The meeting with Prince Archibald was scheduled in a private conference room with extensive security protocols. Only Tanya, Davidson, and Amara were invited for the sensitive discussions ahead.
Davidson walked beside her with his usual military bearing, somehow managing to look alert despite probably sleeping as little as she had. Amara matched their pace, her tablet already displaying talking points and negotiation strategies.
"The official reason for this meeting," Davidson explained as they walked, "is to finalise the purchase agreement for the Avdrulla Stela ."
Tanya caught the emphasis. "And the unofficial reason?"
"The prince made promises about preventing interference from the Vortex Consortium and Hallow Guard," Amara said quietly. "We need to understand why those promises weren't kept."
"Maybe he couldn't," Tanya muttered. "Or maybe royal promises are worth exactly what we paid for them."
"Either way, we need to know." Davidson's hand rested casually by his side. "This meeting might tell us if we still have allies in the Imperial family, or if we're completely on our own."
The conference room doors opened to reveal Prince Archibald standing beside a broad window overlooking the orbital station. He turned with a practiced smile, every inch the charming royal she expected him to be.
"Ms. Furrow, Captain Davidson, Ms. Okafor." He gestured them inside with fluid grace. "Thank you for making time in your busy schedule."
The doors sealed behind them with a heavy click. Two security personnel flanked the entrance, their faces impassive.
Prince Archibald's smile never wavered. "If you'll excuse us for a moment." He gestured to his guards. "Standard protocol, do a quick sweep to ensure privacy."
One guard produced a handheld scanner and began methodically checking the room's perimeter. The device made a variety of beeps as it passed over walls, furniture, and ventilation grates. After three minutes of silence broken only by the scanner's rhythmic beeping, the guard nodded to the prince.
"Clean, Your Highness."
"Excellent. Please wait outside. No one enters until we're finished."
The guards bowed slightly and withdrew. The moment the door sealed again, the prince's shoulders sagged. The practiced smile melted away, leaving someone who looked about as exhausted as Tanya felt.
He moved to a side table and poured himself water from a crystal decanter, his hands shaking slightly. "Forgive the theater. My brother has eyes everywhere, and I've learned the hard way that assuming privacy is a dangerous mistake."
The transformation was jarring. Yesterday's confident prince had aged years overnight.
"Your Highness—" Davidson began.
"Archibald, please. We're past formalities." He drank deeply, then set the glass down with a sharp click. "Let's handle business first. It's cleaner that way."
He pulled out a tablet and tapped through several screens before turning it to face Amara. A financial transfer authorisation glowed on the display.
Amara's eyes widened. "That's—"
"What the ship is worth," Archibald interrupted firmly. "And before you argue, consider that I'm buying revolutionary atmospheric technology that shouldn't exist. Revolutionary tends to be expensive."
Tanya stared at the number. Her exhausted brain struggled to count the zeros. "That's more than we discussed. Way more."
"Market conditions changed." Archibald's tone brooked no argument. "Your presentation made it clear that the Avdrulla Stela represents a genuine breakthrough in dimensional shielding. I'm paying accordingly. Accept the transfer, Ms. Furrow. You've earned it."
Amara glanced at Tanya, who managed a tired nod. Amara's fingers moved across her own tablet, confirming the transaction. The confirmation chime felt surreal. That would pay for the advertising they did and also help with future projects.
Davidson cleared his throat. "Your Highness, what happened to our agreement?"
The prince's expression aged years in moments. "My older brother happened. He convinced our father to intervene, and when the Emperor acts, even royal promises become meaningless."
He took a sip of his drink before continuing, "I believed I had the influence to protect you. I was wrong." He moved to one of the conference chairs and collapsed into it like someone who'd been standing too long. "My brother and I are fighting a cold war over the Empire's future, and you've become a piece on the board."
"What does your brother want?" Tanya asked.
"Control. Oversight. Every significant technological development flowing through Imperial channels where it can be monitored, regulated, and suppressed if necessary." Archibald gestured helplessly. "He sees innovation as a threat to stability. I see stagnation as a death sentence for our Empire."
"And which of you is right?" Tanya asked, surprised by the interest in her own voice.
The prince met her eyes with uncomfortable honesty. "Probably both. That's what makes it complicated."
He stood and activated a holographic display embedded in the conference table. Images flickered to life of ancient battles, ruined worlds, and technologies that looked simultaneously advanced and alien.
"Tell me, Ms. Furrow, what did they teach you about the Expansion Wars in school?"
Tanya recited automatically, her university education providing familiar ground. "Humanity discovered vortex drives and terraforming about four hundred years ago. Spread across the galaxy, found it mostly empty except for ruins left by dead civilisations. Different factions competed for territory and resources. Eventually, the five great powers emerged and established the current political structure."
"The sanitised version." Archibald manipulated the display, showing images of devastation that history texts never included. Cities reduced to glass. Planets with atmospheres stripped away. "The official records omit uncomfortable details. Like the fact that humanity used to be significantly more advanced than we are now, and that space wasn't empty"
He stood up and started to pace around the room. "Even I don't know how the war ended. Nothing was recorded, or if it was, it's been hidden from us. The only thing I do know is that most of that knowledge of advanced technology was deliberately destroyed," the prince said. "Sealed. Suppressed. Hidden away by someone or something who'd seen what unlimited technological advancement could do when combined with human ambition and fear."
He closed the hologram with a gesture. "My brother believes that advancing too quickly will restart those conflicts. That pushing the boundaries of what's possible will awaken those who took it away from us."
The prince met Tanya's eyes with an intensity that cut through her exhaustion. "He might not be completely wrong."
"So what am I supposed to do?" Tanya heard the crack in her own voice but couldn't stop it. "Pretend I didn't learn anything? Bury the technology that could help people just because someone's afraid of what might happen?"
"I don't know," Archibald admitted. "I wish I did. My brother would say yes, absolutely suppress it for the greater good. I think that's cowardice disguised as wisdom." He spread his hands in a gesture of helpless frustration. "But I also can't tell you he's wrong. History suggests the dangers are real. But it is my desire for us to return to those days. I want you to succeed."
They talked strategy after that—workarounds for Imperial restrictions, legal shields against the Consortium, ways to continue development while appearing to comply with regulations. But Tanya's mind kept drifting to the images of lost technologies and the wars that had destroyed them.
When the meeting finally began winding down, Tanya remembered the other question that had been nagging at her since yesterday.
"The elderly woman who helped during my presentation," she said. "Do you know who she is?"
The prince's expression shuttered so completely it was like watching a door slam. His princely mask snapped back into place, erasing the exhausted honesty they'd seen.
"No."
The single word carried meaning beyond its brevity.
"You're lying," Tanya said flatly. Her exhaustion had burned through her diplomatic filters hours ago.
Archibald's jaw tightened. "I'm being truthful about what I know, which is nothing. But I can tell you what my father told me." He leaned forward, his voice dropping. "When I was sixteen, I attended a state function where she was present. Being young and stupid, I tried to introduce myself. My father physically pulled me away and later told me in explicit terms that I was never, under any circumstances, to engage with that woman."
"Why?" Davidson asked, his tactical instincts clearly triggered.
"Her file is classified above royal access. Above my brother's, above mine, possibly above my father's." Archibald's voice carried genuine unease. "She operates at levels of power we don't understand. My father's exact words were: 'People like that don't make casual contacts. If she speaks to you, it's because you're already part of something beyond your comprehension.'"
The prince stood, signaling the meeting's end. "My advice, Ms. Furrow? Stay away from her. Whatever she wants from you, it's not going to be simple and it's not going to be safe."
They made their farewells with renewed formality, the prince's public persona sliding back into place as smoothly as it had vanished. But as Tanya walked back through the security checkpoints and into the station's main corridors, she felt the grandmother's coordinates burning in her pocket.
As Tanya left the meeting, three threads tangled in her thoughts: the political conflict between princes, hints of deliberately suppressed technology, and a mysterious figure whose very existence was classified by the Emperor himself. And somehow, she'd become caught at the intersection of all three.
//The grandmother's coordinates now carry a different meaning,// Sage observed. //If she operates outside normal Imperial authority and knows how to leave messages for Gardeners, her purposes likely connect to the lost technologies the prince mentioned.//
So we're not just dealing with corporate warfare, Tanya thought grimly. We're stumbling into something much older and more dangerous.
//Correct. The question is whether we investigate further or attempt to extricate ourselves while that remains possible.//
Her body's stubborn energy was finally fading, leaving exhaustion and anxiety in its wake. But underneath both, curiosity pulled at her; it was the same drive that had made her open vortex drives and reprogram them against all conventional wisdom.
The grandmother had pointed her toward something. The prince had warned her away. And somewhere in the gaps between official history and suppressed truth, answers waited.
She wasn't sure whether that made her determined or foolish, but she knew she wouldn't be able to walk away without finding out. First, she just needed to greet her three new employees and convince Davidson to drop by a mysterious coordinates.