The message he wrote was a reference to his name and a vague offer to pass her information in exchange for help. That would have to do.

He hesitated, hovering over the other public channels. Zin would have started her apprenticeship by now. But there was every possibility this escape was going to blow up spectacularly in a couple of weeks, and he shouldn’t—wouldn’t—bring his sister into that.

He left it. He’d done enough to screw up Zin’s life as it was.

On day three of Tennal’s shining military career, he woke up and knew the fleet was entering chaotic space.

The sense of distorted space hummed around him, no longer the sound of churning waves in the middle distance, but the tide lapping at his doorstep. It was almost like an extra pair of eyes had opened in his mind.

If Tennal tried, he could see the disturbed space around them as clearly as if he were floating outside the Fractal Note’s hull. He didn’t even have to look at a chart. He could feel there was a stable opening into the chaos nearby, hidden behind a veil of clouds, like a tunnel into a cave system. That was where the small constellation of ships was slowly heading.

He and Surit threw themselves out of bed and to their shuttle. Surit took the morning meeting over comms as the Fractal Note started to discharge all the small ships it was carrying. In the operations room of Retrieval Two’s shuttle, the early shift hummed with a new urgency.

The countdown for entry was still nearly an hour away. “I thought spaceships were fast,” Tennal muttered, the echoes of chaotic space tingling like a far-off earthquake in his bones

“Did you hear space was big?” Istara said.

Tennal couldn’t even insult them back, because his wristband started pinging urgently. Movement orders for Agent Fifty-Six, the ping said. Leave shuttle and join pilot specialists on Fractal Note bridge. Report immediately.

So the commander wanted to get some use out of his fleet reader, did he? Tennal looked at the ping contemplatively. Istara and Basavi had spent three days running themselves ragged to give him basic pilot training. It would be a shame if they didn’t even get any use out of him.

He deleted the ping.

Now free of distractions, Tennal shut his eyes to feel the shape of chaotic space and their entry into it. There were patches of disturbed space floating across the entrance. They’d have to weave around those. He could see it in much more detail than their scanning tools. In fact, given the right chart, he could probably draw it.

After nearly an hour, he had a full chart that felt close enough to the maelstrom outside. He handed the results to Istara.