In many respects the Fair Sisters had led the way, being amongst the first to pool their resources and capital in order to develop and settle the Night's End system. The result had been a flowering of both Hives, which swiftly became amongst the most powerful of all the Bandati Hives. But this period of cooperation, although lasting some centuries, would ultimately prove short-lived given the entire spectrum of history.

The Fair Sisters – Roses then explained – had their own secrets to keep, carefully hidden both from the Shoal and from all other Hives.

'Before our species made contact with the Shoal Hegemony,' Roses continued, 'we had already been contacted by the Atn. The Atn's collective memory goes back more than a billion years, and there are a hundred theories about where they came from and whether there's any purpose to their wanderings across the galaxy. Most of them still travel the Milky Way at sublight speeds in hol-lowed-out asteroids, and over time they've visited almost every corner of our galaxy.' Roses' gaze turned to Trader. 'Even the Shoal have had no control over their comings and goings.'

'Our ships generously offer sanctuary within their bellies to those little fish that desire it,' said Trader. 'Those that choose to swim alone in the vastness, becoming prey to time's sharp teeth, do so entirely outside our influence.'

'The Bandati first learned of the Shoal from the Atn, when a fleet of their asteroids arrived in our home system,' Roses continued. 'But, even after contact with the Shoal, we continued to make use of the Atn's own ships to secretly explore unpopulated systems immediately adjacent to those we had already settled under contract with the Shoal.'

'At sublight speeds?' Dakota shook her head in disbelief. 'But that could take-'

'Centuries and longer, in most cases,' the Queen broke in. 'And sometimes a great deal longer. It was always a long-term strategy, but one that offered solutions to certain questions the Shoal clearly preferred to leave unanswered.'

'You mean the Maker caches,' Dakota replied, regarding Trader with a stony expression. 'And you know about those now?'

'We do,' said Roses, 'now that Trader has done us the favour of enlightening us. We realized the Shoal were looking for something, so as we settled each new system we explored the neighbouring region of space in case we could discover just what it was they were looking for.'

'And what you found was another derelict Magi starship?' Dakota said into the silence that followed.

'Barely three and a half light-years from here, in a system known as Ocean's Deep,' the Queen picked up the thread once more. 'Unfortunately, that ship has proved overwhelmingly resistant to our attempts to breach it over the intervening millennia.'

'Wait a minute,' said Dakota, pulling herself to her feet. Nobody made a move to push her back down. 'You had your hands on a derelict for thousands of years and you didn't manage to get inside it?'

Shit, she thought. No wonder Immortal Light had reacted that way when she and Corso appeared out of nowhere, with another, identical, starship.

'We believe Immortal Light faced greater difficulties than you did,' Roses informed her. 'Even discounting the damage caused by the exploding nova, the ship you arrived here in was in much worse condition than the one at Ocean's Deep.'

'So I'm still alive only because you think I can get you inside this other derelict,' Dakota muttered. 'Great.'

'That's right,' Roses replied. 'However, it may interest you to know that Immortal Light still believe Lucas Corso can help them gain entry to it.'

'You still haven't told me what he's doing here,' Dakota protested, pointing at Trader.

'The Emissaries are aggressively expansionist,' Roses ignored her comment. 'They won't have to accept Immortal Light's word that the superluminal drive could be used to destroy star systems. Before very long, they'll have the full text of your forced testimony, and the destruction of Nova Arctis will provide all the proof they need. We now know an Immortal Light contingent is currently on its way to rendezvous with an Emissary superluminal fleet that will then transport them to Ocean's Deep and the derelict hidden there.

'In return, Immortal Light would gain their own small superluminal fleet, though controlled by the Emissaries, an Emissary tactic to further destabilize the Shoal Hegemony's control over this part of the Milky Way. And the first thing the Queen of Immortal Light would do with her new-found power would be to destroy the Hive of Darkening Skies utterly'

Roses moved closer to his Queen before turning to face Dakota once more. 'In the face of what we know, we have no choice but to offer our help to the Shoal and thus stop Immortal Light from handing the derelict – as well as your friend Corso – over to the Emissaries. In return for our help, the Shoal will grant us significant technological advantages over rival Hives, as well as allowing us to retain our colonies, despite our smuggling activities.'

Slimy, fish-eyed bastard, thought Dakota, staring hard at Trader. What else have you dangled in front of them?

'What exactly are the Emissaries?' Dakota asked, trying to keep her voice even.

'According to Trader, they took their superluminal technology directly from a Maker cache. It might just be luck that they haven't worked out yet what else the superluminal drive is capable of. Even if they already suspect, all the evidence very strongly suggests they are no closer to understanding or being able to implement the process causing the nova effect. The data inside the Ocean's Deep derelict, however, would save them the trouble of discovering it independently. And then, Miss Merrick, we would have a nova war on our hands.'

'You act like I'm just going to go along with you on this, but you're forgetting something,' she replied quietly. 'Didn't it occur to you to wonder why I destroyed the derelict that brought me and Corso here? Trader wanted to destroy it so badly himself he blew up a star to do so. But he failed. The knowledge is dangerous enough that he'll kill all of you too, and I can tell you right now that you can't trust one word he says.'

'We're aware of the risks,' said Roses. 'We've disseminated what we know far and wide, to trusted sources and secure stacks across dozens of Bandati systems. I can't speak for Immortal Light, but I suspect they'll have done something similar.'

Dakota shook her head. 'You still don't understand what you're dealing with. Trader's been doing this for a long time. He's a fucking master of deception. Trust me, you'll all be signing your own death warrants.'

'For you to not act, dear Dakota, would allow blackest of secrets to fall into hands of dread Emissaries,' said Trader. 'And would allow them to spread across all our worlds like a great black tide'.

'But perhaps you are right,' he continued, moving his field-bubble closer to her. 'Perhaps you are instead fit only for acts of cowardice and betrayal. And yet you have a rapport with the Magi fleet that for the moment may well be unique, and may well prove our one advantage in the coming conflict.'

Dakota stared at Trader with undisguised loathing. 'So you think I'll just up and destroy the derelict in Ocean's Deep because you want me to?'

'If necessary. Or, better yet, steal it,' Trader replied, 'that being a skill in which you obviously excel. Once we arrive at the other system, you will also find Corso and bring him back from the Emissaries.'

'Will she really be able to destroy the other derelict?' asked the Queen.

'Perhaps,' Trader replied. 'But it would be in her best interests not to.'

'Pray elucidate,' said the Queen.

Trader swivelled in his field-bubble until he faced the Queen, moving closer to her. 'Current events are preceded by woeful discovery of ancient artefacts lost in stellar wilderness, when it was believed the very last of such had long been destroyed or lost. And now the revelation, alas, of yet another Magi starship, its existence known to your Hive these long millennia. Perhaps this is the very last of them, but I now have reason to believe more may lurk in unseen depths, yet unfound. The details of their location may even lie within this last derelict – and possibly the locations of the remaining Maker caches dispersed throughout our galaxy.'