“Does it hurt?” Saqr asked Siladan, who was lying on a kind of hovering cushion bed in the garden observatory on the residence level of the Phoenix of Hamura, his injured foot elevated on cushions and covered by a small box that made occasional humming and slurping sounds.

  “Not really,” Siladan replied, head bobbing slightly. His pupils had shrunk to pin-prick size, and his eyelids occasionally slid closed, drowsy with the painkillers he was taking while the regenerator kit did its work. They had decided to use another of their precious regenerator kits on Siladan because they did not know whether Merez or Arkial’s nameless enemies would come knocking for vengeance, and they wanted him at least able to hobble into battle as quickly as possible.

  “Seems we’ve already made a lot of enemies,” Saqr had observed as they debated whether it was worth using the accelerated healing kit or leaving Siladan to recover the old-fashioned way.

  “You get used to it,” Olivia had reassured her, but had not elaborated when the pilot pressed her.

  Now they sat in a ring in the garden observatory, discussing everything they had learnt so far. The garden observatory sprawled across the two upper levels of the Phoenix of Hamura, covering a 30 or 40m wide area on the lower of the two decks and running along the entire top deck of the ship to the bow, where it ended at the ship’s chapel. It was largely covered in heavy interstellar-grade plexiglass, and on its top level featured a gazebo, water features and a small boules court, but on the second deck was just a small open space with flowers and bushes, intended primarily for small gatherings and for people recovering from stasis. Because ships with gardens and chapels fared better in the Dark Between the Stars it was very common for luxury vessels to feature multiple gardens, and when they bought and refitted the Phoenix the Firebirds had decided not to mess with these features of their ship. For this meeting they sat in the lower deck’s smaller and more orderly garden, on real wooden benches around a small pond. The sternward end of the Phoenix’s garden was enclosed in an oval of plexiglass looking out over the Neoptra spaceport and the sternward sweep of the lower decks of their ship, while the forward end where they held their meeting opened into the stasis hold. This deck had been partly envisaged as a place for people coming out of stasis to relax and recover their wits while they looked at the stars, if they wished. Stairs recessed into the deck led up from this part of the garden to the deck above, and a small stream bubbled down past the entrance to the stasis hold from the upper deck, to tumble into the pond in the middle of the garden.

  “Losing our target does hurt though,” Siladan added, grimacing at the thought of his lost statue.

  “Better than being slaughtered by a Draconite warrior,” Olivia replied.

  “Why would they want it though?” Dr. Delecta asked. “I thought Draconites were cold rationalists, the purist of the scientific purists on the original Zenith. Why would they want a Mystic artifact?”

  “There are rumors,” Saqr reminded her. “After they abandoned the Zenith they spent a century lost in the Dark. People say they made deals with creatures in the Dark Between the Stars, and that they came back with lost technology from the Portal Builders and the First Horizon.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Surely that’s all just superstitious nonsense?” Dr. Delecta countered. “We can’t really believe that can we?”

  “Did you think Mystics were real before today?” Adam asked her, and in response she threw him a tight smile.

  “What do you know about the Draconites, Adam?” Siladan asked him. “Arkial said you have a long history with them, and she’s been right about everything else.”

  “They turned him into a pacifist,” Olivia joked, and Al Hamra slapped her shoulder, frowning at her quick shift to needling the big soldier.

  “Let’s be clear,” The captain announced in a clear voice, “Nobody has to tell us anything about their past that they don’t want to. Adam, you don’t need to tell us your secrets, anymore than Olivia does.”

  “I’d rather not,” Adam told them, looking sheepish. “Just that I can’t fight them. Which we don’t want to do anyway. I don’t know anything about them though.”

  “Helpful,” Olivia said drily. “But right about not fighting them.”

  “We don’t need to,” Siladan said. “We have the coordinates of the dig.”

  They all looked at him. “So?” Dr. Delecta asked. “How does that help?”

  “We can go down there and find out what they were digging up.”

  “Are you crazy?” Olivia asked him. “The last people who dug down there got eaten alive by beasts from the Dark. You want to go share their fate?”

  “We don’t have to do that,” Siladan replied. “Those digs are always looking for guards and support staff. We hire ourselves out to a dig in the same area and find out what’s going on. Or we go look around ourselves. Find out what’s happening.”

  “Also,” Al Hamra said, thinking aloud, “If we find out that something interesting is happening there that’s too dangerous, we could sell the location to the Draconites. Let them fight the Dark.”

  “We can at least investigate,” Siladan said, looking alert for the first time since he had entered the garden. “If we don’t like it we give up and sell the location to the Draconites. We know the ship that got the statue, so we can send a message straight to its captain. Without Lavim Tamm they can’t find the dig, and he’s not going to tell anyone anything. But if we sell the location we can split the money with him.” When he talked about selling the location Siladan sank back in his pillows, looking despondent. It was obvious to everyone that he really wanted to investigate the archaeological site.

  “I think …” Al Hamra paused before he continued, as everyone turned to look at their captain. “I don’t know what that statue did, but it was connected to Mystic powers and the Dark Between the Stars. It’s possible that there’s a technology in there that helps me. Or maybe could help us when we deal with the Dark Between the Stars. I think that’s worth investigating. We don’t know where we’re going or what we’re doing in the future, but if you’re on a spaceship you need to be prepared for the Dark. And for the beasts it spawns. So I think it’s worth investigating. Carefully!” He added stress to the word, “And without getting entangled with the Draconites. Are we agreed?” He looked around at everyone until he had their assent. “At the very least we may get some relics we can sell. But first we need to deal with the information Arkial gave us. She’ll be awake in a few days. So before then we need to fit out the ship for travel, and get ready for whatever we have to do to buy spare parts. And,” He looked at Adam, “I am sick of being unarmed. Adam, I want you to go deal with the Syndicate. See if we can get some more weapons. At least another carbine, and some more pistols. And a few grenades if we can stretch the budget. We don’t have much spare birr, but let’s arm up.”

  Al Hamra looked around at his team. “I don’t know what’s going on out there with Draconites and Factions and secret experiments with ancient artifacts, but I have a feeling there’s power buried in Lavim Tamm’s dig if we care to look. And if there isn’t power, there’s knowledge, which when you’re dealing with the Factions is pretty much the same thing. So let’s arm up, and once Arkial wakes up we’ll go and do a bit of petty price-gouging, and then we can set ourselves up as archaeologists for a spell.” He clapped his hands. “Let’s get rich, people!”