Cinque had scored his biggest triumph by brokering an alliance between Chad and Bart that, for almost six months, froze Falise out. Came within a whisker of weakening her to the point that she might have been politically neutered. Fortunately, she had anticipated just such a move given that her uncle, Chairman of the Board Miko, had pushed Turalon’s rapid turnover. His authority had been behind getting the ship spaced before the other families could fully understand the implications.

While Kramer’s revelations had been instrumental in breaking that alliance, it helped that Falise had betrayed Chad’s artful intent to cut Cinque out of any share of Donovanian profits should they actually reach the planet.

For that, Falise had needed to compromise Colonel Creamer, who’d been a Grunnel sympathizer from the start. She’d compelled Lieutenant Malanda Tomolo to violate regulations and use tech to spy on a meeting between Chad and Creamer. All of which she’d spilled to the others in this very room.

Since Turalon reverted symmetry and popped back into regular space, that alliance between Chad, Cinque, and Bart had begun to reassert itself. She, after all, was a Taglioni. Miko’s niece, and sister to Derek, who was already doing who knew what on the planet. That implied that she suddenly had the inside track on Donovan, which necessitated that they align against her.

Fine. Let them. They didn’t know about Charlotte, Chad’s valet. About how much she hated space travel, or what she would do to escape her present situation.

Falise leaned back in the captain’s chair and pulled up a long leg, grasping it by the ankle as she studied the holo projection of Donovan. So much was different now that they knew they were going to live. The stakes in the game had changed: They no longer played for survival in case of the worst, but for wealth, power, and control when they reached the planet. And the key to that might be Derek, though God forbid how that might work out. How her spoiled, drugged-up, and womanizing brother might be a player stretched the imagination. He’d always been a groveling fuckup given to tantrums.

So what exactly is your game, Brother?

Falise chafed. Every communication she’d sent Derek’s way had been—after the piss-sucking radio delay—replied to with “Unavailable at the moment.”

She held that against this mysterious Two Spot, who obviously didn’t understand that upon receipt of a Taglioni message, every priority in his life must change until said message was delivered.