The roar of the atmosphere faded as the Valkyries passed through the upper mesosphere of the planet and crossed the unmarked boundary into the silence of space.

Tila and Malachi had already set their autopilots to lock onto the Celato beacon. Ellie preferred to fly under manual control for as long as possible, but once they were on the right heading, she too switched on the autopilot, and relaxed into the seat.

She wriggled, trying to get comfortable and trying also to shake off the feeling the seat was somehow holding on to her. Jayce and Malachi had both explained why things felt so tight, and assured her she would get used to it, but it was so different from the racer she knew so well, Ellie wasn't sure she could.

On the other hand, the Valkyrie certainly felt faster and nimbler than anything she had flown before, so it wasn't all bad.

She remembered she was not the only one who needed comforting and opened a channel to Tila's ship. Ellie watched the light blink red on her console. She looked right to try and catch Tila's eye through the canopy. Tila was staring at her own console but not answering.

Ellie watched Tila through the glass and vacuum, willing her friend to respond. Finally, she saw Tila sigh and reach forward. Ellie's comms indicator turned green.

'What?' Tila asked. She didn't turn to look at Ellie.

'Are you okay?' Ellie asked gently. She could see Tila nodding, but Ellie wondered if that was to convince herself as much as anyone else.

'No,' said Tila, after some thought.

'I'm sorry it didn't work.'

'I wish I knew why,' Tila said. 'What did we do wrong? We had the proof, but Conway stole it. They didn't even look at it.'

'But we got it back.'

'To do what with it? We told people what we found, people I thought would care, but they don't. They don't care, Ellie. They took it from us, and then they tried to kill us.'

'We don't know they were trying to kill us,' Ellie said hopefully.

'They were shooting at us, Ellie. That's not how you make friends.'

'But we're okay now. We can try again, can't we? There must be other investors.'

'All the major investors were on Parador. If they don't want to know then how can we convince anyone else?' Tila fell silent for a moment, then added, 'This was a bad idea. We shouldn't have come.'

Ellie nodded sadly. Maybe going home was the right decision. It seemed no one wanted to answer their questions.

A blinking light caught her attention. Malachi was trying to join the conversation. Ellie opened the channel, and could see Tila reaching for her own controls to do likewise.

'I know where the Far Horizon went,' Malachi said excitedly.

'You do?' said Ellie.

'What? How?' said Tila.

'I've been looking at Conway's data. He added more information. He has the cypher. I can decrypt the jump destination. And there's something else, I found a ship IFF code.'

'Tell me,' said Tila.

'But we shouldn't go there. It's too dangerous.'

'Go where?' asked Ellie

'Tell me!' Tila demanded again.

'Praxis.'

'The Dead Fleet? Who goes there? What's even out there?' said Ellie.

'The Dead Fleet's just a graveyard,' said Tila.

'It's haunted?' gasped Ellie.

Malachi felt a chill run up his spine at Ellie's breathless fear. He had heard more than enough stories of the Dead Fleet to convince him it was a place he never wanted to see, but even so Ellie's childish reaction still made him smile.

'No, Ellie, it's not haunted. Just dangerous. Back during the war, before the Commonwealth was formed, there was a battle there. The last big battle of the war. Ships from three different systems took part. It was so big and costly it almost bankrupted the planets involved. They had to work together to survive, and that was the start of the Commonwealth. Since then it's become a home for pirates, smugglers and criminal gangs. Pretty much everyone you never want to meet.'

'Sounds like a home away from home,' muttered Tila.

'It's a good thing we have new, fast ships,' Ellie said.

'Just the opposite. These ships will be like prizes to them. If we go in there and they see us...,' he left the rest of the sentence unspoken.

'We'll be quick,' said Tila.

'Quick? You want to go there?'

'You said you have a ship name.'

'I only have the IFF code. Unless it's transmitting in the clear we're going to have to scan the wrecks to find the right one.'

'That doesn't sound hard.'

'Tila, that battle involved thousands of ships. That alone should tell you this is a big job, and that's if no pirates see us. They're not going to appreciate us dropping through their front door scanning everything in sight.'

But Tila wasn't listening. 'Mal, now that we know Praxis is the destination, we know where to look. We're not flying blind any more. We need to jump in, look around and get out. These ships are scouts, right? They can record anything we see, and then we can go back to Parador and—'

'Go back?' interrupted Malachi.

'Why not? We'll have proof this time. Real proof.'

'Tila, you don't get it. We got this information from Conway. He already knows about Praxis because he is the one behind it. Those rumours Jayce told us are true. The others are probably in on it too. Harrington, Suleman, and the rest. No one on Parador cares because they already know. They just don't want anyone else to find out. The best thing we can do now is keep quiet and go home.'

'We'll be in and out. I just need to take a quick look,' insisted Tila.

'Tila, no! I don't know how to deal with the problems we have already and now you want to go to Praxis?'

'No one will be looking for us there.'

'You mean no one will come looking for us there. If something happens, we're on our own.'

'Like I said, we'll just be in and out. These ships are supposed to be fast. We'll be okay.'

'That's what you said when we left the Juggernaut,' said Malachi, 'And now look at us.'

'Exactly! Look how far we have come. We have more information now. Something solid. And we know for a fact that people are hiding information about the mission.'

'And we have new ships,' said Ellie.

'Ships that will make us a target if we go in there. Ships we have to give back!'

'Eventually,' said Tila.

'Tila, we can't keep Jayce's ships,' said Ellie.

'Jayce said we could borrow them.'

'He didn't say for how long.'

'Exactly,' she repeated.

Malachi continued his protests. 'Tila. You just said that no one wants the information we have, anyway.'

'But I still want the answers. If Conway and the others don't want me to find out what's hiding there then it just means I have another reason to keep looking. Before we went to Parador this was just a mystery. Now we know it's a conspiracy. I still need to know what happened, even if they don't care, or if they are trying to stop me. Especially if they are trying to stop me.'

Exasperated, Malachi switched to a private channel with Ellie.

'Are you okay with this?'

'No, but what are we going to do? Leave her to go alone? She needs looking after.'

'She said the same thing about you.'

'She's over-protective. I can look after myself, but we both need to look after her.'

'We? Is this my responsibility now?'

'Isn't it always? Besides, how are you going to stop her?' said Ellie.

'How is anyone?' he grumbled.

A light on Malachi's console told him he had a message waiting from Tila. He switched from the private channel and brought Tila back into the conversation.

'What have you been doing?' she asked.

Malachi sighed inwardly and looked over to Ellie's ship. She gave him an encouraging nod.

'Plotting the jump data for Praxis,' he said.

'So you're with me? Thank you!'

'But we are in and out, okay?' pressed Malachi.

'Don't worry. No one knows we're coming. Everything will be fine.'

Malachi finished the jump navigation and transmitted the data to the other ships.

'Okay, we're all set. We just need to come about on the heading I gave you for the Praxis beacon. It's about four hours away, so unless you need me I'm turning on the auto-cruise and taking a nap.'

It was only later, as they flashed through thered-white event horizon of the jump portal, that Malachi realised Tila neveranswered his final question.