“What will it be?” she asked. “Have we arrived at the Capella system? Or are we staring out from our tomb? Destined to be a floating mausoleum among the stars?”

He crossed slab-thick arms over his muscular chest. In the reflection, she could see his lips pinch into a thin line, his completely black eyes fixed on the swirling patterns of stars. A faint shrug barely lifted his shoulders. “It will be what it will be. They chose Turalon because she made it to Capella and back. The other ships, all of the ones that were lost? Who knows? Must have had some flaw. Maybe a fatal error in the statistical programming.”

“Nemesis made two successful trips before she vanished,” Falise reminded. “And then . . . poof. Gone.”

She waited, once again studying him for any tell, any reaction that would give her an edge.

He shifted, slid a black-booted toe across the sialon deck in a dancer’s move. He did that as a way of reminding people of his speed and balance. He was, after all, his family’s most formidable weapon. Smart, deadly, and focused. The perfect choice when it came to sparring for Suharto interests on Capella III.

“Let us assume that we’re lost,” he said in a mild voice. “Assume that the fail-safes don’t work. That we’re so far from a star that we can’t recover enough fuel to refill the tanks. That we’re marooned out in the black. Forever. Your aforesaid mausoleum.”

He was speaking to her deepest fears. Not that she’d give him the slightest hint by word or expression. Voice flat, she said, “We promptly eliminate the nonessentials, as they did with Freelander. Find and plot a course to the nearest system that looks like it might have resources. Split the living quarters between the families. After that, we hold on as long as we can until we make it to someplace where humans can survive.”

“Was that your briefing from your family?” Cinque asked mildly.

“Was it yours?” she shot back.

When he said nothing, she told him, “We all know why we were chosen: Donovan has turned out to be worth more than even sordid old Radcek himself might have hoped. With Turalon’s and then Ashanti’s sudden arrival in Solar System, The Corporation is now shaken to its core. Hidden away in his quarters just down the hall is a Board Appointed Inspector General—the renowned Suto Soukup, no less—granted unlimited authority to investigate the situation on Capella III. After a century and a half of stability, the precarious balance between the families is now threatened. And by what? A handful of human rabble who appear to be sitting on the greatest wealth in the galaxy.”