Though I've seemed to have spent a lot of time around transit stations, I've rarely been inside one. Zipping past from one system to the next, it's easy to forget just how large the things are. Mere hours after capturing the Cack ship, I stood at the edge of a concourse wide enough to drive a division of tanks down, waiting for transport to the transit station director's office. I finally grasped what it meant when they said the Sol gate had more living space and a greater population than all the colonies on Mars combined.

The rest of our fleet had caught up to us and surrounded the station in case the Cacks attempted a desperate last attack. Except for Bright Fortune and Most Noble and the other Cack leaders who had fled, our fleet had destroyed the entire Cack advance force. Though we feared the Cacks were still gathering their main force back in the Moiarchy.

My ship Argippus had been recovered and at that moment sat in a private hanger while local TLS personnel began undoing the modifications Chief Droemer had inflicted upon it.

Harlow, standing next to me, chatted to his netpiece. I relied on him to organize my schedule and the meeting requests pouring in. Next to him stood Chief Director Ellsworth, our top lawyer, carrying a copy of the surrender agreement. She'd come along to oversee the station's transfer and to make certain no last minute changes were made. Behind her, gaping at the storefronts and walkways and the vast space they filled, two troopers in open-air combat armor ensured everything else went according to plan.

"Thank you." Harlow turned to me. "There was a mix-up with the hanger number; they're sending transport here now."

"It must be nice to have so many hangers one could get them confused," I said.

Harlow gave me an ironic smile.

"Commander Phon?"

I looked behind me, not recognizing what turned out to be a voice synthesizer. It came from a Crawdad leaning on one of their chairs near an outdoor café.

"Seeing you amuses my delighted mind."

"Excuse me. Do I know you?" I asked.

The crawdad's tentacles bunched together and drew themselves upwards, dropped and repeated the process while one eye looked at me and the other drifted over my companions. "It seems He Who Looks Up does not look back. Stepping out into the world, he has already forgotten his home pasture. I remember you, upon whom He Who Looks Up treads."

"Dr. Swiftly?"

"Yes."

"What brings you here?"

"Guiding the sojourners is my vocation. Have you begun a new journey?"

I let slip a short laugh. "I'm afraid I'm more lost now than ever."

"Fear not. Nothing slips The Maker's thoughts."

An electric cart approached and the driver stopped before us. "Commander Phon?"

"Here."

"I'm to take you to the director's office."

I gestured to the others and we all climbed into the cart. I waved goodbye to Dr. Swiftly as we were taken to something that looked like an executive office building rising up inside the station. I had no idea if he understood the gesture, but then I had begun to suspect that he knew a lot more about us than he let on.

We were escorted down wide tiled halls and through equally wide doors. The transit stations were all Cack property and usually run by Cacks, but being stationed this far out from the Moiarchy was considered something of a punishment and a Cack director would do anything they could to turn the assignment over to another. So I wasn't surprised to find the station directed by another Crawdad.

The director seemed almost eager to turn the station over to me and I wondered about the Crawdads' relationship with the Cacks. Were they a subjugated race? The Cack's high-pressure tactics could blur the line between a trade agreement and a surrender agreement.

As we marked our copies of the agreement and director Breaking Through officially handed the station over to me, I thought about Dr. Swiftly's unexpected appearance and wondered again what he was doing here and whether he had advised the director in his official capacity as an oracle. If so, could the Crawdads, who always seemed to have served the Cacks so faithfully, possibly have an agenda of their own? Had they foreseen this eventuality? Had they engineered it?

I left director Breaking Through in charge of the station during the transition since he already had the staff and procedures in place and I hadn't a clue of how to begin sorting things out. I was going to need an army of bureaucrats and accountants. At the moment I only had Harlow and he was already talking non-stop to someone through his netpiece as we rode the cart back to the hanger area.

"OK, we'll meet him at the hanger in five minutes."

"What was that?" I asked. "Not another meeting request."

"I'm afraid so. And an important one too, apparently. At least this should be short. His assistant even apologized for taking our time."

"Probably a subpoena. Those don't take very long to deliver."

The cart stopped at our hanger and we got out and waited. I caught Harlow's eye. "I thought you said five minutes." Harlow nodded and seemed to consult something on his netpiece. I noticed Dr. Swiftly had left the nearby cafe and I considered wandering over and seeing if they had any human food when another cart stopped across the concourse from us.

A short Asian man in a dark business tunic got out followed by two tall guys who looked like hired muscle. "Looks like a lawyer," I muttered. "Or a politician—not that there's any difference. I'm guessing Earth's arrived to take our trophy away."

I wasn't under any illusion that Earth was going to let me keep the transit station as my own personal property. Though the government had enacted some liberal privateering laws during the Cack wars, they would most certainly violate their own laws to keep a single man from holding the wealth of a small world. In preparation for this, I had already instructed our lawyers to identify and start talks with various community leaders on the station with the idea of declaring the station an independent colony. In truth, running something like this was more frightening than facing a fleet of Cack warships.

The man walked toward me with the confidence of a man who commanded an army of lawyers. As he approached, I suddenly realized who he was.

He was my father.

He and his two henchmen stopped several yards away and bowed. He bent almost horizontal at the waist, completely inappropriate for a father to a son.

"Father!" Surprised and embarrassed, I strode over in three steps and wrapped my arms around him as he rose. He stiffened uncomfortably then seemed to consciously force himself to relax. He even patted me on the back, laughing awkwardly.

"I didn't expect to see you here."

My father laughed again, his smiling face transforming him into a stranger. "When I heard you had survived and were returning, I had to come see you. I've been waiting here, hoping to catch your arrival since the day you disappeared at Empire. The media reports were confused about your fate. Your mother and I were very worried."

"How is she?"

"She is doing well. She would have come, but you know how ill she gets in zero-G. She considered cryo-suspension, but her doctor advised against it."

"Give her my love."

"I will, but she made me swear to extract a promise from you to come by Mars and see her."

"I will only," I paused and looked at the station around me. "I'm afraid this may take some time."

"I thought as much. That is why I brought you some help," he gestured to the two men beside him. "These are Mister Jay and Mister Rutledge, my top two lawyers in space and contract law. I am putting them and their staff at your disposal until this is worked out."

We shook hands with pleased-to-meet-yous all around. I kept looking at my father, trying to read his face. I wondered whether he was doing this because he was afraid I would mess this up, because he saw a good deal and wanted in on it, or if he was just trying to be a father and helping. "I'm sure I'll have work for you," I told Mr. Rutledge, "at least as long as I'm allowed to hold this station."

"Oh, you shouldn't have to worry about that," Mister Jay said. "I think we can protect your claim, though we'll need to see any agreements you've made with the former authorities."

I gestured to Chief Ellsworth and the two each touched their netpieces, exchanging data.

"At this point I'd recommend securing the Sol side of the station," Mister Rutledge said. "The Indwellers typically consider each linked pair of stations as a single administrative unit, but Earth could well make the claim that the Sol side of the station, since it's a separate physical unit, linked only by hundreds of light years of folded space, would require a separate claim."

The suggestion and the realization that I had overlooked such a thing took me by surprise. My assets had just doubled. "I will have one of my subs secure it at once. In fact, we may all wish to transfer over to that side before Earth government arrives."

"Don't worry too much about the government," my father said. "With a possible war brewing, they're going to need our help with the military buildup. A few generous leases should please them." He looked out a window at the inside of the ring. From this angle the light from the stars along the edge were warped and stretched into a watery ripple. "I'd like to talk to the station engineers. I think TLS is about to expand into more than ship building." He paused and gave me a puzzled look. "That is assuming you're interested in buying it."

"Buying it?"

"Sure. The board will salivate at the thought of a merger and with your operating budget for this station, you could probably buy us out with petty cash."

The thought of buying my family's company made me dizzy. I suddenly felt very overwhelmed and tired. "I don't know, I'll have to think about this."

He laughed again. "I know it's all a lot to take in and I'm sure you have fleet matters to attend to. Let's talk later. How about dinner?"

"That sounds good."

"Until then."

We shook hands like old business partners and equals. He walked away and I headed for the hangers suddenly eager to be back home on the Phoenix.

"Ken?"

I stopped and looked back at my father.

"You did well, son. I'm proud of you."

THE END