“What about my selling Port Authority and its assets to the Donovanians? How did they react to that?”

“At first? Howls of outrage. At least until the plunder started to mount up and they really got to thinking about your log entries. Your justification that it would be easier to just establish another base rather than deal with a crazed bunch of libertarians. Somewhere in there, you’d made a note that leaving them cut off to starve and be eaten by quetzals was a fitting end to their lunacy. I think your words went something to the effect of ‘Sometimes it’s more efficient to allow a cancerous lesion to die of its own stupidity rather than waste the blood, effort, and pain necessary to cut it out of the Corporate body.’ And they had more than your word on it. They also had the returnees. Marston, Shankrah, Myers, and their hardheaded companions.”

“How did they fare?”

“Just about as well as you’d expect a bunch of leather-clad, quetzal-killing Donovanians to integrate into calm, hyper-regulated, and boring Corporate life. They were all involved in contract litigation when we left. Most applied to ship back as soon as they heard Turalon was spacing for Donovan again.”

“And?”

“They were turned down as being, and I quote, ‘Too political.’ Not my problem. The Corporation can figure out how to keep a lid on them. I was happy enough to watch the last of them pack up and walk off my ship.” Abibi paused. “They backed your actions at Port Authority. About the titles and all.”

“And I’ll bet as the questions started to pile up, the families behind the Board started twisting their underwear into knots. Especially since I was a Taglioni tool who’d gone AWOL.”

“Oh, yes.” Abibi raised a finger. “You want to know why Falise Taglioni is waiting two decks down from where I’m sitting? And the others are watching her every move? They’re the advance agents for their respective families. The movers and shakers in The Corporation were just starting to get a handle on how clap-trapping valuable our cargo was. Not to mention that our logs documented that we left plenty of containers behind. They had just started to evaluate the value of the gemstones, let alone how to get them into the economy, when Ashanti, deemed lost in space, pops in with even more wealth and a more electrifying story of terrifying years in space, cannibals, and it even has lost crewmen aboard from the missing Vixen. Not to mention news of Tamarland Benteen to boot!”

“Must have helped to get you and your crew off the hot seat.”