After another hundred meters of corridor, and still no sign of any crew, Malachi suggested they head for the middle of their current deck.

"Why can't they just put up signs?" said Ellie.

"Because this place is not for tourists," said Malachi. He stopped in front of a door and turned to face Ellie. "They're not going to helpfully label everything just in case we come wandering by."

"What does that door say, then?" said Ellie. She pointed behind Malachi. In the centre of the door, below a small window, was stencilled the words 'Solar Forge - Main Bridge'.

"Just the important things," said Malachi, course correcting on autopilot.

"Who's inside?" said Tila. She stepped closer and peered through the window.

The last major bridge Tila had been on was the Rising Star, on the day of its departure. For an eight-year old girl that had been an impressive sight. It would have been an impressive sight for anyone. There she had been dwarfed by huge consoles, giant display screens and at least fifty crew. The ship had been brand new, white and gleaming and sterile.

The bridge she saw through the dirty window was anything but sterile. In fact, it could have used a good scrub. Three big displays dominated one wall, and all were blank. A fracture clawed its way across the glass of the left-most screen.

Beneath the screens were islands of consoles arranged in a semicircle. A raised platform opposite the huge displays afforded the captain view of the entire bridge. Like all the other tech they had seen so far, the bridge stations were a jumble of operation and broken gear. It was obvious that some stations had been cannibalised for parts to keep other areas working.

Tila estimated a crew of ten would be all this bridge needed to run operations, but she saw no-one.

She pressed the control on the wall and the door smoothly slide aside to admit her. They entered on the left side of the bridge, beneath the raised command area.

"This place has seen better days," said Malachi as they spread out and explored the bridge.

"Some of it's still working," said Tila. She kicked a nearby console. The ancient ventilation grill in the side panel cracked where her toe connected. "Sort of."

Ellie climbed the stairs to the command area. More workstations lined the edge of the dais, overseen by a trio of central command consoles. From up here she could see every console display on the bridge. It was clear from accumulated dirt that most of them hadn't been used for some time. Screens which had been wiped clean were obviously the stations in regular use. She told Malachi as much and he gave her a thumbs up. That observation would save him some time. Then movement and colour caught her eye.

"That one over there is doing something," she called down and pointed.

The display was running through some kind of automated sequence, updating numbers and other values in four columns.

Malachi hurried to where she had pointed and sat down. Tila climbed the stairs to join Ellie, taking the steps one by one, taking in the room.

"What's it doing?" said Ellie.

Malachi leaned closer. "I don't know, but now I know why we haven't seen anyone else here."

Tila arrived on the dais and leaned over the guardrail "Why not?" she said.

"Look at that last column, that's a timestamp. Local time here is almost three AM. It's the middle of the night."

"So, everyone's asleep?" said Ellie. "That's good news!"

"They might be. Or they might be on a shift pattern," said Malachi.

"Either way that doesn't mean we are completely alone. How long do you think we have, Mal?" said Tila.

"A couple of hours at least, unless there is a late bridge crew or a patrol."

"Ok, then we have two hours to get some answers out of these computers. Can you do it?"

"Me?" said Malachi.

"No, Ellie."

"I'll do my best. Why don't you go and lock all the doors? We don't want to be disturbed. Or caught."

"Good idea. Ellie, come with me."

They left Malachi to his work and starting with the door they came through, began activating the internal locks on all the bridge entrances.

"Tila?" said Ellie.

"What?"

"Can I ask a question?"

"Sure."

"It might be a silly question."

"I won't know until you ask."

"We're on the bridge. Can't we just fly this ship out of here?"

Tila paused. Was it a silly question? They were sealing themselves in, after all. In a moment they would control the bridge.

"Mal?"

"Yo?"

"Ellie wants to know if we can steal the ship?"

"If only it were that easy. The engines are cold, remember? It would take a day to get them ready, and we don't have the time or the tools for a job like that. Plus, there's no way the three of us could fly this thing. And I doubt we would make it through the fleet intact either. Only small ships can get in and out of that maze. Nothing bigger than a transport anyway."

"Or a haulage shuttle and its cargo?"

Malachi looked up from his work with a grin on his face. "That's right!"

"Definitely not a silly question, Ellie," said Tila. She thought for a moment, then said, "Maybe we are getting somewhere, Mal. I feel like we have two pieces of a puzzle, and we just need to make them fit."

Ellie looked from Tila to Malachi. "I'm missing something. What pieces?"

"Mal, this isn't a factory ship is it?" said Tila.

"No, definitely a mining ship, although there's nothing to mine in this system. I guess they just use the refinery instead."

"Why hide a mining ship here? Especially one that can't mine?" said Ellie.

"I don't know yet," said Tila, "But there must be a connection to the haulage shuttle we found on the Juggernaut. That was for moving cargo like asteroid ore. This is a ship designed to process it."

"What's that go to do with the colony mission?" said Ellie, still puzzled.

"I don't know that yet either, but it feels like we are making progress."

"Malachi, are we making progress?" said Ellie.

"Give me time," said Malachi, without looking up. He abandoned his console, moved to another and sat down and started again. "These workstations compartmentalise their data. I need to find the right one."

"Any security problems?"

"None. Believe it or not there's no security on any of these computers."

"That's good news for us," said Ellie.

"It's sloppy," said Malachi.

"Mal, they don't need a report on how to improve security. Just find the answers," said Tila.

Malachi waved her away and did his best to navigate the ships data stores as fast as he could. But his professional distaste showed through. "Still sloppy, though," he muttered.

A moment later Ellie rejoined Tila at the base of the stairs to the command deck.

"All the doors are locked, what do we do now?" she asked Tila.

Together they climbed the stairs. Ellie sat in the captain's chair. Tila circled the dais slowly, tracing her fingertips over the control surfaces of the different systems - environmental, communications, navigation, docking, security - wondering what secrets each one held.

"I don't like waiting."

"I've noticed. Why don't we check these computers? Malachi said they are all separate, so he can only look at one thing at a time."

"Because I don't know what I'm doing with computers like this. Do you?"

"No, but it can't hurt. You look at one of those near you and I'll see what I can find on the captain's console."

"Whatever you say, captain."

Ellie was right, it couldn't hurt, Tila thought She sat down at the navigation console. After two false starts it powered up, but she shut it down again just as quickly. What navigation data could there be? This ship might not have moved for years. She switched seats with the docking console. This was a better choice, she told herself. If there were smaller ships coming and going maybe there was a clue somewhere in there.

Malachi tried another search on the database. So far, he had drawn blanks on anything to do with Conway, or his core business interests. At least the ones in public records. There were some positive results with Conway's periphery holdings but given the reach of the man's business empire that wasn't surprising, and it wasn't enough to confirm a positive association. Any of the Parador corporate elite would turn up similar results. Likewise, with any searches based around the colony mission, or the names of three colony ships. Again, that wasn't surprising. Unfortunately for Malachi, whoever designed this database wasn't dumb enough to use the real names of the stolen ships.

So where was the proof? Where was the link? The mining connection was a start, but it created more problems than it solved.

Malachi thought for a moment, then typed in the name 'Typhon'.