They had their own type of anchors that stabilized their wormholes, but their overall level of technology was eerily similar to our own, which only fed the conspiracy theories. I found it hard to believe that the Valoffs had somehow spied on us from thousands of light-years away, yet had achieved spaceflight only because of technology stolen from humanity, but logic wasn’t necessary for conspiracy theorists.

I accepted Kee’s proposed route and went through the prelaunch checklist. While the various system checks ran, I went through my final mental checklist. We had plenty of food and supplies, but if something went wrong, we’d pass fairly close to two more stations before we reached Bastion.

All of the prelaunch checks came back green. Starlight’s Shadow was ready to fly, and I was antsy to leave this station behind. “Ready?” I asked.

Kee, Eli, and Anja murmured their assent.

I eased the ship off the deck and out of the landing bay. As we passed through the atmo barrier and entered open space, my muscles unclenched. I loved being in the black. Some people found space travel claustrophobic and anxiety-inducing—and it certainly could be—but I loved the endless possibilities.

The farther we got from the station, the more I relaxed.

When the traffic around us dwindled to almost none, I turned on the autopilot. Technically it could’ve guided us from launch, but I liked to have manual control around stations. Call me paranoid and old-fashioned, but I wanted my ship to be in my control when we were navigating around a bunch of obstacles that could kill us.

“We’ve got company,” Eli announced a few minutes later. “A Valovian ship is shadowing us.”

“Is it Lotkez?” At his nod, I continued, “That’s General Fletcher’s ship. According to him, they plan to escort us all the way to Valovia.”

“Well, that’s not concerning at all,” he muttered.

“See if you can find out anything about their capabilities, but be subtle about it. I don’t want them to know we’re prying.”

Kee’s eyes lit and she turned to her screen with determination. Eli said, “It doesn’t appear to be a warship, at least not on the surface. It’s a little bigger than Starlight, and it’s broadcasting a diplomatic registration.”

He sent a series of images and a 3D model to my terminal. Starlight might not look like much, but she had excellent sensors. The other ship was nothing but a black shadow on the visual cameras, but the sensors had captured it in detail. I rotated the 3D model. Lotkez had the sweeping curves typical of Valovian design. I might not care for them, but they made beautiful ships.

If Lotkez was armed, and I assumed it was, then the weapons were carefully hidden.