Callum stirred from his sojourn into the bitter past, and it took his heavy gray-green eyes a moment to focus on his old adversary’s assistant. “Yes, thank you. Savi recovered. We were together for over a quarter of a century, even had a couple of children. So yes, it was worth it.”

Yuri merely grunted and downed another shot of arctic-cold Tovaritch vodka. The stewards had been providing him with a steady supply of the tiny frosted glasses all evening. I was beginning to think my boss had a special peripheral to filter out alcohol toxicity. He certainly didn’t betray any signs of being drunk, apart from his ever-shortening temper.

Alik seemed to have the same resilience—or peripheral. He was sitting back in his chair, on his third glass of bourbon. His eyes were almost closed, but that didn’t fool me; he’d been deeply absorbed by the confrontation.

Kandara, by contrast, was sitting straight-backed, fearsomely attentive from start to finish. “I had no idea Zagreus was a dark rendition site to begin with,” she said.

“History,” Yuri grunted. “The Conestoga asteroid went public with the penal colony’s existence three years later. Exactly as the project’s instigators always intended. And as a registered independent government, Conestoga couldn’t be penalized in any international court the way corporations could.”

“Government, my arse!” Callum said gruffly. “Conestoga was a chunk of valueless rock a hundred meters in diameter, in a trans-Jupiter orbit, with an automated industrial base that had a dormitory module bumped on. Total population: fifty.” I watched him eyeing the three assistants in the lounge, anxious for them to understand, to take his side. “Every one of them was a corporate lawyer.”

“Conestoga offered other Sol governments an exile destination for undesirables,” Yuri said. “Everyone agreed on an improved standard for the survival packages, and bam, the queue of convicts was suddenly six months long. It’s a tough life on Zagreus, but it works. The surveillance satellites show an expanding civilization. They’re even venturing beyond the canyon now, building pressurized domes out on the surface. We tamed the bastards.”

“Hoo-bloody-rah,” Callum said. “Do the satellites tell you how many people died in the process?”

“If it bothers you, offer them a new terraformed world. Or maybe open up one of your precious Utopial planets to the poor misunderstood princesses. No? There’s a surprise.”

Callum stood up. “Zagreus is not the way we should judge civilized progress. It’s a bloody disgraceful throwback. Education and a dignified standard of living is the true solution to elevate the poor and disenfranchised. Utopial society produces so few of what you class as exile-level criminals we don’t even exile them. They are removed from the general population, given a comfortable residence, and supported. That is our society’s triumph.” His glance swept around the Trail Ranger. “I don’t know what time zone you’re all from, but I’m off to bed.”