He looked like he hadn't slept properly in weeks. Eleven days in a maintenance level on recycled water and repair work would do that to a person.Danner was thirty-eight but carried himself like someone older. He had been living below Level 4 of the station since he arrived— trading repair work for floor space, keeping his name off every system he could find."Eleven days in the walls," Zeryth said, looking him over. "That's not comfortable.""It's not supposed to be comfortable," Danner said. "No Assembly sensors run below Level 4. That's the only part of this station that doesn't have eyes on it.""How do you know where their sensors stop?" Nyxra asked."Because I mapped it the first day I arrived," Danner said. "The Structural Glitch. I can read a building's infrastructure the same way you read a page. I know where every sensor line runs on this station and exactly where each one terminates.""And nobody noticed you mapping it?" Zeryth asked. "A maintenance worker checking conduits

"We split," I said. "Nyxra and Danner stay below. Lucas, you're with me." Lucas didn't ask why. He was already moving toward the door before I finished saying it.We took the maintenance stairwell up two levels. No cameras operated below Level 3. Danner had mapped every route on the station the first day he arrived and passed that information to us before we left his workshop. I kept it in my head every time I moved through the station now.Level 3 had a service alcove off the main corridor. It was a small space with a low ceiling, the kind of corner that looks like it was built purely for storing things nobody needed on a regular basis. The woman inside it was wearing maintenance coveralls. They were slightly too clean for someone who actually worked this level day-to-day. Lucas slowed his pace before I did."I know her," he said under his breath. "Who?" I said, still moving."Sable Renk," he said. "Cartel acquisition specialist, she doesn't go after people the Assembly has already

Lucas tried to come with me, but I told him no."Combat on this station draws Assembly security in minutes," I said. "If this goes sideways, I need you below with Sable, Danner, and Nyxra. Not standing next to me in a corridor when things get complicated.""And if it goes wrong specifically for you while you're up there alone?" He said. "Then it goes wrong," I said. "Stay below."He didn't like it. He stayed below anyway, which meant he understood the logic even if he disagreed with the outcome.The registered Sovereign wing was on Level 6. The Assembly couldn't move on Prya inside that wing without opening formal Revocation proceedings. Proceedings required review, authorization, sign-off from at least two Assembly members, and a logged justification. That process took hours at minimum. That was the window I was working inside. It was small, but real, and I needed to move through it before anyone upstairs decided the paperwork wasn't worth their time.My registry card opened the win

"Outer checkpoint in thirty seconds," Sable said from the controls. "Everyone stay quiet. Let me handle the credentials and do not speak unless I ask you something directly.""If they run a deep verification on those forged credentials—" Prya started. "They won't," Sable said. "Cartel contractors run this zone. They check Assembly clearance and they wave it through. Questioning Assembly business creates liability they actively avoid. I've cleared this type of checkpoint nine times. Trust me or stay on the shuttle."Nobody stayed on the shuttle. The ore-processing platform filled the forward viewport as we came in on approach. Multiple levels of industrial machinery, drill arms folded flat against the lower frame, a network of service corridors running through the entire underside structure. The Voluntary Registration Center was built into the bottom of the largest platform section— positioned where a standard scanner pass wouldn't flag it and where nobody without exact coordinates wo

Drel finished the water bottle before he said a single word. He had asked for it the moment he sat down, and nobody pushed him while he worked through it. His voice when he finally started was still rough, but his eyes were focused. He was present and he was thinking clearly— that was what mattered right now. "I need you to understand something before I explain anything else," he said."Say it," I said. "I wasn't building a resistance," he said. "I was never building a resistance. That's not what any of this was.""Then what was it?" Prya asked. She was watching him carefully from across the hold. "A library," he said. "That's what I was building. A library." Prya was quiet for a moment. "You never said that when you reached out to me.""I didn't know how to say it without it sounding too small to be worth the risk," he said. "It isn't small. But it sounds that way when you describe it in one word.""Explain it properly then," I said. He set the empty bottle on the floor beside him.