Hyperspace broke apart around the Lion's Gaze.
Stars snapped back into existence one by one, stretching across the forward viewport before settling into their familiar points of light.
Leonidas barely noticed them.
He sat in the command chair, one hand resting against the armrest as the ship emerged into the Aurelian Reach.
The region had once been one of the Empire's busiest frontier trade corridors.
Once.
Now, the stars seemed farther apart.
The shipping lanes were still marked on the navigation charts, but there were fewer vessels moving through them than there should have been. A handful of freighters appeared on long-range sensors, scattered across the sector like lonely sparks.
Leonidas studied the tactical display.
"Report."
Ezran's fingers moved across his console.
"Realspace transition stable. Engines are nominal. No damage from the jump."
Titus glanced toward his weapons station.
"Weapons are charged and ready."
Leonidas nodded.
"AUREX?"
The tactical AI responded through the bridge speakers.
"All systems operating within expected parameters. Local traffic is approximately thirty-seven percent below standard projections."
Ezran raised an eyebrow.
"Thirty-seven?"
"Correct."
Titus leaned back.
"That's specific."
"AUREX is fond of being specific."
"I have observed this."
Leonidas allowed himself a faint smile.
Then his attention returned to the stars.
The Aurelian Reach stretched before them.
Somewhere within it were the remnants of the pirate group they had been contracted to eliminate.
The Guild posting had described them as little more than scattered raiders.
A routine cleanup.
Exactly the sort of work Leonidas had wanted.
Something simple.
Something that required his attention.
Something that didn't leave much room for thinking.
He looked at the contract displayed on the side screen.
AURELIAN REACH — MID-TIER SECURITY CONTRACT
Target: Pirate remnants.
Threat: Moderate.
Objective: Locate and neutralize pirate activity affecting commercial traffic.
Payment: Standard Guild rate.
Nothing complicated.
Leonidas reached for the command controls.
"Bring up the traffic reports."
Ezran transferred them to the main display.
Several civilian vessels appeared as blue markers.
Most were moving along established trade routes.
A few had stopped.
Leonidas frowned.
"Those three."
Ezran followed his gaze.
"Ships?"
"Yes."
"All reported as delayed."
"Why?"
"Communication problems, according to the reports."
Leonidas studied the data.
"How long?"
Ezran checked.
"Between six and eleven hours."
Titus glanced over.
"Could be mechanical."
"Could be," Leonidas said.
He leaned back.
"Take us toward the nearest one."
The Lion's Gaze accelerated.
---
They found the freighter forty minutes later.
It drifted silently through space.
Its engines were cold.
No weapons fire.
No distress beacon.
No active communications.
Leonidas narrowed his eyes.
"Ezran."
"I'm on it."
Ezran began scanning the vessel.
"Life signs."
"How many?"
"Twenty-three."
"Alive?"
"All of them."
Leonidas looked at Titus.
"Any weapons?"
"Nothing active."
"Boarding?"
Titus looked toward him.
Leonidas shook his head.
"Not yet."
The Lion's Gaze moved alongside the freighter.
Ezran established a communication channel.
"This is the independent vessel Lion's Gaze. Your ship appears disabled. Respond."
Static answered.
Then a man's voice came through.
"Thank the stars."
Leonidas activated the channel.
"This is Captain Leonidas. What happened?"
The man's breathing was uneven.
"We were attacked."
"Pirates?"
A pause.
"Yes."
Leonidas looked at Ezran.
The systems officer was already pulling up the freighter's sensor logs.
"How long ago?"
"About six hours."
"Why are you still alive?"
The answer came slowly.
"They didn't want to kill us."
Leonidas's expression hardened.
"What did they want?"
Silence.
Then—
"They searched the ship."
"For cargo?"
"No."
The captain's voice became quieter.
"They searched our computers."
Leonidas leaned forward.
"What were they looking for?"
"We don't know."
Ezran suddenly looked up from his console.
"Captain."
Leonidas muted the communication.
"What?"
"I'm seeing something strange in their navigation system."
"Explain."
"Someone accessed their route database during the attack. They didn't just download the current manifest."
Ezran brought the data onto the display.
"They copied the last six months of navigational records."
Titus frowned.
"Why would pirates care about that?"
Leonidas stared at the information.
"That's what we're going to find out."
He reopened the channel.
"Captain, we're going to send a repair drone. After that, I need your ship's navigation logs."
The freighter captain hesitated.
"Are you investigating the pirates?"
"Yes."
"Then take the logs."
The man's voice carried a trace of relief.
"Whatever they're looking for, I don't want them coming back."
Leonidas understood the sentiment.
"Neither do I."
---
Three hours later, the Lion's Gaze was moving through the Reach again.
The freighter had been left behind after its systems were restored enough for it to reach the nearest station.
Ezran sat hunched over his console.
The recovered navigation data filled his display.
Titus watched him from across the bridge.
"You've been staring at that for twenty minutes."
"I'm working."
"You've been working for twenty minutes."
"That's generally how working works."
Titus sighed.
Leonidas almost smiled.
"Anything?"
Ezran shook his head.
"Not yet."
He brought another set of records onto the screen.
"The freighter wasn't the only ship attacked."
Leonidas turned.
"How many?"
"Seven that we know of."
"All in this sector?"
"Yes."
"Same method?"
Ezran nodded.
"Boarded. Crew left alive. Cargo mostly untouched. Navigation systems accessed."
Titus frowned.
"So they're not pirates."
Leonidas looked at him.
"They're pirates."
"Then they're very strange pirates."
"That doesn't make them less dangerous."
Titus accepted that.
Ezran continued.
"There's more."
He highlighted several routes.
"Every ship was traveling through a slightly different route, but they all crossed this region."
A section of the star map illuminated.
Leonidas stepped closer.
The area was almost empty.
No major planets.
No significant stations.
No commercial hubs.
Just a collection of old navigation markers.
"What is that?"
"Old Imperial infrastructure."
Ezran expanded the map.
"Most of it was abandoned decades ago."
Titus leaned forward.
"Anything still active?"
"Not according to Imperial records."
Leonidas stared at the map.
"Then why search these ships?"
Ezran looked at him.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out."
---
The answer came from the next attack.
AUREX detected three unidentified vessels entering the sector.
Leonidas was already standing.
"Distance?"
Ezran checked.
"Thirty thousand kilometers and closing."
"Pirates?"
"Unknown."
Titus brought weapons online.
"I'll assume hostile until proven otherwise."
Leonidas nodded.
"Do it."
The Lion's Gaze turned.
Three contacts appeared on the tactical display.
Small attack craft.
Fast.
Armed.
And moving directly toward them.
Titus smiled.
"Finally."
Leonidas gave him a look.
"Try not to enjoy this."
"No promises."
The first pirate craft opened fire.
Red bolts tore across the void.
Leonidas rolled the Lion's Gaze hard to port.
The shots passed beneath them.
"Titus."
"Already firing."
The ship's forward cannons erupted.
One pirate craft broke away sharply.
The second came in from above.
Leonidas twisted the fighter through a narrow gap between two pieces of drifting debris.
Titus tracked the attacker.
"Got him."
He fired.
The pirate vessel spun away, its engines damaged.
The third ship swept around behind them.
Ezran's hands moved rapidly over his console.
"Leonidas, they're attempting to lock onto our systems."
"Can they?"
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
The cockpit lights flickered.
Ezran grinned.
"Got them."
The pirate vessel suddenly lost targeting lock.
Titus laughed.
"Nice."
"Thank you."
Leonidas pulled into a tight turn.
The Lion's Gaze came around behind the disabled pirate craft.
"Titus."
"I have the shot."
"Disable it."
"Understood."
The cannon fired.
The pirate ship's engines died.
The battle was over.
Less than two minutes after it had begun.
Leonidas exhaled.
"Bring them aboard."
---
The pirate captain was not what Leonidas expected.
He was young.
Younger than Leonidas had anticipated.
His armor was worn and mismatched, assembled from pieces of several different manufacturers.
He sat in the holding area aboard the Lion's Gaze with his hands restrained.
Ezran stood nearby.
Titus leaned against the wall.
Leonidas entered last.
The pirate looked at him.
"You're not Imperial."
"No."
"Guild?"
"Independent."
The pirate laughed.
"That's worse."
Leonidas ignored the comment.
"Who hired you?"
The pirate looked away.
"No one."
Titus pushed away from the wall.
"You attacked us."
"Because you came after us."
Leonidas remained calm.
"Who hired you?"
The pirate said nothing.
Leonidas placed a data pad on the table.
"The freighter."
The pirate's expression changed.
"The other ships."
Another reaction.
Leonidas saw it.
"You're not interested in their cargo."
The pirate remained silent.
"You want their navigation records."
Nothing.
"Why?"
The pirate finally looked up.
"Because that's what we were paid to find."
"By whom?"
"I don't know."
"Someone gave you coordinates."
The pirate's jaw tightened.
"Yes."
"What were you told to find?"
"I don't know."
Leonidas studied him.
The answer sounded genuine.
"What did they tell you?"
The pirate hesitated.
"They said ships were carrying information."
"What information?"
"We weren't told."
Leonidas leaned forward.
"Then what were you supposed to do with it?"
"Send it back."
"To whom?"
"I don't know."
Titus frowned.
"You're remarkably uninformed for someone involved in a conspiracy."
The pirate glared at him.
"I wasn't planning to become involved in anything."
Leonidas looked at him.
"Then why did you?"
The pirate looked down.
"Because people like us don't get to ask many questions."
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Leonidas understood that answer more than he wanted to.
He picked up the data pad.
"Where were you given the coordinates?"
The pirate finally answered.
"An old relay station."
"Which one?"
He gave them the coordinates.
Ezran immediately began entering them.
A location appeared on the tactical display.
Leonidas looked at it.
"Imperial listening station."
Ezran nodded.
"According to the records."
"Is it still active?"
"No."
Titus folded his arms.
"Of course it isn't."
Leonidas glanced at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
---
The abandoned station appeared on their sensors several hours later.
It hung above a barren moon.
Dark.
Silent.
Forgotten.
Leonidas watched it through the forward viewport.
"Ezran."
"No power signatures."
"Life signs?"
"None."
"Titus?"
"No weapons."
Leonidas studied the station.
"Scan it."
Ezran did.
AUREX processed the results.
Then—
"Captain."
Leonidas looked toward him.
"What?"
"There's a transmission."
The bridge became silent.
"From the station?"
"No."
Ezran enlarged the sensor display.
"Through it."
Leonidas stepped forward.
"What does that mean?"
"The station is acting as a relay."
"For what?"
"I'm still tracing it."
Titus leaned over his weapons console.
"Can we intercept?"
"Already doing it."
Lines of encrypted data began appearing across the display.
Leonidas watched.
AUREX joined the analysis.
"Encryption architecture is nonstandard."
"Can you break it?"
"Given sufficient processing time."
Leonidas looked at Ezran.
"How long?"
"Maybe five minutes."
"Do it."
The Lion's Gaze remained motionless before the abandoned station.
Five minutes passed.
Then Ezran suddenly stopped.
"Got it."
Leonidas looked toward the display.
A string of coordinates appeared.
Titus frowned.
"Where's that?"
Ezran pulled up the navigational charts.
The coordinates moved onto the main display.
Nothing appeared.
No station.
No colony.
No registered outpost.
No Imperial installation.
Nothing.
Ezran stared at the chart.
"There's nothing there."
Leonidas studied the coordinates.
"Officially."
Ezran nodded slowly.
"Officially."
Leonidas looked toward the dark station outside.
Whoever had built the network had gone to considerable effort to hide where the signal was going.
And someone had been paying pirates to search passing ships for information connected to it.
This was no longer a simple cleanup contract.
Leonidas returned to his chair.
"Plot the course."
Ezran looked at him.
"You're going?"
Leonidas fastened his harness.
"We came here looking for pirates."
Titus smiled.
"Instead we found a mystery."
Leonidas glanced at him.
"Don't call it that."
"What should I call it?"
"A job."
Ezran shook his head.
"You really do have an answer for everything."
"No."
Leonidas looked at the coordinates once more.
"Just the things I can shoot."
Titus laughed.
Ezran sighed.
The Lion's Gaze turned away from the abandoned station.
Stars shifted across the viewport.
AUREX calculated the jump.
The hyperspace drive began to charge.
Leonidas stared ahead.
Behind them was the Aurelian Reach.
Ahead was a region of space absent from every current Imperial navigation chart.
Someone was transmitting from there.
Someone had gone to great lengths to remain hidden.
And now, whether they knew it or not—
they had been noticed.
The Lion's Gaze leapt into hyperspace.
And disappeared between the stars.