They sat out the rest of the transit in silence, the pod speeding silently along the vacuum tube. Naomi shied away from the lost look in Sasha's eyes. She recognised that wide-eyed stare, the quiet gasps as her breath caught in her throat. Naomi knew how Sasha felt, because she had been looking at it in the mirror since the day her father died. She remembered her father looking that way when her mother had died.

Artan was facing an extremely long stay in the lock-up. Security breaches were viewed as one of the worse crimes on board the fleet ships. When you lived in an enclosed environment, dependant on life support and a myriad of other critical systems, no matter how many redundancies were in place, any breach of security, even Artan's unauthorised access of the security feeds was viewed as a serious threat.

They might be granted a meeting with him before his incarceration if they got lucky, but once he was charged and convicted (usually just a formality), they would not be allowed to see or talk to him again until his release. And that could be decades, if at all. The prospect of herself and Sasha being quietly reassigned to another ship, on the basis of their close association with him, was still a distinct possibility. Especially if the Burner's gained influence with the new captaincy.

The lift stopped on Deck Two and they disembarked in silence, wordlessly turning the same direction and starting towards their regular coffee spot. The lunch crowd was just letting out, a slow stream of civilians, overalls, suits and casuals all mingled together and filling the streets with a muted buzz.

They turned off the main thoroughfare, leaving the crowd behind and entered a small café halfway down the side street. The two trestle tables that sat outside the front window were occupied and took up half of the street despite their small size, and the occupants moved their chairs out of the way with watery smiles as they passed. Naomi frowned as they entered the cafe, although she was quick to wipe it from her face.

The men sitting outside had looked vaguely familiar, although she was struggling to place where from.

Probably nothing

She shrugged the thought away even as a tiny shiver ran up her spine. The interior was empty, which was normal for that time of day, and they signalled to the bartender for their usual as he acknowledged their entry. He returned their smiles warmly and turned to the hatch leading into the kitchen to call out the order.

Naomi and Sasha continued on into the corner of the cafe and settled in a small booth with a view of the door. Sasha pulled out her mDeck as she say, and frowned at the stream of data crossing the screen.

'What's wrong?' Naomi asked, not liking the appearance of another setback in their investigation.

'It's taking longer to process the data than I expected. I'm not sure why. That was one hell of a device they used to scramble the security system.'

'Are you able to do anything about it?'

Sasha stuck her tongue out between her teeth and her fingers danced back and forth across the keyboard projected on the table in front of her. Her brow furrowed in concentration and she leaned forward intently, almost falling into the screen in front her. She nodded briefly to Isaac, the bartender, as he brought down their late breakfast and coffee but was otherwise entirely engrossed in her work.

Forty-five minutes later, her meal now lying cold on its plate, and four empty coffee cups discarded next to it, she finally emerged from her screen.

'There we go. It will still take a while, but I was able to recalibrate my own algorithms to speed things up...a bit anyway.'

'How long?' Naomi was starting to feel weary of the whole matter. There seemed to be obstacles thrown up everywhere she looked. Whoever they were chasing was miles ahead of them at this stage. Their chances of getting anywhere were diminishing rapidly. Everything they were doing seemed to be just damage control and catch up.

'Seventy-two hours at least. I'll have to get back to you. The algorithm I am using is checking multiple paths for everything. The estimates are fluctuating wildly as it iterates over the data.' She seemed quite content with herself, satisfied at beating, or at least finding a way about the challenge she had been presented. Naomi hoped that feeling would last for her.

Sasha snapped her mDECK closed on the table and grimaced distastefully at the plate of cold food, her lentil and bean stew now soggy and congealed. Naomi smiled apologetically across the table, her own bowl of food long gone. She glanced at Isaac and he moved across to their table, a smile on his face, a glass and a polishing cloth in his hands.

'I seem to have...forgotten my lunch,' Sasha nodded awkwardly in the direction of the bowl. 'Any chance you can help me out Isaac?'

His smile grew again, as he reached down to pick up the bowl. 'Always for you Sasha. Don't tell the boss alright,' he winked at her conspiratorially. Isaac was the owner of the small business. 'And you didn't hear it from me, but those guys sitting outside have been waiting here all day, and have been showing a bit too much interest in you since you arrived.'

The last part an almost inaudible whisper as he bent over to take Sasha's plate.

Sasha frowned briefly as he spoke, and Naomi flashed her a questioning look across the table.

'I've got something that'll cheer you two right up. Rough week or no.' Isaac's tone was cheerful and lilting again as he spun on his heels and walked back towards the bar.

Naomi's heart raced as Sasha mouthed Isaac's words across the table to her.

She glanced towards the window from the corner of her eye and she could have sworn that one of the men had looked away from her quickly, burying his head in a mDeck and a mug of coffee.

Naomi stifled a frown and looked back at Sasha, letting her concern show in her eyes. Together they eyed the rear exit of the small cafe, then shook their heads simultaneously. Too obvious.

'Here you go ladies, two uh...house specials!' They both laughed as he set two plates piled high with pastries in front of them.

'You expect us to eat all of this Isaac?' Sasha laughed as she picked up one of the delicate pastries and savoured its buttery warmth before taking a bite.

'Not at all, feel free to take them away. In fact, I insist. Just let me know and I'll wrap them up nice and neat.' He winked at them again and returned to his polishing behind the bar. They looked at each other again, to confirm that they had both understood his message. Losing them wouldn't do much good, there were probably agents posted at every place that the three friends frequented, not to mention their homes and places of work. Their smiles broke at the same time, causing a bit of frustration wouldn't go amiss though.

Naomi picked up one of the pastries and took a bite, the flaky, sweet bread melting on her tongue as she chewed. 'These are delicious', she called towards Isaac, some of the laughter restored to her voice. He smiled back across the cafe at the two of them, but his eyes remained fixed on the men sitting outside.

'Something new that we have been trying out with the regulars. I think we'll end up adding them to the menu.' He bent down under the counter and picked out another glass to polish. 'Trying to keep things fresh around here. Another coffee?' They both nodded in response and he turned around to make the drinks.

'Sasha, there's one more thing we need to talk about.' Naomi felt like hiding under the table as she spoke.

Sasha blushed, and busied herself selecting another pastry from her plate.

'Do you have the key to Artan's place?

Sasha seemed surprised at the question, but didn't hesitate in answering it either.

'Yes,' she said nodding, 'For a few months now. We were planning on moving in together soon. We were just waiting on the hab request to be processed so we could get the new place.'

'I didn't realise that you two had been so serious...' Naomi's voice was low, and she could feel the blush forming on her own cheeks now. 'I hope that it wasn't because of...'

'It wasn't you at all Naomi. Security officers are required to have their partners security checked by headquarters before they can pursue a relationship. We, ah, we kept it quiet for a while. Security and Deep Systems don't have much of a congenial relationship.' Her head was down as she spoke. We would have told you but...'

'Being a member of the bridge crew, I would have been obliged to report the matter to his CO.'

Sasha nodded in response. The silence hanging between them.

'You know I would never...' she started.

'I know, but if it came to light, you were liable for sanctions as much as us. It would have been an end to your bridge crew position as well.'

Naomi was aware of that. Positions in the four sensitive areas of the crew — bridge, security, deep systems and life support — were contingent on a spotless record. One sanction, even the smallest one-day suspension and her career would have been over. That made her smile. She was looking at a lot more than a minimum sanction if things went wrong for them now.

Sasha returned her smile. 'Why did you want to know about the key anyway?'

Naomi's smile faded as she recalled the message Artan had given her in his last transmission.

'He said something during his call to me. He mentioned his sister, he never talks about her. Her or his family. I think it was a message to us.' Sasha was silent for a moment as she took in the information, and Naomi could see her mentally replaying that last conversation. Naomi felt a flare of satisfaction as Sasha's eyes widened as she came to the same conclusion.

'You think he hid something in his sister's picture?'

Naomi nodded in response.

'Nothing to do with my father's death I'm sure. But he must have been worried enough to leave a message behind in case he was caught.'

'You think he knew they were coming for him?'

Naomi thought it over for a minute before responding. Artan's detainment had been very convenient for security. He hadn't hacked in, that wasn't a skill in his toolset, so he must have pilfered the access codes from somewhere.

From someone.

The response had been almost immediate.

'I think he knew that it was a trap.'

She let the words hang in the air between them. It was difficult to say something like that. Imagining that there was corruption within the security force was laughable. The inscrutable facade of the security forces was ingrained in all members of the fleet from the moment they stepped into BASIC. They were held in awe by young cadets for their devotion to the fleet. To think that someone, never mind a group, within the force was corrupt was unthinkable. Naomi had been unable to contain her shudder as she said the words out loud.

Across the table, Sasha looked visibly uncomfortable.

'The way those sensors were scrambled,' Sasha continued, 'made it virtually impossible to recover for anyone without a very specific skillset, even then, it's not an easy ask. Truth is I got lucky. I did some work on similar cases a few years back, working on ways to recover data scrambled by interference from solar flares and cosmic rays. Otherwise, I'm not sure I would have been able to crack it. And now, I bet if got access to the system again, we would find the data stream for the lift completely erased. Artan was being set up.'

Sasha sat in silence for several minutes, absentmindedly chewing on one of the pastries, using it to mask her quivering lip, an outward expression of the sickness growing deep in the pit of her stomach. Her mind was racing, the word "setup" cluttering her thoughts as she tried to piece together everything that was happening. It was all moving too fast. The previous evening, they had sat down to mourn their friend's father, and now they were caught up in some burgeoning conspiracy that seemed intent on pulling them under.

'Fuck,' was all she said when she finally spoke, mumbling it through the crumbling pastry. Naomi shook her head in agreement from the other side of the table.

Naomi signalled to Isaac that they were ready to go. There was very little that they could talk about in public and she was worried that too much might have been said already. Remote microphones were illegal for all departments, across all ships in the fleet. Privacy was supposed to be closely guarded. The population of the caravan put up with the video feeds and the data gathering apparatus because they were an essential part of the maintenance systems, and they were restricted solely to the public and high-security areas. Living in such a delicate eco-system, certain trade-offs had to be made. Remote recording devices had never even made it onto the table. That still didn't mean one could talk loosely in public, especially if you knew that you were being watched.

He came over with a small box and deftly packed up their leftover pastries.

'Is the same box alright, or will I split them up?' He asked as he finished packing up Sasha's plate, continuing to engage them in conversation as they prepared to leave.

'One box is fine,' Naomi smiled back at him as she shrugged her jacket back on, 'Can you stick that on my account Isaac?'

'No need for that Naomi, we look after our own here. My condolences on the loss of your father. He was a good man. The ship won't be the same without him I'm afraid.' He smiled sadly at them as he spoke. Her father had been a regular here when he was in training and Isaac had been one of his childhood friends, 'I hope that you are holding up alright Naomi. If you need anything, just give me a call okay.'

She gave his arm a quick squeeze in response, 'I'm doing alright. I have to clean out his quarters later today at some stage. I could probably use a hand though.' He smiled back at her.

'I close up here at five. Meet you on Deck Two at seven?'

She nodded back to him and they picked up the box of pastries and moved to leave. Isaac walked them to the door of the cafe and waved them off as they walked back down the street towards the nearest lift. As they turned the corner, the two men at the table outside got up to move as well. Isaac called out to them before they had a chance to move.

'I hope you weren't going to walk away without paying?'

He was probably a bit too loud, but he did want to attract a little bit of attention. Annoyance flashed across their faces. The taller of the two fumbled in his jacket and came up with a cred stick, holding it out to Isaac, trying very hard to appear apologetic. But they had already drawn too much attention to themselves. The little side street was packed with small cafes and at least fifteen patrons were sitting in earshot, all now looking up at the little commotion.

Isaac smiled warmly at the man as he pulled the chip reader from his apron pocket and slowly swiped the stick across it. The transaction report flashed on the small holo-screen and the reader beeped in assent. He handed the stick back to the man, still smiling.

'Thank you for your custom, sirs. I hope you have a good day.'

'Apologies for any trouble, sir. It's been a long few days for us.'

'I can imagine. The death of the captain isn't sitting lightly on anyone. Especially security.' He let that hang in the air as he turned and went back inside the cafe.

The two men glanced at each other as he left, annoyance flashing once more between them as they moved towards the main street.

The two women were already gone.