Naecia closed her mouth and gritted her teeth. Aptat had said exactly that. If presented with the chance, they would take the machine. What Naecia took for boastful hyperbole from the flamboyant stringhunter had been the pristine truth. She’d ignored it. And what was worse, they’d had two chances to abandon Aptat and both times it had been she who had overruled the others, insisting that they be brought back on board. Right now, Aptat could be floating in space where the Terror’s Glaive had exploded or shredded to pieces on the Timelance, but no – they were right here, because she had continually intervened, always believing she could manipulate the kidnapping, stealing, scheming stringhunter to her advantage.

“Do you remember, Naecia? When I said I was just waiting for the right moment? I told you what I would do, and you ignored me. Pretended I was more like you, even as I tried to convince you that I wasn’t.”

“It’s mine,” she growled.

“Oh, now, please, let’s not demean ourselves with falsehoods,” said Aptat. “It was never yours! You happened upon it. And then I happened upon you. Explain the difference, please. Morally. I’m fascinated that you subscribe to the notion that anyone should be governed by anything other than consequence. Should I let you keep the Switch Drive because it’s ‘yours’? Just because you assembled the pieces according to directions authored by somebody else? Utter nonsense, all of it. And even assuming some construct of ethics to which you and I had tacitly agreed, you broke it first when you didn’t immediately sign the Silent Child back to me after I salvaged the Terror’s Glaive for the caridianite you needed.”

Naecia sneered. “You would have done this anyway.”

“Of course I would have! Which brings me back to my first point about the idiocy of moral codes.”

Her first thought was her family back on Drev. “So... you’re just going to leave us here to die? Eventually–”

“I know it all. You explained, remember? The big, bad Scythin will destroy this galaxy and the next, erasing them methodically until, at some point through some collision of chance, I too, am erased. There are trillions of galaxies in this dimension and the Switch Drive can take me to any of them. Running was always the better option.”

“What about your investors?”

Naecia could hear Aptat smiling. “Oh, they have no idea what’s coming. Once they’re torn apart by the Scythin and/ or evaporated by the Chime, their shares will revert to me. But really, will anyone care? I’ll be a billion gilleys away by then.”

“Where are you?”

“On my way to fetch you.”

“I thought you were going to abandon–”

“Your words, not mine. I wouldn’t leave the machine’s great architect behind! We’re partners again!” The com went dead.

Naecia immediately selected Ben’s channel, “Ben? Ben. Come in.”

“Anything?” asked Izairis.