I spent the afternoon skimming through my briefing material. I’d believed my lifelong crusade against the Corporations had failed. The spark my comrades and myself had ignited so long ago at White Rock, the spark that had flared for ten short years on Centauri before being almost extinguished to mere embers that my ragtag fleet of rebels and misfits had kept burning for forty long years had finally burst into flames the day I was frozen.

  I’d been made a martyr. My sentencing was the spark the anti-corporate factions had been planning for. The day I was frozen, rebellion swept across human space, rejuvenation clinics and exclusive estates burned, rejuvees were rounded up, imprisoned, and in some cases executed. The remains of my fleet went on a rampage, liberating or destroying Corporate facilities in every system as Admiral Collins’ fleet twiddled their thumbs in Nutexas while their paymasters fought over where to deploy them. And then, when the dust settled, thirty systems declared themselves free of the Corporations.

  These became the Free Systems. Thirty systems free from Corporate greed, forty terraformed planets, innumerable habitats, space stations and mining colonies. Close to twenty billion people were freed from working to make meaningless numbers bigger, freed from making rich old people older and richer, free to enjoy their lives, or at the very least, free to make their lives miserable on their own terms.

  And between the remaining Corporate Systems and the Free Systems, sitting on the main trade routes between the stars, was Jeckon, which, with a little help from the Galactic Court and their powerful fleet, declared themselves to be a neutral system. It was a profitable move. The only other neutral system in human space was the Sol system, the birthplace of humanity and home of the Galactic Court.

  The stalemate between the two factions turned into a cold war and Jeckon was on the front lines. There was a joke that if you dropped a pebble from a top level balcony in Kacke you’d take out two double agents and disturb an orgy. And I’d been dropped into the middle of this hedonistic powder keg.

  The cold war alone didn’t explain why it was now so hard to get out of human controlled space. I told the house to bring up the most detailed 3D map of human controlled space that also showed the closest alien systems. The map was in no way detailed enough to navigate by but it was flexible enough for me to add in territorial maps and the Court embargoed zones in contrasting colours. Then I zoomed out.

  Human controlled space is situated around the edge of one arm of the galaxy and the new borders bisected the easiest routes to the nearest alien controlled systems. To get anywhere interesting you either had to risk the Galactic Court’s displeasure, or make multiple risky jumps through multiple uninhabited star systems. It was no wonder no-one left Human space anymore.

  It was either a Galactic Court conspiracy to keep Humans away from the rest of the galaxy, or, far more likely, no-one had thought through the consequences of banning travel through certain sections of space. All too familiar with the workings of big organisations I was more inclined to blame incompetence and inertia rather than sinister conspiracies.

  With that little mystery solved, I went looking for Gary’s Precursor Habitat. After a couple of hours I came to the conclusion that neither the star map, nor the house AI was up to the task. After getting into an argument with the house I gave up and went to bed.

  I was woken far too early by a bright-eyed Zia who’d claimed to have spent the whole night clubbing. I decided not to ask what she’d been clubbing or what drugs she’d taken to make her so unnaturally perky at this time in the morning. We toured a couple of museums but being older than a great many of the exhibits got a bit stale after a while. We had lunch in one of the innumerable cafes, then hired a sailing boat and spent the afternoon sailing around one of the lakes. Well I sailed. Whatever Zia had taken had worn off and she spent the afternoon snoring in the bilge.

  I sailed through the city, the peaceful splash of the water against the hull taking me back to my childhood, I relaxed and let my mind wander. Then I had a Eureka moment. I knew where I could find a better star map, one that detailed Zarathian space, possibly even the location of the Precursor system. I brought the sailing dinghy back to the dock, woke Zia and poured coffee down her throat until she was able to function enough to guide me across town to Molly and Gary’s establishment.

  I burst into the shop, dragging a hungover Zia with me, then had to wait while Molly served the customers in front of us. They finally left and Molly raised an enquiring eyebrow at me.

  “What did you do to the poor girl?” She asked, looking at Zia.

  “I didn’t do anything. She did it to herself.”

  “I was clubbing. All night.” Zia said, giving Molly a wan smile and collapsed on a chair. Molly rummaged under the counter and took out a battered cylindrical medical scanner that she placed on Zia’s forehead “My, my, you did have a good time, didn’t you,” Molly said looking at the display. She gave the medical scanner a shake, examined the results again, smiled and placed the scanner on Zia’s arm. There was a hiss of air and Molly nodded to herself in satisfaction as Zia instantly perked up.

  “Thanks. What did you give me?” Zia asked. Molly rattled off what sounded like a sting of random syllables but Zia nodded seemingly reassured.

  “Now, why have you darkened my door again? Did you contact your contacts?” Molly asked me.

  “Not yet. Is Gary around?”

  “It’s not like he can go out, is it?”

  “Hello Del, hello Zia,” Gary said, appearing from out the back.

  “Don’t greet them like friends, they might start to feel welcome.” Molly snapped at him.

  “I would rather have Del as a friend than an enemy.” Gary pointed out.

  “True, but he has someone who looks like he wants a favour.”

  “All I want is to look at the star charts in your flying saucer up there,” I said pointing upwards.

  “Ha ha ha,” Gary laughed. Molly sighed.

  “I don’t suppose you’ll believe it until you see Gary’s dirty little secret for yourself,” she said, opening the door to the corridor to back rooms then gesturing to another narrow door which opened onto a dark narrow staircase that went up to the saucer. I ascended the stairs, saw what was up there, sighed and came down.

  “I’m not angry, just disappointed,” I told the pair of them.

  “Don’t blame me,” I didn’t build this place, Molly said.

  “We are on Jeckon. You can’t take a walk outside without tripping over several spaceships… And you build a fake.” I said to Gary.

  “It is a good fake. It fooled you.”

  “True, but that isn’t helping me find detailed star maps. What happened to the ship you went to the Precursor system in?”

  “I blew it up when humans captured it.”

  “And I don’t suppose you secretly kept information about the biggest discovery ever in this corner of the Galaxy.”

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  “No. I was to be a prisoner of war. I did not want to inadvertently pass on information to the enemy.”

  “I know I’m hungover, but weren’t we on a Zarathian ship a couple of days ago,” Zia pointed out.

  “Fucking hell, we were. I wonder if the bridge is still intact.” I said, annoyed for not thinking of this myself.

  “If you are talking about Death to all Humans, the bridge is intact and I believe the star map is functional. After the ship was brought down to the planet I was brought in as a consultant to merge the Zarathian systems with the human systems.” Gary said.

  “Good luck getting access to the JDF holy of holys,” Molly snorted. I smiled, brought up my very short list of contacts and called Captain Dany. They answered almost immediately.

  “Captain Hawk, what can I do for you?”

  “Death to all Humans…” I started

  “Well that’s nice, you don’t call me for two days, and then you threaten our entire species,” the Captain interrupted. I laughed.

  “I mean that great big Zarathian ship you use as your office. Can sneak in and access the bridge star maps?”

  “I have instructions to give you everything you need. I will arrange it. How good is your Zarathian? I don’t think the systems have been touched since it was captured.”

  “I have a civilian contractor here who has already done work merging the human and Zarathian systems. He will need paying, though,” I said. Gary smiled and nodded enthusiastically. Molly shook her head in disbelief.

  “Of course, hmm… one moment, let me set this up… one Zarathian translator… Do you have a contractor number?”

  “Z One,” Gary said.

  “That’s an old code… but it’s still good… Oh dear. Gary The Gray?”

  “Yes,” said Gary.

  “Would you like me to update your details?”

  “No. I like the way humans squirm when they have to say the name they gave me. And Humans can’t say my real name without surgery.”

  “Fair enough. And you were last contracted by the JDF… eighty-seven years ago. By the Great Know All, you’ve been doing work for us for five hundred years!”

  “That is correct.”

  “Well, your security clearance is still good. Would tomorrow morning be good for you both… and will Lieutenant-Doctor Zia be accompanying you?” I glanced at Zia.

  “Hell yes, I’m not going to miss exploring an ancient alien artifact,” she said.

  “That’s what I said when Gary first asked to probe me,” Molly said.

  “Well I’ll look forward to seeing you all tomorrow. Won’t this be fun.”

  ***

  The next day we met Gary at the JDF station. I’d assumed he’d disguise himself but I hadn’t expected him to dress as Admiral Bridget Collins, or at least her character from Centauri Dawn. In real life I was pretty sure the Admiral had never worn a skull mask. Or a cloak. In fact, I was pretty sure her evil villain look in the series had been designed purely to piss her off. The cloak was cool though.

  Overall the fancy dress was probably getting more attention than Gary would have if he’d come as himself, even if I had noticed quite a few white shipsuits and some quite convincing Neko getups, no doubt people trying out their costumes ready for the season finale tomorrow.

  Despite Gary’s provocative costume we had no problem accessing the JDF station and we were met at the other end by Captain Dany who admired Gary’s outfit. After a pointless, if quick visit to see Vanessa who remained unconscious in her pod, the Captain and a couple of security drones escorted us through a maze of corridors to the bridge, hidden deep in the depths of the massive ship.

  The bridge was large and I could see where alterations had been made to accommodate the tall Zarathian frame. This meant the bridge at least was donated technology from another humanoid species, one we hadn’t encountered.

  The room had a hushed atmosphere to it, almost like a church or a museum. “This is classed as a historic monument, not that anyone’s been in here for a very long time. And please don’t change any settings, we’ve got everything running just how we want it,” Captain Dany said in a hushed voice as Gary and myself approached the main command console.

  Gary touched a button and the main screen flashed to life showing a mixture of Zarathian and human standard language, or at least, human standard as it had been five hundred years ago. Not that this was a problem, ship displays and interfaces had been standardised longer than the human race had existed and the way humans and Zarathians perceived the visible spectrum of light was actually how around 40% of the Uplifted species perceived the universe, give or take a few nm.

  I ran my eyes over the display, savouring every moment. It wasn't every day I got to play with an alien Behemoth Class Battleship. I immediately noticed the engines were either disconnected or missing, so given this fact, I was surprised to see that 50% of the power available was in use. I wondered if this ship alone kept the lights of Kacke lit.

  I also couldn’t help noticing both the sensors and weapon systems were fully operational, not only this, the controls were in human standard and were controlled remotely. If anyone ever tried to attack Jeckon they were going to get one hell of a shock, the amount of firepower available was immense. I investigated further and found the ship’s weapons system was only part of a massive defence grid. There was a sharp cough, I looked around to find Captain Dany glaring at me.

  “You wanted to look at the star maps, Captain.” the Captain said.

  “But… big guns.” I protested.

  “No. You know what they say about men with big guns?”

  “They have lots of friends? Can I just vaporise one tiny little satellite?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “You’re no fun.”

  “I tell you what, if you’re around when an invasion fleet turns up, I’ll let you coordinate the attack. But only if you behave.” Captain Dany conceded.

  “Fine,” I said sulkily and dived into the navigation software. I was immediately lost. Back in the day I’d been one of the best Human navigators around but this star map was immense, bigger and more detailed than any star map I’d ever experienced, not only that, there was no context, no handy ‘you are here,’ or even a Zarathian note saying ‘you were here 500 years ago’.

  “A bit of context, if you would, Gary,” I requested, zooming further out and spinning the map, trying to find some familiar point of reference.

  “This is not a Zarathian map. It is too big. I am humbled.” Gary replied, sounding a bit shell shocked.

  “I’m glad it’s not just me, who the fuck were your species Sponsors?”

  “We do not speak of them. They abandoned us. They are to be Forgotten,” Gary said firmly. I sighed and connected my wrist to the map and told it to compare it with the map I’d downloaded yesterday. Gary shook his head sadly.

  “Your wrist com is good Del Bird, but it will not be up to the task. We need a live Ship Core. Do you have one of those?” I glanced at Captain Dany. They smiled and produced a shiny metallic sphere the size of their hand and placed it on the main console.

  “Or one of those,” Gary said, nodding in approval. I went back into the star map to find star names had appeared, in human standard as well as Zarathian. Not much, but enough for me to get started.

  “So, Gary, where did you find this Precursor habitat of yours?” I asked.

  After a couple of hours of being ignored, Zia got bored and left, saying something to me about not forgetting the premier tomorrow. Myself, Gary and Captain Dany who turned out to be a surprisingly competent navigator, worked on turning the immense alien star map into something usable and found three possible locations for Gary’s precursor habitat. After uncounted hours of work, Captain Dany kicked us out, pleading exhaustion. I went home. Despite the long train journey back to Kacke, my brain still thought it was in the map when I staggered into the apartment.

  I was so out of it I never noticed there was already someone in the apartment. Not until I entered the bedroom and found the intruder lying naked on my bed.

  “You took your time,” Vanessa said.

  “Have you put on weight?” I managed to ask .

  “You better believe it, I’ve got my boobs back.”

  “I noticed…”

  “I haven’t been laid in over a century. Are you going to stand there all night letching or are you going to fuck my brains out?” She asked. I considered the question for a moment, wondering how many systems I would have to jump through. Vanessa lost patience and pulled me to the bed.

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