“So it wasn’t the Liars,” Callie said. “But the Liars knew something was coming, or why else would they run off? So the attacker must be someone, or something, the Liars fear. A different race of aliens? Lurking out in the Oort Cloud somewhere? But how would they know we have the generator? Does it produce some unique radiation signature they could track?”

“Not that I know of,” Ashok said, “but there may be a signature when it’s used. It opened a bridge from wherever the alien station was to here, so maybe that lit up someone’s sensors? Or else… maybe someone followed Elena all the way from the alien station when she escaped. Someone trying to recover stolen property.”

“That station put the bridge generator on her ship. Why take it back when they gave it to her in the first place?”

“Maybe someone realized they messed up and gave the wrong candy to the wrong baby?” Ashok shrugged.

Callie tried to drum her fingers against the seat but the acceleration gravity was strong enough to make it difficult. “So we could be going after a ship controlled by unknown aliens, who were willing to kill fifty thousand people to destroy a black box they gave to us in the first place. It doesn’t seem to track.”

“I don’t know. Sometimes people make mistakes and go to pretty serious lengths to cover them up, if the mistakes are bad enough,” Ashok said. “I just don’t know who else it could be. If it wasn’t the Jovian Imperative, and it wasn’t the Liars, then–”

“I’ve got something on our scanners,” Drake interrupted. “It looks like– Shall, would you confirm?”

“Confirmed,” the ship said. “Position and trajectory fit the available data. That’s either the ship that fired on Meditreme Station, or it was close enough to see who did. And… it’s a Liar ship.”

“I give up,” Ashok said. “I don’t know what the hell is going on.”

“Go after them,” Callie said.

“That is, ah, very not necessary,” Drake said. “They must have noticed us, too, because they’re coming around, and pretty clearly setting a course to intercept us.”

“Are we sure it’s a Liar ship?”

“One of their classic starfish configurations,” the ship said. “Though I don’t know for sure there are Liars inside it. By design those ships are difficult to pilot for anyone with fewer than six or seven appendages, but some augmented human or a very well-coordinated team could–”

“Hail them, Janice. Let’s see what they have to say for themselves. They’re either the perpetrators, or they were witnesses, and either way, they’re persons of interest.”