Wixa tried to lead Maiga to her quarters, but Maiga pulled away and strode off across the Plaza. Wixa didn't follow, perhaps knowing this was something Maiga didn't need an audience for. It would probably be the last thing she wouldn't have an audience for around here.

The door to the Chronicle office was unlocked as usual. She'd told Chervaz to keep it locked. Protecting the paper would be a whole lot easier if he took some care of himself. The lights were on up there, but she heard no voices, so she dropped her bag at the foot of the stairs and climbed them. Chervaz rose from his desk as she came into the office.

"Maiga --"

"If you're going to try to apologise, don't bother."

He frowned, puzzled looking. "I wasn't going to apologise."

He wasn't? He apologised for every other damn thing, but not this? He probably apologised to Bara's guards for skinning their knuckles with his face. But he wouldn't apologise to her for ruining her life?

"I can't apologise," Chervaz went on. "I had no choice."

"You had a choice." She didn't shout, didn't want to lose control. "You had a choice between me and your paper. And you put the paper first."

"What else could I have done?" He came out from behind his desk, and moved towards her, but she took a step towards him in a way that made him back off again. "You... You have to understand, if I hadn't reported it because of my relationship with you --"

"Forget that! What about the fact I protect this paper?" Now she did shout and he backed off a few more steps, and she didn't care if he was actually afraid of her. "What about the fact that I defied that mad bitch to keep her goons from beating you up again?"

"Maiga, don't you see." He was almost pleading. "If I'd shown you favouritism because of that, if I'd been biased to you, that would have made you no better than Bara when she tried to influence me with money and threats and violence. The only other choice I had was to stop producing the paper at all."

"Then why didn't you?"

"I..." He shook his head. "I can't. It's important. Not only to me, but to everyone here."

"Sometimes I think you let the ink rush to your head." She sneered the words.

"It is important." He scowled, his voice growing harsher, losing the pleading tone. "I thought you understood that. When you brought me that edition you, Jaff and Wixa printed, I thought you understood what the paper meant. Or was that really just another way to piss off Bara?"

Had it been? Probably. Wixa kept saying the Chronicle was important, and Maiga knew it was important to Chervaz. But to the station at large? No. Life would go on the same without it. Her life would have gone on the same without it.

"Maiga, do you understand that I didn't break the story?" Chervaz spoke more quietly now. "Everyone was already talking about it. A man who saw you with Ilyan --"

"I don't want to hear it! Saying 'everybody else was doing it' only works as an excuse until you're aged ten. You had a choice and you chose your paper ahead of me. Admit that and I'll have more respect for you."

He sank down to sit on the edge of his desk, looking at the floor then looking up. "Yes, I did. But, Maiga, you talk about me betraying your trust, but you never trusted me. We shared a bed and yet you didn't tell me who you really are."

"And if I'd told you weeks ago, would it have been in the paper weeks ago? Would you have 'broken' the story then?"

"I don't..." He stared at her, and then looked away, folding his arms. "I don't know."

Well, that sounded like all she needed to hear. She couldn't trust him. It's always the ones that seem the most harmless that you have to watch out for. She should have learnt that by now.

"Goodbye, Chervaz."

"Maiga!" He called after her as she headed for the stairs. Perhaps the finality in her voice spooked him, because she heard panic in his. "Wait."

She stopped part way down the stairs, to look up at him at the top. He took a step and she raised a hand to tell him not to follow.

"Do not come after me. If I see you again, you will regret it."

His horror at her clear threat almost weakened her resolve. But she overcame the moment of weakness and hurried down the stairs and back out into the street.

She took the back streets round to the lifts, not wanting to cross the Plaza. Keeping her head down in the lift, she tried to ignore the stares and sidelong glances. She couldn't live like this. Looks were one thing, but people would start asking her questions soon. Why was she still alive? What was Ilyan really like? And that was only the curious and the people who'd agreed with him. Those who worshipped him and those who blamed him would, between them, make her life unbearable.

She got off the lift and, again taking the quiet streets, she reached her quarters. She'd half expected to find Wixa there, but she wasn't and as the doors closed behind her, Maiga sighed with relief, glad to be alone and safe here.

She pulled herself together after a moment and went to the bedroom with her bag, dumped that on the bed and checked the contents. A few days worth of clothes in it. Going around the room, she took out more, leaving behind anything useless, like the dress and the stupid shoes. Bathroom the same, she took the essentials from there. She left behind a bottle of flowery perfume Wixa had given her.

Going around the rest of the quarters reminded her that Wixa had given her several gifts now. Rugs and throws and plants and a couple of pictures. Maiga left them all. Clutter. No sense in taking them on the Friss.

A glance at her computer panel, as she passed, showed a ridiculous number of messages flashing for her attention. They would never receive it.

Time to return to her old plan. Fill up the ship with supplies and get the hell out of here. The profits from their jobs had accumulated into a tidy sum. More than enough for fuel and supplies for months. She'd get out there and find the Committee fleet. That had once been her goal. When had she forgotten it?

Well she remembered it now.

She might as well leave right away. Why not? Nothing held her here now. Nothing? Not even Wixa? Wixa, who when she saw that Chronicle, just said, "Oh shit". And never said, "Is it true?"

There were other questions Wixa had failed to ask. Maiga had asked Wixa about children and Wixa had told her about Tam. But she hadn't asked Maiga if she'd had any children. And Maiga had asked about mothers, and again Wixa told her story and never asked the same question in return.

She already knew the answers.

Maiga snorted and came out of her trance. Should have known. Wixa knew everything and everybody, why should Maiga be any different from everybody else? Someone else she'd thought she could trust. How very wrong I'm getting these days.

She finished packing all her gear. Or at least everything she wanted to take. Wixa could take back her gifts if she wanted them, Maiga didn't care. She put on her coat, grabbed her bag and, without a second glance, she strode out of her quarters.

"You can't go." Wixa pushed away from where she'd been standing by the wall outside, arms folded, waiting. As Maiga strode off, Wixa hurried to catch up. "Maiga, please, you can't leave!"

"I think you're wrong. Take a good look. This is me, leaving."

"Look, I know you're angry."

"Well of course you know. You know everything about me don't you?" She glared at Wixa. "You've known all along."

Wixa stopped and a moment later hurried to catch up.

"Yes," she said quietly. "I knew. I recognised you the first time I saw you on the station. I couldn't believe it. I thought you were dead."

"How did you know I even existed? High Command kept everything about Ilyan off the news feeds. Suppressed it all. My name, my face was never in the public domain."

"Yeah well." Wixa shrugged. "I'm good at finding things out, you know that. I sold your friend Jadeth the information on where to find Tesla."

Now it was Maiga who stopped short. Wixa skidded to a halt and backed up.

"You sold Jadeth that information?"

"Yeah." Wixa looked confused for a moment. "But nothing in that suggested you were still alive."

"No," Maiga said, voice distant, the memories close. The moment of wild hope when she saw Jadeth. Hope that it meant all of the others were alive. Hope he had to dash a moment later. "No. I remember. He didn't know. He didn't expect to find me there."

"What do you mean you were...? You were with Tesla?" Real horror tinged Wixa's voice and Maiga spoke quickly before she jumped to the wrong conclusion.

"I was his prisoner. His payment."

Wixa looked sick. "Oh, Maiga. I'm sorry. I really didn't know. They must have kept that out of even the Intel data." She shook herself, tried a weak smile. "I... I guess it was a good thing I met your friend."

"Jadeth wasn't my friend." Damn, that seemed unfair, after what he'd saved her from. But true all the same. They'd never been friends.

"He did seem kind of a pain in the ass," Wixa said, nodding. "Men huh? Can't live with 'em, can't load them all into a rocket and fire it into the heart of a sun. Well, I suppose you could, be expensive..."

Maiga turned away and went on walking, making Wixa abandon her attempt at distraction, to chase after Maiga again.

"Maiga, look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. But I figured, you had your own reasons to keep it quiet and I knew it would cause you problems if it got out. Believe me; I guarded that secret as closely as you did."

"Thanks, but it doesn't matter. It's over now." They reached the lift and Maiga stopped and turned to Wixa, held out her hand. "We can say goodbye now, or you can come with me. I'm going to look for the Committee fleet. This place is over, Wixa. It's Bara's place now, it's not your home any more."

Wixa took the offered hand and held onto it. "It doesn't have to be Bara's. Look, I'm calling in my favour here. If my information led Jadeth to free you, then you owe me one last favour."

Maiga considered this for a moment. "One last favour?"

"Just one. There are some things you need to understand." She paused and took a deep breath. "There's somebody you need to meet."

~o~

Bara rolled over in Max's bed and opened her eyes when she found herself alone.

"Max?"

He emerged from the bathroom, almost fully dressed, bare-chested though, carrying his shirt.

"Sorry, I have to go to work." He pulled the shirt on over his head. "Stay here as long as you like, if you want to sleep I mean."

Bara lay back on the pillow, stretching her arms over her head. Perhaps she would stay for a while and sleep. A proper bed, instead of a bunk. And a decent sized shower. The things a soldier dreams about.

"Where do you work, Max?"

"In a factory," he said. She saw him wince. "On an assembly line."

"I see. That can't be very satisfying for an officer. A Lieutenant Commander."

"No," he said, with a sour expression. "I'm in line for a supervisory position though, so - hah - fingers crossed there, eh?"

Oh, so much bitterness there. So much frustration. So much that she could use.

"A man like you needs more challenges than that. Perhaps I could find something for you to do."

He looked interested, and came and sat on the bed beside her. "Like what?"

"Oh I have various little projects in progress here on the station." She sat up, pressing her bare skin against him and his arm slid around her waist. His fingers stroked the base of her spine, a gentle almost tickling caress that made her tingle all over. She whispered in his ear. "I'm sure you can make a valuable contribution to one of those projects."

He didn't ask more then, just dipped his head to kiss her. This one, she thought, this one is mine now. And, oh my, he has such possibilities!

~o~

"Why are we on this train?"

Maiga looked around the carriage of the light rail train. Quiet now, a quiet time of day and a section of the line where few people went. A deep level of the industrial section with only a few, usually unmanned, systems. Maintenance and repair crews were the only people that ventured here regularly.

"You know this train system is totally computer controlled," Wixa said. "No drivers."

"Yes, I know."

Wixa still hadn't explained who they were going to meet. In fact she was being generally mysterious all around. She'd better come out with an explanation soon. Maiga's gratitude only stretched so far.

"Thing is, it's a very old computer system, from several hundred years back. Oh the folks who built it were good; the control system is still solid as a rock. But, nobody knows how to reprogram it."

The train stopped at a station and the doors opened. Nobody got on or off. Wixa waved at the doors as they closed.

"That's why the doors only ever stay open for eight seconds and then close. Well, it's actually eight point one seven seconds. Nobody's managed to change even that. They also can't change which stations it stops at. So even if a station was closed down, the train would still stop there." She grinned. "They once tried to reprogram it to prevent it stopping at a closed station and the whole system broke! All they could do in the end was restore the original and let it keep on stopping at all the same places."

"Wixa, this is fascinating, I'm sure, but why the hell are you telling me this?"

"Because that's where we're going. To a station that doesn't exist any more." She glanced up as they felt the train slow down again. "Come on." Wixa stood up and Maiga followed her, to stand by a set of doors. "When I give the word, follow me and move fast."

Maiga glanced around the carriage. Only a couple of people shared it with them. Most were aliens and ignored them. A man gave them an odd look though and spoke.

"I don't think you can get off here, ladies."

The train rushed into the station. Or what had once been a station, the platform now blocked off by a wall. As the train slowed to a halt, Maiga saw words in various languages flicker by.

That was the gist of all of them, though the literal translation of the Klaff one came across to Maiga as something more alarming.

"Wixa..."

The doors opened. The wall, made of some kind of heavy plastic sheeting, stood before them, blocking the exit. But Wixa put out her hand and shoved on a mark, which looked like no more than a splodge of dirt. A door opened inwards, darkness beyond it.

"Wait!" Maiga cried.

But Wixa ignored her, grabbed her hand and pulled her through into the darkness, as the doors closed behind them.