When Jayce saw Tila and Malachi come closer he waved them over to two empty seats nearby. Ellie sat on Jayce's right and patted the chair next to her. Jayce, trying and failing to project an air of effortless cool, rested his feet on the table when Tila had sat down, and leaned his chair back on two legs.

'Ellie's been telling us all about the Juggernaut. Everyone wants to meet you,' said Jayce.

'They do?' said Malachi.

'They just want the novelty of talking to someone like us, Mal,' Tila said.

'What do you mean, 'like us'?' said Ellie.

'Poor outsiders.'

'Be nice,' murmured Malachi as he drew up his own chair.

'Where have you been?' said Jayce.

'Enjoying the feel of a real shower. I forgot how good they were,' said Malachi, sighing.

'We have showers,' said Ellie.

'You do?' asked one of Jayce's friends, mouth agape. She radiated excitement.

'Yes,' said Tila. 'We don't have the water to waste like you do though.'

'It's not as clean as yours,' said Malachi.

'Or as hot,' added Ellie.

'We have to be careful with how much we use because of the farms,' Malachi explained. He took a cautious sip from the small glass in front of him. 'Hey, this is good!'

'Your showers are better though,' Tila finally admitted, then asked 'Who are you?'

'Hi! I'm Christine. It is SO exciting to meet you!'

'Is it?' said Tila flatly. Malachi hid his grin behind his glass. Sometimes Tila was simply impossible to impress.

'Absolutely! We've never met anyone from the Juggernaut before. Mehmet said you weren't allowed to leave but I said it's because you weren't allowed to apply for a planetary landing permits.'

'Same difference!' shrugged the man Tila assumed must be Mehmet. She couldn't help but notice that his arms seemed to fill half the table. Even Malachi looked small next to him. If he stood up he would be about half a head taller than any of them. It was a wonder he fit in his chair.

'That's Mehmet,' said Ellie, 'and this is Coral.'

Coral said nothing but waved shyly at them. At least Tila assumed she was waving. The girl's fingertips trembled briefly above the table edge then vanished into her lap. When Tila made eye contact Corral looked away at once, and long black hair, perfectly straight, fell over one shoulder.

'And I'm Jayce,' said Jayce with his trademark grin. 'Pleased to meet you all again.'

'Yes, we know Jayce,' said Tila evenly.

Ellie grinned happily at the friendly banter. 'Isn't this place amazing?' she said to Malachi.

Malachi nodded his approval as he looked around at the gardens stretching away from their little shaded area beside the impressive brick building. He took another sip. 'It's nice!' he said.

'Tila, do you like it?' said Jayce.

'You said your father's company owns it?' said Tila, ignoring the question.

'Yeah.'

'Do the corporations own everything on Parador?'

'Almost everything,' said Christine. 'Why?'

'It's not right, is it?' said Tila.

Jayce and his friends exchanged puzzled looks. 'Why not?' he said.

'Why should a corporation own all of this? A whole planet? What are the people supposed to do?'

'We live and work here. What's wrong with that? They supply the houses and the transport and - I don't know, all the other stuff we need. So what if they own everything?' said Jayce.

'It means you don't own anything. Not really.'

'I suppose not, but neither do you,' said Jayce. 'Who owns the Juggernaut?'

'Well, no one,' Tila admitted.

'What's the difference?'

Coral raised a fingertip.

'I had a class last month about property rights being the fundamental law of a civilised society,' she said quietly.

'She likes history,' Jayce explained. 'She knows this stuff.'

'Are you saying we are uncivilised because we don't own anything?' Tila snapped.

'Oh no! I didn't mean that at all!' said Coral.

'Tila, be nice!' said Ellie. 'They're just trying to make friends.'

'Why?'

'What do you mean?' said Ellie.

'Why do they want to make friends with us? We don't have anything. We're not staying on Parador. We can't help them.'

'Maybe we can help you,' said Christine.

'Sometimes people are just nice, Tila,' said Ellie reproachfully.

'Yeah, we're nice!' said Jayce.

Tila glanced at Jayce before answering.

'Everyone wants something, Ellie.'

Malachi put down another glass and smiled at it. 'I think what Ellie is saying is that if everyone here already knows we're from the Juggernaut, they know we don't have anything.' He pointed at Jayce. 'And we're eating his food, in his house, with his friends. Maybe you should give him a chance and stop being be so hostile all the time.'

'I'm not being hostile.'

'Yes, you are,' said Ellie.

'I'm just being careful.'

'Hey, it's not like we're going to beat the answers out of you, Tila,' said Jayce. He raised his hands in a mock appeal for mercy.

'He's not wrong,' said Christine. 'We saw how you stood up to Blake today. You saved Malachi.'

'Well...,' said Malachi.

'Okay, fine. Ask your questions,' said Tila. 'But first, I'm getting some food.'

'I told you she wouldn't mind,' said Ellie.

'I think she minds a little bit,' Coral whispered to Mehmet.

Tila returned to the table a minute later with a plate filled with red and yellow vegetables cut into quarters, a small pile of chicken legs, and a sauce she didn't recognise. She dipped one finger in the bowl to taste it. It was rich, dark and sweet. She found it delicious, but had no intention of letting Jayce know that there was something here she approved of.

Ellie and Coral were whispering together when she sat down. When Coral saw Tila return she stopped and shrank back into her chair.

'Just ask her,' said Ellie. 'She won't bite.'

Tila sat in her chair and dropped the plate in front of her She picked up a chicken leg. 'Ask me what?' she said to Coral, and sank her teeth into the chicken.

Coral's eyes widened until Ellie nudged her.

'Why are you here?' she asked.

'I thought Ellie already told you.'

'Only a bit,' said Ellie. 'I didn't know if I should tell them everything.'

Tila studied the faces around the table as they looked back at her with interest. A genuine interest, she realised with surprise. She had expected to be paraded in front of Jayce's friends like a novelty: simply there to entertain them with stories of their simple lives and then later to become objects of mockery when the tales had been told. But the faces she saw and the questions they asked her were earnest and real.

Tila had been fighting to be heard all day, but now that she had an audience willing to listen it was as unsettling as it was welcome.

'What did you tell them?' she asked Ellie.

'Not much. I told them about New Haven and the races.'

'Mostly the races,' said Jayce, 'which explains how she did so well against Blake.'

'But she didn't tell us much about life on the Juggernaut,' said Christine.

'Yeah, like, how do you even survive?' said Mehmet.

'How did you get here?'

'And why?'

It was a sudden barrage of attention. Questions and introductions came at Tila from all directions. She felt less like a celebrity and more like a specimen being poked and prodded and pulled in all directions. It was intense but without being hostile, she realised. Tila wondered later if she would have felt more comfortable if it was hostile. She was used to fighting. She knew how to react to that. A fight needed a simple response, but this was different. Jayce's friends were loud and demanding, for the most part, but they were not aggressive. They probed without attacking and were verbose without taunting. There was no anger here. It was a new challenge for Tila. She would have to engage them, not confront them, but she would still engage on her terms. After all, some habits were hard to break.

'Okay, slow down, everyone.' Jayce's friends quieted, waiting to hear what she had to say. If only she could think of something. 'Who's first?'

Coral raised her fingertips once more above the parapet of the tablecloth. 'How did you get here?' she asked.

'We have a ship,' said Malachi. 'It's my father's, but we, um, borrowed it.'

'You are allowed to leave the Juggernaut then,' said Christine. 'You're not prisoners?'

Malachi looked at his empty glass. 'Prisoners of circumstance, maybe. Yeah, we can leave if we want to and if we have the means, but people don't because they have nowhere else to go.'

'But it's home as well,' said Ellie simply. 'Why would we leave?'

'But you three made it here somehow,' Christine pressed.

Tila and Malachi exchanged a glance. Tila shrugged.

'Not officially,' said Malachi.

Christine gasped. 'You're fugitives?'

Ellie grabbed Tila's arm. 'We're not, are we?'

'No, of course we're not,' Tila replied. She plucked Ellie's fingers from her arm one by one.

'We just maybe, sorta didn't pay the customs fees,' Malachi explained. 'We didn't have enough money after paying for the jump.'

'So where did you land if you didn't pay the port fee?' said Jayce, leaning forward.

'Somewhere north of the city. It's not important,' said Tila.

Christine wrinkled her brow. 'You have to pay to jump?'

'Not everyone has corporate credit accounts, Chrissy,' said Mehmet,

'For what?'

'For the surrogate.'

'What are you talking about?' said Christine.

'Ships without jump drives have to pay another ship to travel with them,' Malachi explained.

'I didn't know that,' said Christine.

'That's because you've never had to arrange your own transport,' said Jayce.

'And a jump takes fourteen minutes and three seconds,' said Ellie proudly. Out of view, Tila rolled her eyes.

'But how do you survive there?' said Coral. 'What about food and air?'

'And water?' said Mehmet.

'We recycle and filter what we use, and condensers sort of suck it out the air. The water works much better now, thanks to Theo,' said Ellie. 'He's Malachi's father.'

'But sometimes the filters break and we have to trade for fresh water instead,' explained Malachi.

'You have to trade for water?' said Christine.

'Doesn't everyone?' said Tila. 'Where do you think it comes from?'

'Out of the ground?'

'We don't have any ground. We recycle or salvage or trade for everything. And sometimes we have to fight to keep what we have,' Tila said.

'Is that your favourite part?' said Jayce. Ellie slapped the back of his hand.

'What about power?' said Mehmet.

'We recondition ship generators. Or we use solar when we can get parts. Power's about the only reliable thing we have,' said Malachi.

'It is when raiders aren't trying to steal the solar panels,' said Tila.

'Or when rats don't eat through the power lines,' said Ellie.

'It cooks them faster,' said Malachi.

Ellie nodded and made a face. 'That's true, but they don't taste as good.'

The conversation paused.

'You actually eat rats?' said Coral with a horrified look on her face.

'Ellie likes them,' said Tila.

'It's the tiny bones I don't like. They get caught in my teeth,' said Ellie.

Suddenly, everyone around the table stopped talking and eating as they processed this image. One by one cups were lowered and food dropped onto plates which was pushed away.

'I think I'm gonna throw up,' said the boy with the shaved head, and quickly left the table and headed for the house.

Ellie reached for some of Tila's chicken and took a bite. 'Is he ill?' she said. 'Why did he leave?'

'I guess not everyone has your refined taste, Ellie,' said Malachi. Ellie shrugged and took another bite.

'You still haven't told them why you're here,' said Jayce. 'Not that I'm complaining,' he added with a glance at the girl to his right.

Ellie carefully wiped her fingers on a napkin and looked at Tila.

'The worst they can do is help, you know.'

Tila sighed inwardly. Maybe Ellie was right. Maybe this wasn't the time to keep fighting. She reached for a glass and slid it from one hand to another as she spoke.

'Do you remember the mission to colonise Baru? It was about ten years ago.'

'Oh! I know about it!' said Christine. 'One of my uncles invested in the project. I remember him telling us once that it cost him billions.'

'It cost me more,' said Tila.

'Your family invested too? I'm sorry,' said Christine. 'What a waste.'

Tila shook her head. 'Not like that,' she said, and told them the same story Jayce had heard earlier that day. The same unbelievable story she was certain was true. They listened in silence, even Jayce stopped rocking on his chair and cracking jokes as they heard Tila's first-hand account of the terrible events of that day.

'Her parents were the project leaders,' Malachi explained into the silence when Tila had finished. 'Her mother commanded the mission. Her father designed the new beacon.'

'How many survived? What happened to them.' Christine said quietly.

'Not many.'

'I'm sorry,' whispered Coral. 'It must be hard to lose both of your parents like that.'

Tila just stared at the glass between her hands.

'Why did we even need a new system?' said Mehmet. 'The Commonwealth isn't overcrowded. Why take the risk?'

'Your star system isn't, but that's because no one can afford to move here,' said Malachi. 'Some of the other systems have population problems, Selah for example. Plus, one of the reasons for going to Baru was to create new shipping routes to bypass Celato.'

'To avoid us, basically,' said Ellie.

'I don't know how the shipping routes work,' said Christine. 'Do you mean they have to go past you?'

'Yeah, and they don't like it,' said Jayce.

'Why don't they just go around?' Christine said.

'Hey, Jayce, pass me those olives, will you?' said Malachi. Jayce slid a white bowl across the table to Malachi, where it caught on a knot in the wood and tipped. Green baubles rolled toward Malachi.

'Smooth,' said Jayce.

Malachi scooped up a handful of the tiny fruit and placed three on the table before him to form, from his perspective, an upside-down triangle.

'Alright then,' he began, and touched one finger to the olive on the top left. 'This is Jenova, over here is Selah, and this one at the bottom is Kinebar.' He placed one more olive in the centre of the triangle. 'And this is Celato, home of the Juggernaut.'

Tila reached across the table and thumped the Juggernaut olive with her fist. 'There. Now it's accurate.'

Jayce gave Ellie a quizzical look, but she only nodded in agreement.

'Agreed,' said Malachi. 'Anyway, these three systems surrounding the Juggernaut are too far to jump to each other, but they're all within range of us, so the quickest route for most journeys, is to come via Celato. Now over here is Baru,' Malachi placed another olive just outside the triangle. 'Baru is close enough to all three systems that it could form an alternate route, and we also know it has several planets as well as large asteroid belts.'

'Good for mining, right?' said Jayce.

'That's right,' said Malachi. Jayce grinned and having easily impressed himself once more, winked at Ellie. She giggled and ignored the weight of Tila's glare.

Christine leaned forward for a better look. 'Why is that a better route? You've placed Baru close to Jenova and Selah, but nowhere near Kinebar. Celato is closer.'

'Only because this a two-dimensional map. If I could make this in three dimensions it would be closer to Kinebar. Trust me.'

'Hmmm,' said Christine slowly. 'Does that make sense to you?' she asked Coral.

Coral nodded at once, as did Mehmet.

'So, it's just me?' said Christine.

'It's not a faster route, but it's better. It's safer and it opens new trade, mining, and colonisation opportunities. You can see why people felt it was worth the risk. Um, Coral, do you have a question?'

Coral blushed, and her fingers vanished below the table again. 'It would have reshaped the Commonwealth too. Politically I mean.'

'It would?' said Malachi. 'How come?'

'Because the new routes would move trade away from the eastern periphery of the Commonwealth and concentrate it here.'

'Do you mean this system would have become even richer?' Tila said with disgust.

Coral nodded.

'Hey, T, there's nothing wrong with being rich.'

'Don't call me T, Jayce.'

'I'm just saying...'

'There is something wrong if people end poor and homeless because of it. If you used your wealth properly we wouldn't even have a Juggernaut. There would be no dispossessed.'

'Hey, it's not my fault that mission failed.'

Malachi touched Tila's arm to steady her before the inevitable happened. Across the table, Tila saw Ellie touch Jayce's arm in her own effort to defuse the tension.

'He's right Tila, it's not his fault.'

Tila shrugged Malachi off and dropped back into her seat. She didn't remember standing up.

'It was a tragic accident,' said Christine.

'It was no accident,' Tila said through gritted teeth. 'The mission didn't fail.'

Jayce's friends exchanged puzzled looks.

'Why not?' said Coral.

'Because we found something buried in the Juggernaut. Something that shouldn't be there. A ship from the Far Horizon.'

Christine said, 'But that's the ship that vanished.'

'Yes.'

Mehmet said, 'They assumed it was destroyed on the far side of the jump.'

'I know.'

'So... how did it get back?'

Tila's eyes fell. 'I don't know.'

'But that would mean it survived the jump,' said Coral.

'Yes, I know that, too,' said Tila.

'So why has no one heard from them?' said Christine.

'Are you sure it's the same ship?' said Coral.

'No, but—' Tila began, before Malachi interrupted her.

'We're not one hundred per cent sure, but everything seems to fit,' he said.

'But that doesn't make any sense,' said Mehmet.

'I know that. Believe me I know,' muttered Tila.

'What does this have to do with Parador?' asked Coral.

'We found out that the biggest investors in the mission are all based here,' said Malachi.

'We thought that if we tell them what we found they will want to help us find out what really happened. We thought they would want to know too,' finished Ellie.

'That's why you wanted to talk to Conway!' said Christine. 'He was the biggest investor.'

'Yeah, but he didn't want to know. He said the data we found didn't prove anything,' said Malachi.

'Yeah, but was that before or after he deleted it?' said Jayce.

Tila shoved her plate to the centre of the table. 'This is getting me nowhere. I don't want to talk about it anymore,' she said, angrily.

'Tila...,' said Malachi.

'No, Mal, forget it. This whole thing has been a waste of time. We shouldn't have bothered.'

'But, Tila,' said Ellie.

Tila stood up so quickly her chair caught on uneven paving and tipped over. She ignored it.

'Just leave me alone, Ellie. You have your new friends to entertain you.'

'Tila!' Ellie cried, but Tila was already gone,marching away from the table into the cool darkness of the gardens.