“No, Cardenia,” Nadashe said, and there were several gasps as she used the emperox’s personal name, in a flagrant breach of protocol. “It’s not over. Perhaps for me. Not for the House of Nohamapetan.” She took her tablet, which she had kept in her hand this entire time, and tossed it onto the table. She pointed at it. “The minute your lackey here put Hatide’s report in my hand, I sent a message to the Prophecies of Rachela. The troopship with ten thousand marines and all their equipment and weaponry. By the time you showed up and started your tirade, the bridge crew had locked itself in and begun moving the ship toward the Flow shoal. It was already positioned for immediate transfer. In less than fifteen minutes the Rachela will be through and on its way to End. It’s too late to stop it.”

Grayland glanced over to Korbijn, who grabbed her own tablet, leapt up from the table, and started making calls. Then she turned her attention back to Nadashe. “Your bridge crew can’t stay there forever.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Nadashe said. “They’re not the only ones I have with us. I’ve been working on this for years. When the Rachela comes through to End, we’ll control the system. We’ll control its imperial station first, and if my brother doesn’t control the surface of the planet by then, we’ll control it soon enough. Then it’s simply a matter of waiting, isn’t it? Now we can defend the exit shoal to End easily enough. We’ve planned for that. And when the Flow streams shift, we’ll start negotiations.”

“You don’t understand,” Marce said. “Roynold was wrong. There’s no shift coming. There’s a collapse coming. Every single Flow stream is disappearing in the next decade.”

“Excuse me, what?” said Upeksha Ranatunga.

“That’s why I’m here,” Marce continued. “My father confirmed it. We confirmed it with data taken from ships coming to End. It’s all shutting down. All of it. End is about to be as isolated as every other system.”

“That’s your interpretation of the data,” Nadashe said.

“It’s already happening,” Grayland said. “The stream from End to Hub is already closed. The stream from Hub to Terhathum is next. Your family’s home system, Nadashe. Your home system.”

Nadashe shook her head and smiled. “No. And it doesn’t matter anyway.” She pointed at Marce. “If he’s correct, then billions are about to die. End is the only system in the Interdependency with a habitable planet. Every other system is man-made habitats. They’ll last for years or even decades. But eventually they’ll fail. They’ll all fail. Except for End. Which the House of Nohamapetan will control, if it doesn’t already.”