Olympus Village, Mars, 16.5.3297: Zoe woke up with a thick skull. First she had to get her bearings. She was lying on an old mattress in a bare room, graffiti was smeared on the walls, and the only furniture was an old sofa that stood in the middle of the room. Dim daylight fell into the room through a poorly closing blind, making its way through swaths of cold cigarette smoke. The house's old air conditioner was struggling to maintain the temperature in the room. On the floor were trash, several full ashtrays, and several acquaintances of hers. Next to her on the mattress was Fay, her best friend, still sound asleep. Zoe stood up cautiously, her balance not yet wanting to cooperate, due to alcohol and sleep drunkenness she had to brace herself along the wall. Feeling her way slowly, she worked her way to the door; once there, she still had to step over Thrill. He was actually a brawny, unpredictable guy, because of whom she would normally change the side of the street, but within her troop there was a strong solidarity, and even a loopy guy like him kept to the rules in the community. She lifted her heavy boots over him and then stood in the dark hallway. Two doors down was the bathroom. Here she washed her face and rinsed her mouth. She had already been out with the others for two days, and accordingly her clothes reeked of a mixture of sweat, alcohol, and tobacco smoke. Today was her 22nd birthday, the troupe had celebrated in with her and they had gone to a concert by the Future Subjunkies at the Apex. After the concert they had moved on to this squat.   She looked in the mirror. Her eyes had deep circles, and her black makeup was smeared. She wore a sleeveless black T-shirt and a short red skirt over holey tights. A half-dozen earrings adorned her right ear, and she wore a dyed-red mohawk, its strands standing up in all directions. She makeshiftly washed the makeup off her face, then headed back to her sleeping spot. Thrill was still blocking the door, snoring, but by now a few people were stirring in the room. She sat down next to Fay and picked up her jacket to search the pockets for cigarettes, but it was all used up. Then a pack of cigarettes landed on her lap, and from the opposite wall Janos waved over. He was wearing black leather pants with a white shirt, and looked even more overtired than she did. He rose with difficulty and walked over to her with unsteady steps. Then he took Zoe in his arms and wished her a happy birthday. Their relationship was currently in crisis; she had been strongly reproaching him for his drug use for the last few days. The worst part of her reproaches had been the hopeless feeling, knowing how futile it was to speak out against his addiction. At the same time, it had hurt her to see in his eyes that he continued to cling to the relationship with her. She postponed her anger for a moment and accepted the congratulations, but inwardly demarcated herself from the tenderness of the embrace. Janos seemed to sense her demarcation, at least after the hug he retreated back to his sleeping bag without further words. Now Fay woke up and fell around her neck as well: "Congratulations, Zora!" she said, and some vague, uneasy feeling arose in Zoe when she was called by her scene name. Fay had shaggy, blond hair; her eyes were alert and always seemed ready to jump at her counterpart. She was extremely thin and her drumming kept her very toned, which added to the impression of being a bundle of energy. She wore a loose-fitting, slightly holey shirt and tight black pants; her thick boots were only half-laced and wobbled loosely on her lower legs. Fay had become a best friend over the past few years. In a way, that had always puzzled Zoe, since they had both grown up so completely different; Fay was a neglected child, and she had grown up in precarious circumstances. As much as her parents' disappearance and being left on her own too soon had thrown Zoe off track, she had grown up in a sheltered family for 15 years. She had internalized a rock-solid feeling that in the end, when all difficulties were overcome, there was always something good waiting; this certainty was completely lost on Fay. Although Zoe always admired Fay for her fighting spirit, she also often had the feeling that her friend overshot the mark, as if her inner compass was not properly adjusted. Fay could only find inner peace in alcohol and drugs.

Finally, the whole troupe started to move. Someone turned on the music, and the whole colorful bunch slowly rose. The cold haze of smoke from yesterday was joined by new clouds, bottles were opened, and after a short time there was life in the joint again. Only Zoe suddenly kept to herself. It suddenly seemed to her that the loud music was only drowning out reality, and the haze in the room was obscuring the view of what was important. The exuberance was not appropriate; it led to a dead end. She had to think about the university, the exam in astrodynamics in three days. And she knew again what she had been running away from for the last few days. All at once the feeling of invulnerability that she had built up around herself the last few days disappeared. It collapsed like a house of cards, and she felt all at once uncomfortably out of place. She didn't muster the energy to say goodbye, but slipped out of the room; when someone asked what was wrong, she just said she had to run to the bathroom for a minute. In the hallway, she hurriedly slipped into her thermal clothes. Then, at the exit of the apartment, she felt herself being watched, and when she looked around her briefly, she saw Janos stepping into the hallway behind her. "Him, of course," she thought, for it could not be otherwise; he waved his hand briefly, and she nodded back, then slipped out. The street outside was still empty. She breathed in the morning air; the icy air woke her up, and the wakefulness felt good.

When she got home, she first got into the bathtub to get rid of the dirt of the last few days, then slipped into fresh clothes. After that, she was only busy studying. Then, the next day, she casually heard that the occupied apartment had been evicted by the police, a few hours after she had closed the door behind her. Thrill, of course, had been arrested for resisting arrest; well, what else.

At first, it had also felt to Zoe like her usual running away when something gets too much or too close, and she thought she would want to rejoin her people after a few days. That this had been her final farewell to her old clique thus only slowly became clear to her over the next few weeks. At first, other things were always more important, especially her studies took up so much of her time, but actually the drive to reunite had been lost as well. Chaos had been a constant companion in their lives, and had felt natural and familiar; now was the time to clean up. Fay eventually got in touch again, and they both promised each other to keep in touch; Zoe knew, however, that Fay would never keep her promise, and felt no desire to chase after her either. If Janos had called, she wouldn't have answered the phone, but either, he anticipated this reaction from Zoe, or he was too busy with himself to call. She let the hair on the shaved-out sides grow back, the fiery red color of her mohawk slowly growing out. The day she cut the last bit of washed out red out of the hair, she dyed it blue.

Bluford Orbital in LHS 3447, 8.1.3305: 5 days before departure to the Distant Worlds 2. She had made the decision to fly along hastily. If the departure had not been postponed, she would not have been able to go at all because of her own long-distance expedition and the incident on Weyn Dock in late 3304. She had just returned from Jameson Memorial, had refitted the Copernicus there for the expedition, then enrolled in the Fleet Engineer Corps. The new mining equipment still had to be tested, and anyway, the days before departure were so packed with appointments - and then she saw this ad somewhere for a hair tint that she couldn't get out of her head. Shocking Pink was the name of the shade, and without giving it much thought, she had already bought the color. In the evening, she took the time to drown out the blue and shape her hair into strands. The blue had now accompanied her for years and had become a symbol of order and self-discipline. The impulsive-chaotic part of her, however, had been suppressed over the years. Meanwhile, the chaos in her was no longer overpowering and destructive; it had lost the threatening. Her whole life situation had now changed. As long as she felt she had not yet arrived in life, she saw in chaos only its destructive side, of which she was afraid. The critical time of training and searching for a place in life was now over, the outer framework was now stable. In the chaotic element, the creative and inventive part was in the foreground for her in the meantime and she felt the need to give this part of her personality more space again from now on. The time of hiding behind a facade was over. When she was finished, she looked in the mirror. She liked the result, but it was also a bit too wild and chaotic for her. She thought about it for a moment, then finally grabbed a hair tie and tied her hair at the back of her head. After that, the image of a delighted Zoe beamed back at her from the mirror.

Early in the morning, Zoe was jolted out of a brief deep sleep phase of an otherwise sleepless night. She picked up the Wristcom and found a message marked urgent from her boss Osbourne. "Urgent meeting on Shen Terminal this morning." was the content, and as her eyes fell on the clock, she cursed inwardly. Less than half an hour left. She sat up slowly and staggered across the room, picking up her scattered clothes. Briefly splashing some cold water on her face, she frantically got dressed. She's about to run out the door when she remembers she should leave a note about where she went. Hastily, she scribbles a note together, then finally runs through the corridors to the Icarus and flies off.

Once on Shen, she made her way to the OSA offices, housed in the Universal Cartographics facilities. The conference room is already full, of course, and her empty chair is at the far end of the room, so everyone in her path has to get up to make room for her. At the front of the lectern was Osbourne, pausing in his text and watching her disapprovingly until she was seated. "Thank you for finding your way to us after all, Ms. Prochaska," he puts in sarcastically, and some of the assembled chuckle. Zoe's reaction takes a few moments, then she just says, "Sorry," and adds an exaggeratedly goofy grin. If there was anything Osbourne couldn't handle, it was not being taken seriously in his importance, and so he turned away irritably and continued in his lecture.

It took Zoe a bit to follow the content, but it was apparently about the latest NMLA attacks and a realignment of intelligence activities. The Thargoid threat moved a bit to the back of the prioritization because it had been decided on the upper floors to devote attention to the NMLA activities. In this, Osbourne was completely in his element, decked out in a shiny uniform, pompous ceremonial talk. Every point, no matter how insignificant, was verbally raped until it dropped dead. Zoe struggled to keep her eyes open. Finally she had to rest her head on her hand, then Osbourne's voice grew more and more distant until she was enveloped in soothing silence. Suddenly she is nudged by her side neighbor, and when her eyes are open again, she looks back into the impatient and angry eyes of Osbourne; in a stern tone he rebukes her: "Having been in the service of an imperial princess does not entitle you to any special tours in our organization. Remember that, or you will suffer the consequences." Zoe is suddenly wide awake from the shock and feels her face turning red. Her fighting spirit gives way, and she excused herself in the direction of Osbourne; he then brought his presentation to a close without further interruptions.

When the meeting broke up, Zoe hurriedly jumped up and pushed her way through, then ran back to the Icarus as fast as she could. She obtained launch permission from Shen Terminal flight control and picked out the course back to the INV Achenar's Courage in the navigation computer.

The note in the cabin was hastily written and brief: trace of Josh found. No time for goodbyes. I am infinitely sorry! I'll be in touch as soon as I can". And Julie was gone.

No answers to phone calls. She transferred the rest of her salary and left a text message, "All the best in your search! Miss you, please get in touch as soon as you can.

Zoe leaned against the ship's wall, her gaze focused on infinity. She remembered how they had met. Julie had left the last ship she had worked on, in the Omega Sector on the Omega Mining Operation base in June 3304. There were a lot of pirates hanging around the system at the moment, and she thought it would be a good opportunity to do some research on her kidnapped son. By the end of August, she was starting to run out of money, so she was looking for employment again. Zoraya was just passing through on her tour to Sagittarius A* and was looking for someone to be a copilot for the tour. So on 8/28/3304, she hired Julie.

The two quickly discovered that there were many similarities in their biographies that bonded them together. Both had lost important people; both had chaotic relationships behind them. They both knew from the past the feeling of being dead when there wasn't constant action around them, their world not threatening to collapse at any moment. Julie always said Joshua was the only positive thing that had come out of their old mess. What made them different was that Julie had become very strict through her experiences and tried to escape the chaos through self-discipline, Zoe on the other hand needed a great deal of independence and always felt trapped if she didn't see an escape route at any time.

A few years later, on the Distant Worlds 2, they flew together again, they were just back in Colonia, and Zoe, looking for traces of her missing parents, found the wreckage of Commander Hyford. They sat together in the cabin, Julie wearing her medium-length blonde hair tied tightly into a ponytail as usual. Julie's eyes were clear, and seemed to look slightly annoyed at Zoe: "You have to put the past behind you. You're getting in your own way with your search." Zoe replied, "You're one to talk. As if you could just give up on Joshua!" - "Joshua is probably still alive, that's an important distinction. How long have your parents been gone now? 15 years, 16? You're not going to find anyone out there saying 'hey honey, sorry, we forgot to call you'. The most you're going to find is cold skeletons in a wreck who aren't going to help you either." Julie's tone resonated anger at Zoe's lack of compliance. Zoe knew Julie was right, of course. And both women knew that Zoe would not give up her quest.

And now the sudden goodbye. "I'm going to miss you," Zoe thought, then cleaned up the bunk.

Zoe had finally found the time to fly to Mars High in Sol when news of the death of Harold Duval's assassination and the stations attacked by the NMLA arrived. The thought of Aisling Duval tightened her throat. She could understand only too well how the princess must have felt about the sudden loss of her father.

Without further ado, Zoe left Mars gain to intervene in the conflict in Eurybia. The decision to fight against the Blue Mafia on the side of the Keltim Empire League was quickly made. Criminals who support terrorists and murderers must be brought to justice. None of this bunch could plead innocence anyway. The fact that an organization like the Blue Mafia spoke of defending freedom in its appeal to its supporters made Zoe furious.

When she thought of pirates, she always immediately thought of Julie Price and how they had met. It was late August 3304, and Zoe had just left for Sagittarius A* on her own. She flew through Omega Sector VE-Q b5-15, on her way to the Omega Mining Operation, and it seemed to her that she had never seen so many sinister figures in one place before. She therefore decided to hire a copilot on the base. While filing through the job applications, Julie caught her attention because she was a woman; Zoe would not have wanted to make the long flight with an unknown man, especially someone who was hanging out in such a scary place. And in Julies short resume there was something about her training with the FIA, and since she knew Roger, she associated reliability with people who had worked with federal agencies. Zoe pressed the connect button on her wristcom.

After Zoe introduced herself and gave a brief account of her background - parents entrepreneurs from Mars, Zoe's studies, then her time as a self-employed pilot, now a permanent position at UC and on her first expedition of her own - Julie was annoyed already. "Spoiled rich girl who doesn't know what to do with her time, on a great discovery tour; just great," she thought. Julie had grown up on one of the frontier worlds, and she had run away from home at 16 to escape the drunken tyrant who had once been her father, sometime before in the distant past. "And at 16, you started working for the FIA? What exactly did you do there after your training," Zoe asked, and when the answer came that she had been a transport pilot in the logistics department, Zoe smiled and said "pretty much the same thing I'm doing now at UC". Just like you, sure, little one, Julie thought sarcastically. Then, of course, came the question of why, why did you quit there so soon after finishing your training and give up such a secure job? Normally Julie had made up a smooth story for this question in job interviews, but now the truth burst out of her. "Because my little son had been kidnapped by pirates, and I wanted to search for him. You don't have the opportunity to do that at the FIA if you're just shuttling containers back and forth between port A and B." Then Julie waited for the affected face and the sighed 'I'm so sorry for you', and then she would end this silly conversation with an enraged comment. But the expected did not happen, instead Zoe replied: "I can understand that. When I was 15, my parents disappeared, and I've been searching for the what and why ever since."

Julie had a raging anger in her about the mess that life had thrown at her over the years, which she would have loved to let run free. But not now and not here she suddenly thought, and at the end of the conversation the two agreed on a consideration period so as not to rush the decision; but actually at this point they had both already decided to do the tour together.

Later on the flight, they had plenty of time, and Julie added more details to her story. What Zoe particularly remembered was the one sentence that her little son had probably been kidnapped to be taken into slavery because, as Julie had added with a fossilized expression on her face: "That I would never have been able to pay any ransom at all must have been clear to them from the beginning." Julie was aware that her search was almost hopeless, but stopping had never been an option for her.

Since then, when Zoe heard the word pirate anywhere, this episode was always her first association. What made less sense to Zoe was the rest of the Empire's call. That Liz Ryder may have been involved in the transaction with the NMLA may have been possible. But why did the Empire want her to continue her business after the battle? And work together with her afterwards? Something didn't fit together at that point. Did the IISS know more about the background of the attacks than was published on GalNet?

But answers to these questions would be found in due course. Now there were more important things to do.

Months ago already Zoe had received an invitation from Montgomery. He was just participating in an OSA exercise on Lave. The exercise took place on a remote area of the planet. At first she was reluctant to spend her time on a military exercise and had evasively responded to the invitation. In the meantime, however, the desire to see her old friend again prevailed and she changed her mind. After arriving on Lave, she had to park the Icarus at a predetermined point; the exercise area was in a restricted zone and she was taken by shuttle to the base camp. The camp consisted of a few tents, where Roger was awaiting her at the landing point, and in the background she saw two further people she didn't know between the tents. The roofs of the tents were sagging, the rainwater collected had formed puddles on them. "Now that looks promising," grinned Zoe.

As Zoe stepped out of the shuttle, her boots sank into the softened mud. "High Imperial Visit! And, how does it live among slave drivers?" Zoe was greeted ironically by Roger. Zoe replied that she was surprised herself that she was already happy about the change; she could never have imagined living in the Empire before. And especially to find herself in the wake of Aisling at any point. "They said there had been complications with the princess, I heard?", he continued. Zoe told him how she had been arrested in the palace on Emerald, under suspicion of working undercover for an enemy intelligence agency. How perplexed she was by the accusation until she finally remembered during the interrogation that her contact with Major Reedings of the FIA had put her in this situation and she was able to clear up the accusations against her. Roger reacted with surprise and said, "this information about Reedings is classified and was never meant for your eyes. "Pending your confirmation just now, no one gave me this information either," Zoe replied, raising an eyebrow, "but it seemed logical to me. After all, I have been working with her for some time now." Roger indicated a nod of his head and raised his shoulders slightly, which in Zoe's experience normally meant 'okay, enough of that', and he promptly changed the subject and gave her a briefing on the exercise.

Roger was a model of sobriety and objectivity. She had never seen him stunned; she found this calmness admirable. He was so different in his nature that she had feared time and again to encounter incomprehension or rejection of her way, but her fears had always remained unfounded. The limits of his acceptance of her moods often seemed to her to be almost unlimited. And his characteristic shrug of the shoulders had always been one of the most intense ways of expressing his emotions. For the most part, Zoe envied his calm, but sometimes she could strangle him for it.

There was no precise information on the purpose of the exercise. As was usual when working for Ms. Reedings. Zoe went into her tent, dropped her backpack on the ground somewhere, lay down on an mattress and relaxed, stretching out and listening to the raindrops falling on the tent. She took the whole thing as a recreational vacation. Weapons training, camouflage in the field, fire and movement, building booby traps, guerilla tactics and the like formed the curriculum. Drones provided the opponents. Against whom do we practice war? Thargoids, Relic AIs, terrorists? As usual, her questions were answered with meaningless comments only.

Everyday life in the next days consisted of patrolling deserted villages, tracking down enemies, laying ambushes. Mud and never ending rain. In the evenings she sat together with the team in the camp and listened to anecdotes of the men who reveled about their basic military training in the distant past and raved on and on about weapons technology. Zoe found the company pleasantly uncomplicated.

The sense of community reminded her of moments in her childhood when she had sat with her father on the shore of the lake that had once been the Valles Marineris trench system and he had told her stories of the red, icy desert that Mars had once been. Memories from a time when her life had felt natural, simple and uncomplicated. Uncomplicated moments had been far too few for Zoe ever since. And suddenly she felt a longing to see the places of her childhood again.

A few days later, her small troupe again roamed the local wilderness, Roger leading them towards one of the abandoned settlements. As she walked behind him, Zoe suddenly remembered a conversation with Julie Price. On one of the endless flights through the vastness of space they were sitting in the Icarus together, and they were talking about Roger. After Julie asked if there was more than friendship going on between Zoe and Roger, Zoe burst out laughing: "A relationship? With him? If I asked him why he's been a friend of mine for years, he would only answer (and Zoe pulled a face, and spoke in an exaggeratedly indignant voice) 'because we met when we worked together at the UDS', and would be completely stunned by how I could ask such a stupid question. He would be totally clueless and seriously thinking that I had forgotten that already."

"Are you on the point?" Roger's comment abruptly brought Zoe back to reality. He had stopped and looked at her. Zoe suppressed the amusement that forced a smile on her face and only produced a short "I'm fine". "Then we can go on," he said, clearly not convinced by her answer, and turned back to the path.

At that moment, the sun broke through the clouds and Zoe felt the warmth brush across her cheeks. For a moment Zoe stopped, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I don't know yet where the path will take me, she thought, but I feel that I am headed the right direction. Then she gripped the handle of her weapon tighter and followed the rest of the group.

Zoe was initially preoccupied with herself and her pain in the cell. She lay still on the primitive couch that served as a bed, and with every breath she took her ribs ached. The only thing that raced were her thoughts. Feverishly she searched for an answer, for the why. Why did everything around her just collapse? The familiarity of this feeling had a devastating effect on Zoe. She was lying there in this condition for a while.

In the hallway she heard footsteps approaching. The door was opened, and princess Aisling Duval entered the room alone. Zoe stood up, but bent noticeably to the pallid left side while standing. Zoe looked at the princess and tried to read her expression, but could make nothing out of it. Aisling went up to Zoe and looked at her inquiringly for a moment. "Zoraya, why don't you sit back down, I can see that you're in pain," and added, "Good morning, my guards informed me that warnings have been received regarding your background. Care to tell me about it?"

Zoe looked confused. "What? My background? No one has bothered to explain to me even remotely what I'm being held for," it burst out of her.

Aisling pulled out a dataslate and skimmed some records. Then she looked at Zoe again and asked "Arissa Lavigny Duval ordered it personally, I had no control over it. There have been reports of your membership in an association.”

Zoe told her about her work at Universal Cartographics for the last two years, and described her duties there. Then she expressed her astonishment at the allegations.

Aisling was getting closer and said: “I'd like to know that too, and Universal Carthographics is harmless, after all.”

Zoe was avoiding Aisling's gaze and replied: “I've worked there for over two years.” Then she thought carefully and added: “A friend alerted me to the job posting at the time.”

Aisling sat down next to Zoe and looked at her: “But why would a cartographer be wanted, pray tell?”

Zoe answered: “I initially worked as a transport pilot for the logistics department, and exploration jobs I only started late, around the middle of last year.”

What did the princess know, Zoe asked herself? She was in a quandary; on the one hand, she didn't want to betray the princess, but to mention the OSA would be a serious betrayal. Her thoughts were racing to find a way out. Had Aisling noticed how Zoe's right hand began to shake? This fear was in Zoe's mind. She still looked for signs of sympathy or distrust in Aisling's face, but found no answers there. Zoes eyes seemed to be searching the ground frantically.

Aisling turned closer to her: “Look me in the eye, as your new leader I expect honesty and loyalty. We have official sources that clearly indicate that you have connections with enemies of the Empire. According to this report, you are a danger to my personal safety." Zoe looked up, highly alerted. "I am not here to spy! Nor am I here as a saboteur, and certainly not to harm you!” she said excitedly. Aisling followed up:“Tell me. I'm not angry with you.”

Zoe answered her hastily:”Thank you... I...I'm actually forbidden to talk about it. UC's office in Bluford is shared by another organization. We do intelligence work, but not against the Empire. I don't quite know what to say, I think it all sounds very implausible.... but I have never spied on behalf of the Federation against the Empire!”

Aisling looked at her dataslate again for some time. Then she looked up and replied, "Your account is consistent with our investigation, and I believe you. Do you swear to serve me faithfully?" Zoe swore it. "I would never want any harm to come to you", Zoe added. With a ceremonial gesture, Aisling deleted the suspect file from her slate. She extended her hand and invited Zoe to declare her allegiance, and Zoe grasps the hand, insecurely at first. “I would like to be allowed to stay in your service”, she said, now with a firm look. The tension drains from Zoe's face, and she adds:”I'm very happy to have been accepted here. Thank you for keeping all I said confidential, I'm totally overwhelmed right now”. “It is my pleasure to welcome you.”, Aisling replied, and smiled slightly. Again she apologized for the rough action of the guards, and asked Zoe for understanding of the security measures. Then she stepped outside the door and handed out instructions: Zoe was to be released from custody and was free to go wherever she wished and a doctor was to be called immediately. The princess looked back at Zoe for a moment and nodded goodbye, then retired in haste. Zoe, for her part, sank back onto the bed and took a deep breath of relief.

After this event, Zoe was assigned to the wing for special use, with Emily as her immediate superior. But this condition should not last long, very soon Aisling's priorities changed. It quickly became apparent that her responsibilities would leave her no time at all to lead a squadron. The command of the squadron was transferred to one of the subordinates.

Shortly after she finished moving to Shen Terminal, Zoe received a message that made her wonder. It was an invitation to the Blue Shadow squadronn, signed by Aisling Duval. At first Zoe smiled in disbelief and wanted to delete the message, but then she started researching. The sender didn't seem to be faked, and the squadron had really been founded recently. She then decided to reply and asked to be given a few days to think it over.

The idea of working for the Empire would never have occurred to her a few months ago. Apart from the fact that she had grown up with the representation of the Empire in the Federation media from a very young age, Imperial society violated several of her most important personal beliefs regarding values such as freedom, and she could see nothing but ignorant superficiality in the imperial pomp. Yet from the outset, her curiosity to try something new prevailed. When she woke up the next day, she decided to simply ignore her highly moralized remorse and accepted.

Her conscience, of course, was not so easily to be tricked, and so Zoe was bombarded with self-doubts, and the warmth with which she was received in the community only strengthened the voice in her head that cried out loud treason. When she heard that Emily Chambers, another squadron pilot, had shot a woman some time ago when it turned out she had been spying for the Federation, the doubts in Zoe's head suddenly took on a very real, threatening form.

The first meeting with Aisling took place out in space, some of the squadron pilots met outside at the Guardian ruins. Zoe and the princess positioned their ships in front of each other, so they had visual contact and talked. Engrossed in conversation, Zoe, with an unconscious movement of her hand, hit the throttle lever and caused an accident that was very embarrassing for Zoe. Zoe's chieftain "Banshee" absorbed the damage with it's shields, but the princess' Asp Explorer took serious damage from the impact. Even Aisling's assurance that she would not hold a grudge against Zoe's because of the blunder could not fully reassure Zoe.

At another meeting with the Princess out in space at the end of August 3305, Zoe was invited to the palace at Cemiess. The joy over the invitation quickly turned into entirely practical considerations. On the one hand, Zoe had no desire to submit to the palace protocol, but on the other hand she did not want to offend Aisling.

A few days after Princess Aisling Duval's invitation, Zoe flew in the courier "Odyssey" from Shen Terminal in Guuguyni to Mackenzie Relay in Cemiess. She prepared for the visit by dusting off her space suit until it at least looked almost new. Then she took a shuttle from there to the surface of Emerald, and went to the palace. Here she reported to the security personnel at the main entrance, where her personal details were checked. The guard went to his office, relatively bored, and found her name on a list of the Princess' invited guests, but according to the rules of the service, he still entered her data into the computer, and he was quite astonished when suddenly warnings appeared on the screen. The grid search had discovered connections to an FIA officer, and involvement in a company that was listed as having connections to FIA operatives. Immediately, it triggered a silent alarm, which was used to call for backup.

Zoe was standing outside looking around the area when she suddenly noticed two gunmen hurriedly approaching from the left, while at the same time the guard came running out of the entrance building with two other gunmen, laser guns pointed at her, ready to fire. She was about to protest loudly when the commands "don't move" and "hands behind your head" were shouted at her. While she was following this, the four guards had approached, three kept their distance, while one approached her from the left and grabbed her right wrist to cuff her. "What the hell," she wanted to protest, but even before she had finished the sentence, the guard next to her punched her left side with his free fist so that she lost her breath and collapsed. She was then handcuffed and carried into a plain room that had been prepared as a detention cell. The guards left the room and locked the door behind them.

Report 15/06/3306

Today's assignment was to search 64 Arietis and all neighbouring systems for clues. After a short stay on Weyn Dock I started my investigations in HIP 16824. Here I searched the area around the destroyed INRA base Carmichael Point and found two landed spaceships. One was an Asp Explorer of the local security authorities and therefore not of interest. The second ship, parked a bit further away, was the Diamondback Scout "Defiant Riot" (registration MA-05D), registered owner Malavir. He belonged to the Inheimagni Jet Society. Thereupon I made a side trip to Inheimagni. I landed at Morgan Terminal and learned that the Jet Society is currently contracting political assassinations. The organization is very small, and only represented in Inheimagni, so I assume that they only act as middlemen, distributing orders for their clients to willing pilots. The Jet Society has several smaller facilities in the system. I visited a military outpost of them and hacked one of the two communication arrays there, but - apart from the usual trouble with the security forces on site afterward - without any result. More productive was Pullman Enterprise on planet A 5 B. There I could acquire some encrypted files, their decryption is still in progress.

Then I continued to map all systems in the vicinity around 64 Arietis, but these are mostly uninhabited and I found nothing of interest there. Interesting systems in the wider area are Aries Dark Region DB-X D1-63, with a Thargoid structure on planet 7 A. In orbit around the planet was the fleet carrier IGS Solace (registration G51-Z8Q). There were no activities to be recognized on the carrier, and permission for docking was denied. Another remarkable system is Pleiades Sector LN-T C3-4, on planet 2 A lies the derelict of a crashed Thargoid scout. Neither the Thargoid structure nor the wreckage showed any unusual activity.

When returning to Weyn Dock in the evening I was attacked while approaching the station. The attacker called himself Hekanaho and flew the Python "Midnight" (registration HE-25P). The ship belonged to Jet General Solutions. I severely damaged his ship in combat, and he then dropped into a neighboring system, Arietis Sector FG-X B1-1. I took up pursuit to find out where he was flying to. He had evidently noticed the pursuit, however, and directed his ship only to the second star of the uninhabited system, where I destroyed him and his ship. The only question now is, at which point of my research today have I alarmed the JGS.

I then flew back to Weyn Dock. Here I met Precious Cotton again. In 3304 she was still working as executive on Boulle Landing, but after the takeover by Argus Panoptic Corporation she had been transferred to Weyn Dock. Here she now works as an administrator at JGS. Maybe she knows something useful.

Z. Prochaska, Intelligence division, OSA Unit 52

Zoe arrived on Shen Terminal in Guuguyni on the 19th of August 3305 and roamed the corridors of the Coriolis station, following the notes on her wristcom. The thought of what Ms. Reedings may have written about her in her report to the new office made her nervous. She reached the inconspicuous office, which had been transmitted as a meeting place, and was greeted by Rich Osbourne. He formally welcomed her to OSA Unit 52 and apologized for the absence of the rest of the team, saying the office at Shen Terminal had only recently opened. The rest of the team would be at the Unit 52 operations center at Schuster Station in Ienpalang. To ensure that she can move around the Empire and investigate without arousing suspicion, he was entitled to award her an honorary title of knight of the empire, and for transport a Courier of the Imperial Navy would be at their disposal.

Her main mission was to continue the investigation of the Weyn Dock incident. After the Argus Panoptic Corporation took control of 64 Arietis, there were increasing signs that the people behind Operation Myrmidon had retreated to Imperial territory, where bioengineering is not subject to the strict ethical rules of the Federation. Jet General Solutions, which had already been in financial trouble before the Weyn Dock incident, is in an even worse position now that one of its major investors has cut off its funding. The exact source of the money could not be clearly determined; the trail is lost in a foundation with the pompous name "Pro Bono Publico". Dr. Mayakovsky himself had vanished after the happenings on Weyn Dock, and no one knows his exact role in all this, maybe he has just been a pawn that was simply spaced somewhere into the vast blackness. Zoe is supposed to find evidence that can be used to identify and convict the people behind it.

He skimmed her file again, and suddenly looked up in surprise: "You haven't served in the armed forces; well, this is an unusual case, we haven't had someone like you before. Is it no longer customary to serve over there in the Federation, or has the level of recruits become so low underground," he asked, and she had the impression that he could only just hold back from adding "that they're already sending us people like you"; in any case, he looked at her extremely critically. "I was recommended for the job. If you had read the file before I arrived, you would already know the reasons. Or shall I explain them to you myself?" Rich overlooked her comment; if she had hit a sore spot, he didn't let it show. Instead, he changed the subject and assures her that the attack on her life on 5 May 3305 in the PRAEA EUQ OG-O B6-3 system must have been committed by some renegades, and that the ISS had nothing to do with it. Then he ends the conversation with a reference to his further obligations, again pointing out the unfinished furnishing of the office and unmistakably showing Zoe the door.

After the short conversation Zoe was confused at first and busy sorting her thoughts. Rich made a very superficial impression on her. His imperial pomp and circumstance annoyed Zoe, and she felt overwhelmed by all the information. On the other hand, she herself was surprised how calm she had remained when he had questioned her qualifications. Out of defiance and for her delimitation she has the Federation emblem applied to her Imperial Courier before she departs from the station.

Janos He was born on Olympus Village on Mars in 3276. While Zoe misses her parents, Janos could have done without his. His father had a serious drinking problem, and which led to uncontrollable outbreaks of violence. His talent saved him from being expelled from school on several occasions, and his school-leaving certificate was good enough for him to study afterwards. He owed his degree to his talent, not his consistency. Because of the neglect in the dysfunctional family, he became self-employed at a very early age, and he left the parental household even before leaving school. At this time he was already financing his independence mostly through drug dealing. If he had been honest with himself, he would have admitted to himself that he was already tracing his father's path with his lifestyle, and that his moving out was ultimately only an external separation; in fact, he was still completely trapped in the parental system.

He studied at Olympus Village University and earned a degree in Computer Sciences. He met Zoraya Prochaska there, but at a stage where he was hanging out a lot with drugged people and other petty criminals, they had a very wild and chaotic relationship. Zoe had finally split up and completed her studies, he needed two more years (he graduated in 3301) for that. On the day Zoe had left, Janos had actually realized immediately that her decision was the right one and that he had to do the same. But pride prevented the realization from leading to action for quite some time. It still needed a lot of pressure from outside to bring about his decision. Finally caught by station security selling drugs, he bought his freedom by making a full statement that put his former cronies in jail. He struggled with his conscience for some time after that, but actually he knew very well that his old pals were not worth his pangs of conscience. He made a very good graduation, after he had freed himself from his detrimental environment. When self-knowledge had finally prevailed against all his inner resistance, the longing for Zoe also came back with all its might. However, at first he only knew that she had left Mars two years earlier and had no clue where to look for her.

He started working on Mars at Chengdu Robotics, a subsidiary of the Achilles Corporation, as a junior engineer. After the incident on Weyn Dock in the 64 Arietis system in December 3304, he found out that Zoe was working at the Bluford Orbital Universal Cartographics office and decided to follow her there; for that, he gave up his job on Mars. He scraped together all the money he had saved and headed for 64 Arietis. There he was apprehended by the Void Stalkers on Weyn Dock when he tried to access one of their craft. When he saw Zoe again, she reacted very reservedly to him, but because of his stubbornness he did not give up. The OSA hired him as a freelancer for the task of testing federal installations for intrusion resistance. Janos still knows nothing about the existence of the OSA and has never met Reedings, he gets his assignments through Zoe. He knows a lot about computers, but he is definitely not a pilot, which is why he waited until the Advanced Docking Computer was available to buy his first own ship. He currently operates a Cobra Mk III out of Bluford Orbital.