things I didn't do, or to ask for a favor that can't be traced back to him. Two years of silence since the last one. Forgive me if I've learned the pattern."

  "He genuinely cares for you..."

  "I'm sure he does. In whatever way emperors care about inconvenient daughters." She stopped, forced herself to breathe. "I'm sorry. That was unfair. But you know I'm not wrong."

  "The Emperor cannot openly recognize an illegitimate daughter from a teenager's lapse of judgement." Cassius's voice was gentle but firm. "Especially not after your mother's... attempts. The scandal she caused trying to force herself in the imperial family nearly destabilized his marriage to Empress Vaelith. It would have created conflicts with the noble houses. The Imperial Institution would have been endangered. He did whatever he could to protect you. You were innocent of all of it."

  She had heard the argument a hundred times already. "I know, father. I know."

  "He does what he can within those constraints. The military commission. The fast-track promotions. This ship command."

  "I earned those."

  "You did. But doors were opened." His voice was kind but honest. "He watches your career. He's proud of what you've accomplished."

  She accepted this with a tight nod. They'd had this conversation before. It never fully resolved.

  "So. What does he need?"

  "What do you know of the Ecclesiarch representative assigned to your ship?"

  The question surprised her. She'd expected something about fleet movements or noble politics, not religion.

  "Brother Cornelius Svenlock. Inner Light priest. Officially assigned for crew spiritual support." She frowned. "The admiralty made it clear he has a separate, unofficial, mission. I haven't been able to determine what."

  "Good."

  "That I searched? Or that I failed to unearth his secret mission?"

  "Both," he said with a soft smile. "His assignment relates to a psionic perturbation felt across the Empire several months ago. He's searching for the source."

  "I have heard of that. There are rumors that it is related to the incident at Torvin's Rest."

  Cassius's expression became very serious. The admiral replacing the uncle.

  "What I'm about to tell you must remain between us. His Majesty told me directly. This is not speculation or rumor."

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  There was a beat of silence. Imperial secrets had weight.

  "The Church of Enlightened Knowledge conducted an unauthorized experiment. One of their radical factions: the Adepts of Absolute Truth, I'm sure the name rings a bell." He paused, as if still not quite believing it himself. "They built a device that created a portal. To another universe."

  Seraphine went very still. "That's impossible."

  "Apparently not. The portal was unstable. And yes. that was on torvin's Rest. Twenty thousand dead when it collapsed. Over a million in comas from psionic backlash..."

  His voice lowered, as if afraid of the secret he was about reveal. "But before it collapsed, something came through. Multiple somethings. Sentient consciousnesses from another reality, scattered across the galaxy at the moment of transit."

  Long pause. Her mind raced through implications.

  "So brother Cornelius was sent to find them?"

  "Yes."

  "And you're telling me this because..."

  "Because you're surprisingly calm, eleninya." He studied her through the hologram. "You've already put it together, haven't you?"

  "I wish I had known this earlier." She sat back down heavily. "Because I believe he's already found one. And so have I."

  "Explain."

  She described Nico, the words coming faster now that she had context.

  "An exceptional pilot. His skills defy any explanation I can construct. My analysts thought the flight data was fabricated until we cross-referenced with external recordings. It wasn't."

  "He has no identity. No background. His documentation is barely a month old, from a vassal state that conveniently just collapsed. For someone with his abilities to have no history anywhere in the galaxy? Impossible. Such talent would make waves, we would know about it. Unless he didn't come from anywhere in this galaxy."

  "And then, there is the matter of his ship..." She shook her head. "It contains technology that shouldn't exist. A Quillon drive configuration years ahead of our best prototypes. A riftlance. A working riftlance. My engineers were ecstatic just from the sensor recordings, they said it was enough to leap ahead a few years the project. The whole thing is impossible."

  "And he has this psionic field around him. He broadcasts emotions like a malfunctioning beacon. He cannot hide what he feels. The man is constitutionally incapable of deception. I interrogated him for an hour, and I knew every time he was being evasive because guilt or uneasiness radiated off him like heat from a reactor."

  Cassius absorbed this. "A pilot. So he is a soldier, then? Did he resist when you made contact?"

  Seraphine laughed, genuine amusement breaking through: "Not a soldier. Definitely not a soldier. He moves wrong. Reacts wrong. Doesn't know basic military protocols. He fought, yes. But against pirates, not the Navy. And he's..." She searched for the right word. "Naive. Eager. Almost childlike in his enthusiasm. He looked at every system on the ship like a child seeing stars for the first time. Like everything was wonderful and new and he couldn't quite believe it was real."

  "Interesting."

  "You want the flight data?"

  "Already queued, I assume?"

  "You know me well."

  Cassius studied her expression through the hologram for a long moment. Those patient eyes that missed nothing.

  "You like him."

  She considered the question honestly.

  "I admire his skills. Flying like that takes something beyond training. Something instinctive." She paused. "And knowing what I know now, I can empathize with his situation. Alone. Lost. Surrounded by people who want to use him for what he has, for what he knows, for what his ship can do. That's not an enviable position."

  "But nothing more than that?"

  "Nothing more than that."

  Cassius accepted this with a nod that suggested he was filing it away for later consideration. "Try to befriend him. He could be valuable to the Empire."

  "He wants to register with the mercenary guild. Become a citizen."

  "Good. Accommodate him. Make the process smooth. I want him to see the Empire as helpful, not obstructive. If he is as good as you say, having him work for the guild would benefit the Empire." He paused. "I'll need to brief His Majesty on this personally. He will want to know that one of these travelers has been located. Expect another call in a few days."

  "Understood."

  "And Seraphine..." The warmth returned to his voice: "Be careful. We don't know what these entities are capable of. What they want. Whether they're dangerous."

  "He fought pirates to protect someone he had never met before, who owed him nothing. Destroyed eight ships to keep a stranger safe." She met his eyes. "Whatever he is, I don't think 'dangerous' is the right word. At least not to us."

  "Perhaps. But stay alert."

  "Always."

  "Namári?, atar."

  "Namári?, yeld?."

  The connection terminated.

  Seraphine sat in the darkened alcove for several minutes, processing.

  She thought about the interrogation again. The clumsy lies. The transparent guilt. The will it took to hold his ground anyway, even knowing his story had holes, even knowing she suspected him.

  She rose, smoothed her uniform, and began composing her preliminary reports.

  She was going to have to watch him more closely now. For multiple reasons.

  --- o0o ---

  Days passed. Hyperion Deep came and went. The technological treasure trove they'd discovered would keep Imperial researchers busy for years. Lieutenant Korath had already submitted three separate proposals how to apply what they'd learned. He was so eager that breakfast had become a daily lecture on system tweaks, until she finally changed her schedule just to eat in peace.

  Seraphine sat in her quarters, reviewing reports, but her thoughts kept drifting elsewhere.

  She caught herself replaying moments from the past week. Nico's unguarded wonder when he'd first seen the bridge. The way he couldn't mask his concern for Rosalia even when maintaining his cover story should have been the priority. His transparency during their dinners together. How he talked about his ship with genuine passion, using gaming terminology that made no sense but somehow communicated perfectly. And the small slips in his story. It had been a struggle not to let him know she knew his secret.

  That moment at the door, after the final dinner. The look in his eyes. Hopeful. Uncertain. Human.

  In a world of masks and hidden agendas, he walks around with his soul visible to everyone.

  It should be a weakness. It should make him easy prey.

  Careful, she warned herself. You know what's coming. Don't let yourself forget what he represents to the people above you.

  Her comm chimed. Another ansible call. Family channel.

  She quickly made her way to the ansible, already knowing what this call would be about.

  Cassius appeared, and his expression was pleased. "His Majesty was very interested in your report."

  "I assumed he would be."

  "The deal Lady Rainmaker negotiated has been approved at the highest levels. Full technical cooperation in exchange for protection and no questions about origins. The cover story is thin, but acceptable."

  "I thought it might be." She allowed herself a small smile. "The man can't lie to save his life, but lady Rainmaker is impressive."

  "She negotiated rings around people twice her age. His Majesty was particularly amused by that. It would have been a shame to let such a talent work for the Kingdom of the Blue Suns. She will be useful in the mercenary guild. And so will captain Beaumont." Cassius's tone shifted. More calculating. "Speaking of which. I reviewed the flight data you sent and read your reports. His Majesty did as well."

  Her smile faded. She knew where this was going.

  "Nicolas Beaumont is remarkably skilled. Remarkably naive. And remarkably attached to his ship and his freedom."

  She stayed silent, but her eyes hardened, already knowing where the conversation was going. And not liking it.

  "Such a man could be guided. Influenced. Made to see where his best interests align." Cassius met her eyes through the hologram. "A personal connection would be more effective than any contract in securing his long-term loyalty to Imperial interests."

  Cold settled in her stomach. "You want me to manipulate him."

  "I want you to cultivate a relationship that serves Imperial interests. The nature of that relationship. Professional, personal, or..." He let the implication hang.

  "No."

  The word came out flat. Hard. Final.

  Cassius blinked. "Seraphine..."

  "No." She was standing now, pacing, the informality of their relationship allowing her to express what she'd never show to anyone else. "I won't do it. Find someone else for your honeypot operation."

  "This isn't a honeypot."

  "Isn't it?" She rounded on the hologram, silver hair catching the dim light as she moved. "Seduce the naive man from another universe? Make him think I care so he'll be 'amenable' to Imperial interests? That's exactly what it is, Father, and I won't be part of it."

  "Seraphine, listen to me..."

  "NO." The word echoed in the small space. Her fists were clenched at her sides. "You know me. You raised me. You know what I am. What I believe."

  Her voice tightened, anger carefully controlled: "I have served this Empire my entire adult life. I have followed orders I disagreed with but were legal. I have made hard choices for the greater good. But I have never. NEVER. Compromised my honor for political convenience."

  She stopped pacing, faced the hologram directly: "I have watched too many nobles and officers destroy their integrity by making 'small exceptions'. By blurring the line between service and manipulation. I despise those people. I will not become one of them!"

  Her voice softened, almost a whisper. "I will not become my mother..."

  Silence filled the room. Seraphine sat down, looking at her hands. Cassius's expression shifted. From frustration to a mix of concern and respect.

  "I am sorry for asking this, eleninya."

  She forced herself to breathe, to steady her voice. "I will help Nicolas Beaumont. I will ensure he sees the Empire favorably. I will be his ally if that's what's needed. But I will not pretend to feel things I don't, and I will not manufacture feelings to serve someone else's political calculations."

  "And if you do develop feelings? Genuine ones?"

  "Then that will be between him and me. Not a mission parameter. Not leverage. Not a tool."

  Another long pause. Through the hologram, she could see her father thinking, recalculating.

  "And if His Majesty insists?"

  "Then His Majesty can find another officer for this particular duty." Her voice was steady now. Certain. "I am still the best person to manage this situation. I simply won't manage it that way."

  Cassius studied her for a long moment. Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.

  "Very well. I will report your decision to His Majesty." He paused then added, in a warmer tone. "I am proud of you."

  She hadn't expected that. Something in her chest loosened slightly. But then, a thought stopped her.

  "Was that a test? Or a genuine order?"

  "Can't it be both? I told you what made sense for the good of the Empire, while hoping you would stand your ground. You made you old dad proud."

  "Thank you."

  "There are other assignments. Ones more suited to your principles."

  "I'm listening."

  "When you rejoin Beaumont at Varkesh Prime. Ensure his safety. His citizenship application should proceed smoothly. No bureaucratic obstacles, no 'accidental' delays. His registration with the mercenary guild should be expedited."

  "That I can do."

  "Lady Rainmaker as well. Extend to her every courtesy. Make them both feel welcome. Help where you can." A slight smile played at his lips. "If gratitude toward the Empire develops naturally from being treated well, that's not manipulation. That's good governance."

  "That I can also do."

  "Good."

  He smiled. A genuine expression that reminded her of childhood, of simpler times when she was just a girl living with her dad. When she did not know she had been adopted by her uncle for political reasons. "Rest well, eleninya. You have interesting times ahead."

  "Namári?, atar."

  "Namári?, yeld?."

  The connection terminated. She walked back to her quarters, deep in thought, barely noticing the crisp salutes of officers and crew.

  Later, laying on her bed in the dark, she was gazing at the stars through the viewport.

  She thought of Nico again. The unguarded joy on his face when he'd seen hyperspace for the first time. The way he couldn't hide his excitement even when trying to appear sophisticated. The wonder in his eyes at everything he encountered, as if the whole universe was a gift he hadn't expected to receive.

  I hope you never learn to hide that, she thought. I hope this galaxy doesn't teach you to become like the rest of us.