She said, “I feel it too.”

Magellan was near the center of the Milky Way. A trade hub and close to many of the favorite pleasure spots of the rich, Magellan was synonymous with money. Niko was very glad that Takraven was covering the Thing’s docking fees.

She thought he might have been anxious about his ship, which made her feel better about returning it.

He met them on the Thing. He looked much the same as he had the first time Niko encountered him.

He did have a bodyguard droid with him this time, a bristle of thorny black metal. She didn’t blame him for that at all. After all, while they were returning his ship, she had to admit they had acquired it under questionable circumstances.

He looked around the air lock where they stood. “Everything seems intact,” he said. “I gather from your account that there was some issue with pirates?”

“We spent some time in the IAPH before we managed to break free,” Niko said dryly.

His eyebrow rose. “The IAPH, the same one described in Skullduggery and Sacred Space Vessels?”

“The one and the same,” Niko said.

“There’s a story in all of this that I want to hear,” he said. “Will you tell it to me?”

They took him to his own dining chamber—where the window that they had watched Q-space through now showed the port, and the other tiny ships, the figures of workers crawling on them like ants—and settled around the table.

The ship produced food and drink.

Takraven stared at it. “This is not what it usually gives me,” he said in a perplexed tone.

He took a cautious sip. “Why, that’s quite pleasant!” he exclaimed.

He set it down and took up one of the cookies, this time taking a full bite. His eyebrows rose again, and he ate the rest in three quick bites. He mopped his face with a napkin and looked around at them.

“Someone has taught my ship to cook!” he said. “I never heard of such a thing happening with a bioship. I always thought you had to eat what they produced or else use a replicator. I was contemplating taking out the ones it had if I’d kept racing.”

“But you didn’t?” Niko asked. “The Thing could outperform anything I’ve ever piloted.”

The ship experienced pride to a degree it had not before.

He shook his head. “Too much work, coordinating things and paying entrance fees and having inspections and all of that. I tried it for half a solar year, and after that I went back to my old ways. The Thing’s lost on me, truth be told.” He patted the table’s material. “Let’s hear this saga.”

The battle bot bodyguard went off to charge itself at Takraven’s direction, and the atmosphere grew more relaxed.