“Technomancer. He’s quite proficient with tech and engines. He apparently makes syndroids. Not like these.” Justyn gestured to the bar. “I’m talking big, old-fashioned robots. Rough and raw. He enjoys having them fight each other…and sometimes his guests.”
“Nice.” Dathan took a big swig of his drink.
“Do you know where Technis is?” Xander asked.
“It passed by here four months ago,” Dare said. “On our last convoy run, we spotted it by Rabati Han.”
“Rabati Han?”
“A cavanserai. A small moon that offers respite to convoys. It’s a few hundred million kilometers out of Galaxy’s Edge.”
“Any idea where Technis is now?” Mal asked.Please have an answer.
“I can make a few educated guesses.” Rynan pulled out his palm-sized Sync. Seconds later he expanded it so it covered most of the table. Everyone moved their drinks out of the way.
The screen lit up with a starmap.
“Here’s Galaxy’s Edge.” The space station was clearly visible. “Here’s the edge of charted space.” Rynan traced one long finger across a curved blue line. “And here’s our main convoy route.” Another line, this one bright yellow and not straight at all. “This is Rabati Han and where we last saw Technis.”
Xander leaned forward, brow creased. “Based on its trajectory from Galaxy’s Edge, it’s likely headed in this direction.” He added a new line linking the known locations of Technis.
Dare shrugged. “Maybe. But rogue planets are notoriously difficult to track. They wander, get affected by other space objects, change direction, and can end up anywhere.”
“It gives us an area to search at least.” Xander circled what he’d obviously calculated to be the likely area Technis was located.
Dare studied the area. “That’s a two month trip at interstellar speed.”
Mal’s chest hitched. So long?
Xander slammed a fist onto the table. “My planet doesn’t have that much time.”
“There’s a way to cut the trip down to four days,” Justyn said.
“How?” Xander demanded.
“You can take the Via Maris Bridge.”
“No way,” Nik said. “That bridge is out of charted space. The bridge portals aren’t maintained by the GED like the ones in the central systems.”
Mal had never travelled on a bridge. There weren’t too many stable versions of the distortions of space-time that could be used to take shortcuts between two known points. They required correctly calibrated bridge portals that oriented a ship entering the bridge.
Rynan crossed his arms over his chest. “The portalsaremaintained, by deep space convoy members.”
Dathan snorted. “Right, by hacks who fancy themselves bridge engineers like the Galactic Engineering Division. Who knows where you’d end up taking that bridge!”
Rynan’s eyes narrowed. “There are plenty of qualified people out here. We don’t need the GED or any other central government pushers poking their interfering noses into our business.” He shot the off-duty Patrol officers at the bar a significant look.
Justyn grinned. “Oh, I don’t know. A few of them have quite nice noses. I don’t mind them attempting to keep the law and order out here on the Edge, as long as I can outrun them.”
Rynan shook his head. “Just because you have a certain female Patrol captain gunning for you doesn’t mean the rest of us enjoy their unwanted presence.”
Justyn gave a mock shiver. “The delicious Captain Sander is welcome to chase me anytime.”
Dare raised a brow. “You’ve been taking her on a merry chase for three years. The last time she caught you, she almost found your illegal shipment of Gluk’sol wine. She would have happily thrown you in the brig.”
Justyn grinned and let out a gusty sigh. “Yep.”
“Uh, that was a lovely story, but can we get back on track?” Malin asked.
