At the docking console, Tila was making progress of a sort, but it was going backward.

She had managed to call up the local flight paths of ships docking with the Solar Forge, but the playbacks were happening in reverse.

"Ellie, help me out?"

Ellie slid out of the captain's chair and leaned over Tila's console. The display showed a three-dimensional model of the Solar Forge, surrounded by a large sphere which Ellie reasoned was the inside of the dead fleet bubble.

"I can't make it go forward," said Tila.

Ellie guessed a button and pressed it. The view changed to a two-dimensional schematic, showing the ship from the top down. In the corner the time counter reset to the present and the reverse playback started again.

"I already tried that," said Tila. "Look, you see those three blips flying away on the right? I think that was us arriving. We came in from that side."

"Hmmm," said Ellie, and wondered what else she could try, when she noticed two other blips leave the Solar Forge. This time they flew off to the left.

"What was that?" Ellie said.

"One of the cargo ships I suppose. It arrived about five hours before we did."

"But it went the opposite direction."

"So? There must be more than one way out of the fleet."

"But why take the long way round to the beacon?"

"That's a good point, Ellie," said Tila. "Mal, come and look at this."

"You found something?" said Malachi. He bounded up the steps two at a time to join them.

"Make it start again," said Tila.

Ellie reset the commands and repeated the sequence. They watched again as three blips departed on the right and two more departed on the left.

"Why take the long way round?" Tila asked Malachi.

"I don't know. There's no reason to unless we came in the wrong way. Maybe our route is too dangerous for their normal shipping? Does everything come in from that side?"

Ellie had been studying the controls while Malachi talked. She tentatively pressed another button and the playback speed increased. Blip after blip arrived and departed from the left, but every so often, another blip came from the right, following a similar route through the fleet to theirs. As two blips converged on the Solar Forge simultaneously Malachi paused the playback.

"Now we have another reason they didn't see us coming. They weren't expecting a surprise visit." said Malachi.

"No-one expects them," said Ellie. "That's why they are called surprises."

"I don't get it," Malachi continued, "It's like they're going somewhere else, but there's nothing else in this system. They're just heading out into space to circle back to the beacon. It's a waste of time and fuel."

"Maybe we got turned around inside the fleet and they know a quicker way?" suggested Ellie.

Tila placed a fingertip underneath the two visible blips. "But then why does this one come in the same way we did if this other one is going the right way?"

"We must be missing something," said Malachi, standing up. "Ellie, can you take over here while I go back downstairs?"

"Done."

"Try and send its display to the centre screen," he said.

"What are you doing?" Tila asked.

"I'm going to check the database again. There should be a record of flight paths of docked ships in there."

"What can I do?"

"Nothing yet. I just have to satisfy an itch in my brain."

With nothing to contribute, Tila took her turn in the captain's chair and watched.

"Got it!" said Ellie. The central display glowed to life in a sickly green and the reverse playback began.

"See if you can get an ID on any of the ships leaving through the left."

"Okay." Ellie scanned the options available then tapped a control. "Is that it?" Each blip was now identified with a line and a transponder code.

"Perfect. Now freeze the image. I need to see what I can get out of the database." He tapped away for a minute then made a triumphant sound. "Got it! He tapped some more, and another line appeared on the screen above him. This line sprouted from the Solar Forge and followed the path of the blip perfectly. "That's the flight path. We can follow it out if we can adjust the display a little bit. Ellie, can you zoom out of the image? I want to see where that ship is going."

Ellie hesitantly tapped at her console again and the image on the screen shrank. The schematic of the Solar Forge and the dead fleet halved in size and then halved again. The flight path Malachi had identified stretched out into space and vanished.

"Where did it go?" said Tila. "Did it dock with something?"

"Not according to the logs," said Malachi.

"It must have jumped," said Ellie.

"The beacon is on the other side of the fleet," said Tila.

"Well what do you think happened to it? Malachi, can you add a line to our ships?"

"No, they're not in the system, but I can trace one of the other blips." He tapped some more and more lines appeared. "I've overlaid the data of every arrival in the last two weeks," he said.

"I still only see two lines," said Tila.

"There's only two routes. Most of the traffic goes left. Only a handful of ships come in from the right."

"The distances are the same," said Ellie. "They're jumping."

"But there's no beacon. Don't you think we would know if there was another beacon in the network?" said Malachi. He probed the console for more information while Ellie aggressively tapped away looking for the proof she was right.

Tila watched the screen while her friends each tried to prove themselves right. One of them had to be after all. There were only two options.

She thought in silence for a moment, her eyes narrowing as they bore into the navigation data on the screen.

Then she spoke carefully and slowly, knowing the question she was about to ask was pointless, but needing the answer all the same.

Just in case.

"What if Ellie is right?"

"She's not right. There's another explanation."

"But what if she is?"

"Tila, we know all the beacons in the jump network. I'm telling you there's nothing out there."

"Maybe it's a different network then," said Ellie.

"Don't be ridiculous," said Malachi, but he paused in his work.

"Even I know there's only one jump network, Ellie," said Tila. She saw Malachi staring at the large display, fingers still over the console, thinking. "Right?"

"Ellie..." said Malachi.

"Yes?"

"Can you bring up a map of the commonwealth network from your console."

"I'll try...yes, does that work?" Ellie looked up. The schematic of the Solar Forge was gone. Instead, the interstellar transport network filled the screen. Bright dots labelled with the commonwealth stars stretched from one side of the display to the other, and white lines linked the stars wherever beacon pairs existed.

"Perfect, Ellie. Okay, Tila, we are right there, see?"

On the map Praxis glowed as Malachi pointed.

"Thanks, Ellie."

"You're welcome."

"So, where's the other beacon?" said Tila.

"I don't know. It can't be far though, only a couple of systems are in range."

"But they have beacons already so what's the point?" said Ellie.

"Oh. I'm the idiot!" said Tila suddenly. She grabbed Malachi's forearm and squeezed.

"Ow. What?"

"It's obvious. I can't believe you didn't see it before, Mal!"

"See what? And let go of my arm."

Tila pointed at a bright star on the map, the only star not part of the network. The only star someone the commonwealth ever tried to jump to, twelve years before.

"Oh Tila, you're a genius. Ellie, so are you. I can't believe I missed it."

"Only Baru, right? Where the colony mission was supposed to go and build a new beacon."

"Of course! They did build it, and they built another one here. Their own private beacon network. A darknet."

Ellie sat back in her chair and folded her arms. "I told you they jumped!" she said

"Mal, this is it. This is the proof. It's why no-one heard from the mission. They've been coming and going through a secret network."

"For twelve years," he added. The scale of the deception astounded him. It meant new beacon technology not only existed, it had been operational for more than a decade. And the secret of its success had been hidden and controlled by only a few, instead of benefiting the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth which had funded and supported the mission which made all of this possible."

"I still have a question," said Ellie.

"What is it?" said Tila.

"I still don't understand how the mining ship fits in with all this."

"I think I do, but it's not good," said Malachi.

"Mal?" said Tila.

"They're mining in Baru and bringing the material here for processing."

"So, it's a mining scam?" said Ellie. "That doesn't sound so bad."

"Depends what they're mining."

"Can we tell?"

Malachi returned to the database and interrogated the system for cargo manifests. A list of minerals appeared on the cracked display. "There it is."

Tila stood up to read the list. "Iridium, silver, iron, nickel. They're normal. What about the gold and silver?"

"What are the others? What's osmium and tritinium and moly... molybdenum?" said Ellie.

"They're rare minerals. Tritinium is extremely rare. It's used in jump beacons. I don't know about the others but I'm pretty sure there is nothing special about them. Nothing worth all this effort," said Malachi.

"It's the gold and silver," said Tila. They're valuable."

"It's all valuable if you're building something," said Malachi.

Ellie scratched her head. "So, they are mining things in secret? I don't understand why that is so bad."

"Oh," said Tila as it dawned on her. She looked at Malachi and blinked. "It's not the mining that's the problem. It's the miners. They're using the colonists as miners. As slaves."

"Oh," said Ellie. "That's much worse."

Tila suddenly snapped upright. "That's it. We have enough. This is what we need. Mal, I need you to get a copy of everything we just learned. Get as many copies as you can. We need to get this data back to the Commonwealth at once."

"To Parador?"

"To everyone. Conway wouldn't listen, and now I can see why. This wasn't just a theft, this was slavery. I'm not letting him get away with it. Not him, or anyone else involved. How long do you need?"

"Two minutes, then we can leave all this behind."

"Perfect. Ellie, get ready, we're getting out of here."

Ellie, distracted by something at her console, didn't move.

"Ellie!" snapped Tila.

"Uh," said Ellie. "I think I can make it play forward now."

"That doesn't matter now."

"It might," Ellie looked up at Tila. "Another ship just arrived."