“Like I want your guns ruining my ship’s beautiful silhouette forever. Can you make it happen with a quickness? It’s a bit of a trip out to Glauketas, and Stephen has a religious festival coming up.”

“The Church of the Ecstatic Divine, right? My wife’s mother joined that a few years ago. I don’t like to picture it.” She shook it off. “I’ll put a rush on the order. Everything is slower today with the mass Liar defection, but I’ll prioritize.”

“Do you, ah, have any idea why the Liars are taking off?” She was keenly aware it was all her fault, and pretty sure Warwick didn’t know it, but she wanted to hear what the security chief’s working theory was.

Warwick jabbed at a tablet with her fingertip. “I have no idea. There aren’t any aliens left on the station to ask, not a single one, and it’s not like the answers would mean much anyway.” She shrugged. “I’m just trying to keep everyone calm. They’re acting like the Liars leaving is an early warning system or something. There’s a rumor going around that the Liars got wind of some threat and scampered off to avoid it, but as far as we can tell there’s nothing to worry about within range of our sensors, and no bad news from any of the outlying bases. Even so, we’ve seen a twenty percent increase in departures among the human population. Not many of the permanent residents are leaving, at least. When the station doesn’t explode into fine dust over the next couple of days, or spontaneously melt into nano-goo, I’m sure things will get back to normal.” There was an edge to her voice. Callie suspected the TNA was scanning the area around them very carefully for potential threats, and putting out feelers to all their informants and spies in organizations friendly and otherwise throughout the system. She thought of their canoe, floating out in the black some distance away with an alien artifact at its heart, and was glad she’d gotten it off the station, just in case.

“So you don’t think there’s a threat?” she said.

Warwick looked toward the ceiling, as if pondering. “Between you and me? I’m concerned. Not outright anxious, but concerned. I haven’t seen any intelligence reports with troubling information, and I don’t know where a serious threat would even come from. We’ve been getting along well with Jupiter, and nobody else who wields any power is even out here on the edge of things. This is where people come to get away from trouble. That said… I’ve called in all the roving security patrols to the station, and I’ve got them combing over the Liar quarters, looking for anything suspicious.”

“Are they finding much?”