“Say that name again.” Priya’s voice had gone strangely quiet, disbelief replacing the certainty she usually carried into these conversations. Alex repeated it. “AURA-Core. Fen said Daniel believed it was a separate system, buried beneath the AURA we all interact with. Some kind of correction mechanism, monitoring population stability in a way nobody fully understands.” Kai leaned back, absorbing the implications. “That would explain a lot. The disappearances. The fact that they seem deliberate rather than random. Thirty years of them, regardless of who happened to be in command.” Priya stared at the floor for several seconds. “If AURA-Core has really been operating independently for that long, Voss might not even know what he’s actually protecting.” Alex nodded slowly. “He could believe he’s maintaining an old cover-up without ever knowing what the original secret was.” “That possibility bothers me more than Voss being directly involved.” “Why?” “Because if the people cur

“Someone messaged me. Late last night. They said they know what we found.”Alex slid his tablet across the table to Kai, and Kai read the message twice, his brow furrowing deeper each time.“A friend from a long time ago,” Kai repeated. “That’s not nothing. Someone’s been watching closely enough to know exactly what Priya pulled from those logs.”“I know.” Alex rubbed his eyes, exhaustion from a mostly sleepless night settling behind his temples. “I want to hand this to you. Whoever this is, whatever they know, I don’t think I should be the one who meets them.”Kai looked up, surprised. “You found the message. It came to you directly.”“That’s exactly why I need to hand it off.” Alex met his friend’s eyes steadily. “I told you both, when I got out, that I wasn’t getting pulled back into this. Mira’s father changed that, briefly, because I couldn’t separate her grief from my own life. But this message isn’t about her father anymore. This is the investigation itself, reaching directly f

"I'm not going to meet her."Alex said it the moment he sat down across from Kai, his voice steady despite the restless night that had led him to the decision.Kai studied him carefully. "You're certain.""As certain as I can be about anything right now." Alex met his friend's eyes. "I've spent the last day turning it over, and I keep landing in the same place. Whatever I am, whatever Corvis thinks she knows, chasing that answer means choosing the investigation over Mira, over the life I've already decided I want. I'm not willing to make that trade again.""Even though it might explain everything? The disappearances, AURA-Core, all of it?""Even then." Alex's voice carried a hard-won conviction. "I gave the plaza everything I had. I gave months of my life to a cell because of it. I don't think I owe this ship another piece of myself, not when I finally have something worth protecting instead."Kai was quiet for a long moment, and when he spoke again, his voice had softened considerabl

"You're actually here early. I half expected Mira to drag you in kicking and screaming."Elin opened the door with a knowing smile, already glancing at Alex's hand before he'd said a word."I wanted to tell you myself," Alex said. "Before Mira had the chance to tell the whole ship first.""Wise man." Elin ushered him inside, calling over her shoulder. "Mira, your fiancé's here, and he's being considerate enough to let his future mother-in-law hear it properly."Mira emerged from the kitchen, laughing, flour dusted across one cheek. "I was going to let you tell her. I wanted to see her face.""I saw her face through the door," Alex said. "She already knew.""I'm her mother," Elin said simply, settling into her chair with the satisfied air of a woman whose instincts had never once failed her. "Sit, both of you. Tell me everything. How, where, what she said when you finally worked up the nerve."They told the story together, interrupting each other happily, and Alex found himself, watchi