Page 8

He matched it.

She conceded, nodding her agreement.

He pulled in as he flicked up a holo on his commtab, placing proximity shields around it.

She stared at the visage of Ankis, the man Riv was hunting down.

‘That is a strange mask he wears.’

‘’Tis,’ Riv rasped, shutting down the screen. ‘Seen or heard of him?’

Halima gave it some thought. ‘I haven’t observed him in here. But I did catch chatter of a stranger touching down at the port. Some of the porters said he had a face that was quite unusual, that it changed form often. They put it down to a fashion fad. He tried to recruit a few of them to operate his ship. I hear one of two Falasians took up with him. Soon after, he fueled up and left.’

‘How long ago?’

‘Two or three weeks now.’

‘Headed where?’

Annoyance furrowed her forehead at his rapid-fire questions. ‘Do I look like the port master to you? Query the station’s AI. They might tell you.’

‘Sante,’ Riv said with a wry smile and shrug.

‘We done here?’

‘For now.’

She strolled off as Riv sent word to Mirage.Check her story out, please.

The Sable AI replied soon, confirming Halima’s words.Ankis lifted off with a crew from this rock, and his ship was spotted heading toward the storm-packed nebula nearby.

Riv frowned.Damn. Do you think we can still give chase?

Mirage paused for a moment.The tempests around that celestial tornado are vicious this time of year. The Station AI suggests we wait it out for a few more weeks.

That AI has no idea of Glimmer’s capabilities.

Mirage agreed.We’ve weathered worse.

Riv clenched his jaw.Nothing to it, then. We hunt down our mark and keep to the plan.

If you say so.

He spent the next minutes studying a holo of the mist-roiled entity that Mirage dropped into his node.

The nebula covered a massive area over fifty light-years across, made of an intricate haze of ionized hydrogen gas and raven-dark dust clouds. One capable of pumping out vast amounts of ionizing ultraviolet radiation that knocked electrons loose from their atoms in the surrounding hydrogen gas.

It was wild, engulfed in violent and intense stellar hurricanes generated by hot stars, churning funnels of glowing reactions, and energetic explosions.

He discerned a series of intricate structures through the dense, roiling murkiness.

Narrowing his meta vision, he focused on a bright celestial body embedded in the dark billows at its centre.

He wondered what existed within it, why Ankis had headed inside it, and whether there was a livable planet beyond its misty, stormy cloak.

Just then, Halima sidled past him at the bar.

Riv had a sudden thought. ‘One more thing. I need to know if you’ve seen someone else.’