“They’ve been transferring a lot of lucole to one of the labs for months. Rumor is that they’re working on some kind of weapon. Not sure what it does, but something that requires that much lucole isn’t good.” He crossed his arms. “And the shipments. They’ve only let minimum rations off the base to supply the colonies and the fleet the three years I’ve been here. We’re talking a few containers here and there leaving the base. They never even made a dent in what’s stored. Now you’re here, and they’ve already shipped out an entire bay and a half. In a few days, it’ll be two full bays gone. They keep going this way, few weeks and the whole base will be empty and—”

“You can’t be serious,” Ahiga said.

“Yes. If she’s Amihanna, then the Murtaghs are finally going to make their move. It can’t be a coincidence.”

“No. It can’t. Did you know about any of this?” I asked Ahiga.

“No. But…” He looked hard at the ground. “Everyone knows I trained Declan. I was his commanding officer for a while, and that’s enough not to trust me fully.” He stood up. “Damn it. I need to talk to Matthew.”

I wasn’t sure what good Matthew was going to do. “Do you think he’ll tell you anything?”

“Maybe. He knows everything that’s going on here, but I’m not sure which side he’s on.”

Ice it all to hell. If they were trying to draw my father here… “You can’t make that call. If my father comes here with his fleet and they have some sort of new weapon ready for him, then the war could be over before it begins. With SpaceTech winning. I can’t let that happen.”

“I agree. It’d be better if we didn’t call him,” Ahiga said. “At least not until we know what kind of trap they’re setting for your father and what this weapon is, but I’m not sure anyone will tell me anything about it.”

This whole situation was the worst. “We should wait for Declan to resurface. It’s the only way to avoid a war and not have my father drawn into some sort of trap. I have to hope that Declan will get here before…”

“I agree,” Ahiga said. “If Declan’s heading here, then depending on when he went into cryo…” He thought for a second. “Worse case—let’s say he went into cryo two days ago, right before we woke up. That’s the latest it could’ve been because of the automessage. If he’s coming here—and that’s what I truly believe because you’re his number one priority right now—then it’s only twelve more days until he’s awake, and he’ll be here. Can you—”