“More than that,” I say. “Structural triggers.”
The officer nods. “We can’t access the payload from here.”
“Mirror it,” I say. “Isolate copy within this outpost.”
The data stream begins transferring, slow and heavy, as if it resists extraction.
“And route a duplicate to Elara,” I add.
Rethan glances at me.
“You trust her with Alliance internal encryption?”
“She has already dismantled it once,” I reply.
Moments later, she steps into the docking ring, eyes sharp, having received the notification.
“You found something,” she says.
I project the encrypted lattice between us.
She steps closer, scanning it without touching the interface yet.
“Layered fallback architecture,” she murmurs. “This isn’t reactive.”
“No,” I agree.
“It’s patient,” she says.
Her fingers finally move across the projection, isolating sub-nodes.
“He embedded command triggers inside maintenance trees,” she says quietly. “If certain instability metrics spike, it activates automated disruption cycles.”
“Across corridors?” Rethan asks.
“Across whatever routes remain economically critical,” she replies.
She looks at me then, expression steady.
“He planned for exposure,” she says. “He just assumed we’d stop at public accountability.”
“We did not,” I say.
“No,” she agrees softly.
Outside the outpost, corridor vessels remain halted in defensive formation. Civilian feeds are already fracturing with rumor and speculation.
The anomaly signal at the edge of mapped space flickers faintly on the corner monitor.
Watching.
Waiting.
Rethan folds his arms.
“So we sign treaties,” he says quietly, “and ghosts attack trade.”
“We eliminate ghosts,” I reply.
