“I’ve run the simulation a dozen times, and unless I’m suddenly terrible at my job, I’m telling you: this machine can make new bridges. We don’t have to enter or emerge from any of the twenty-nine known bridgeheads. This device can open a new wormhole bridge, from anywhere, to anywhere – assuming I can figure out the coordinate system it uses, anyway. So far I’m only able to simulate random openings, though they all lead to points within the Milky Way. That’s how the Anjou made it back to our solar system: they just opened a bridge from wherever they were and passed through and emerged in Trans-Neptunian space, exactly where we found them floating.”

Callie sat back down, mind spinning like a reaction wheel. The bridges were like subway lines on Earth and Luna and Mars. You got on at a particular stop, and got off at another stop, and that was it. There was no stopping in between stations. You couldn’t just hop off wherever you wanted. If Ashok was right, they could… What? Make their own stations? They could go anywhere?

The discovery of bridge technology had revolutionized humanity’s relationship with the universe. If this greasy black cube worked the way Ashok thought, then that relationship was about to be transformed again. To be able to go anywhere…

“Check it again,” she said.

“I checked it–”

“Again. Get the ship’s computer to look over your work too. This isn’t something we can afford to be wrong about. If there’s a group of Liars somewhere out there with this kind of technology? This is huge, Ashok.” Callie had never fantasized about having eighty-foot-high statues of herself erected in her honor, but if she could give this kind of tech to her bosses at the Trans-Neptunian Authority, she might have to get used to the idea.

Assuming they didn’t all die. “Ashok, all the Liars fled the station, right after you showed Paolo that device. Why would they be so afraid of it?”

“Well, I mean… the box opens wormholes. It would be really bad to open a wormhole here. If I didn’t know what I was doing, and I had the box plugged into the White Raven for real instead of in a simulation… Sudden breaches in space time are bad for Liars and other living things.”

She imagined a wormhole opening in the center of Meditreme Station, and shuddered. That notion of a black hole devouring them all wasn’t so far off. “Get that thing off the station, Ashok. Put the box in the canoe and send it out remotely, as far as you can. Tell the port authority you just want to test the canoe’s controls.”

“Aw, cap, it’s not like I’m going to accidentally push the wrong button. The bridge generator doesn’t even have buttons–”