Author's note:

I've just noticed an enormous mistake in my calculations. As you know I strive to be somewhat scientifically accurate with SecondConquest. The Milky way is a spiral galaxy, and I decided to put the Frontier two spiral arms across from us. After all, there's one habitable planet in the middle of our spiral arm (Earth) so it would make sense that a "dense zone of habitable planets" (the frontier) would be located in a similar area to ours in the galaxy, right?

The milky way is 100,000 to 120,000 light years across, so that would put the Frontier some 40,000 light years away from us.

The problem is, I accidentally missed a zero or two when doing some calculations. Or maybe three. And thus, the Frontier is one thousandth of the distance away from earth than I had intended to put it.

What does this mean? In the context of the story, nothing. The Second Conquest of Paradise's plot still works, so long as the Frontier is really, really, really far away from the Core worlds, Carlyle is a few days' warp away from Venice 3, and any other worlds (there might be more planets introduced later) are a proportional distance away, the story still works. If I were to re-write SecondConquest to make it perfect, I'd put the Frontier the correct distance away from Earth and up the strength of all the warp drives to compensate.

It's just a tad embarrassing for me, that's all.

Anyway, enjoy chapter 23!

A shadow flashed across the planet as Solvenice dropped below the Horizon. Above, the starships and the orbital defence grid glinted in the sunlight that skimmed the horizon.

The temperature began to drop, as it had every night since the Austraeus / Shikinami arrived. Aisling began to shiver; this was not a good temperature to be wearing just a t-shirt and cargo pants in.

The sky grew darker. As she walked back towards the shipyard on the outskirts of the town, Aisling turned to take a look back at Alpha's city centre. It reminded her of Brink, of home. That place of nuclear iron, where the rich dwelled in towers of shining steel while the poor welded couches and ovens and spectres and starships, making just enough money to buy iron for their own houses on the side. That place far, far away on the other side of the galaxy where parents and siblings would be waiting for her.

A small, sad smile crept over her face and she stopped to gaze upwards.

A couple hundred billion stars gazed back down at her; tiny pinpricks of light in a big, dark universe. Here she was, forty light-years away from home, a small girl on a small planet.

Samel lived in a shack of nuclear iron. As did most people in Alpha city, evidently. Men and women went to the markets to sell and exchange and barter during the short days before returning home to spouses and children where they would rest before getting up in the morning to do it all again. It was a hard life. No easier than Brink.

There was just one main difference between here and Brink.

This was a place worth fighting for.

This was a place she could fight for.

This was a place she had been fighting for.

She clenched her fists. Her smile grew bigger, brighter.

"The sky sure is beautiful, huh?"

Nathan stood beside her.

"Yeah. It is," she answered.

"What are you thinking about?"

She dragged her eyes away from the stars, stared within his eyes.

"Do we have to go home?"

He stared back.

"There are people waiting for you to return."

"If we win this war, they could come here."

"We? You want to be a part of it?"

"I didn't before," - she looked back upwards - "but it would be a shame to let this sky go to waste."

"When did you get all philosophical?" he laughed.

"When I remembered home. I could sit back and be a civilian for the rest of my life, if I wanted. Just a pawn in someone elses' hands, be it the Militia or the investors back on Brink. Or I could fight."

"You're serious?"

She paused for a moment, looked down at her feet.

"Too right I am. When I get back, I'm asking to stay with the IMC. I know they want to evac the civilians as soon as possible. I - I want to say with them, to fight till this war is over and we have peace on the Frontier."

He laughed.

"Then I'm with you. Now lets go get those shuttles fueled up."

"Oh, Hi!" laughed Zeta, opening the door to her apartment. "I've got the probes all ready for you!"

The man in black - Bruce, his name was - returned the smile. "Hello again, Zeta. Nice place you've got here."

"It's just cobbled together from nuclear iron, but it does the job. Rent doesn't cost much - come on in, take a look around."

He's the first man I've invited inside for months, thought Zeta. Except Snake. But he's... well, he's like a clanmember. Family.

"Clothes-hook to your left," she offered, before motioning toward one of the two chairs at her table. He removed his jacket and sat at the table, and she dragged a comms probe onto the table, began to point out the various parts of the two-metre long missile.

"Alright, here's a probe," she said, pretending that she knew it inside-out. "Thruster at the back, compact microwarp drives located near the front to make way for the fuel tanks in between the two. Broadcasting array and computers located in the tip. Any questions?"

"How do I use it?"

"Aha. They're built to be operated by personal communicators. There are three addresses you need to know - let me have a look - this probe's serial number is '832941'. So, you can write a message to the broadcasting array by using your communicator and sending a message to '832941-Broadcast'. '832941-Computer' will let you set a destination and route options. And sending the message "Launch" - case-sensitive - to '832941-Launch' will launch the probe. Easy, huh?"

"And there's no application for that?"

"Mmm… well, there is, but you want these probes to be anonymous, right? The moment you use some third-party application for launching your comms probes, you open yourself up to spyware and such. It's much better to do it manually."

"Oh. That sounds-"

"Complicated?"

"Yeah."

"I can give you a hand if you want."

He's not sure. Wary. Untrusting. Come one, 'Bruce'. Let me in.

"Okay then… but you understand, I'm buying these probes secretly for a reason, right? You're helping me launch them, no more."

"Gotcha," she smiled warmly. "I'll keep my nose out of your business."

For now.

"I know some good spots for launching small probes like these, and the forecast for tomorrow night sounds like it'll be a good night for launches. We could do it then, if you like."

"That sounds alright," he said. "Where do you want to meet?"

"Here would be fine. I've got a transport we can take - the best spot for a launch is on a hill to the east of Alpha. If you're here at, say, 21:30, I can take the probes with us and be ready to launch in half an hour at 0:30. Sound good?"

"Yeah. I'll see you here then." He stood up. "Can I leave the probes with you?"

"Sure." She lead him to the door. "Have your messages ready then, okay?"

He smiled. "Definitely. I'll see you tomorrow, Zeta."

He turned, walked down the iron stairs from her apartment and disappeared into the night. Probably to join his four black-veiled friends.

Hold on… he's left his jacket behind!

"It's nice to be back on Venice 3, huh?" mused Sarah under the soft orange glow of the Sandtrap's lighting.

"Mmm, yeah," mumbled Cheng "Bish" Lorck through a mouthful of steak. He'd waited a long time for this steak - it took longer to cook in the lower atmospheric pressure. "Definitely."

She smiled at him, took a sip from her wine and a small mouthful of carrots. "We've got a whole month till the next attack on IMC spectre production facilities. We should go do something!"

"Well-"

She was on a roll now. "We could go to Beta, lounge around for a bit… or we could go to Oceanus 7! I hear it's getting close to this system, so the flights would be cheaper…"

"Well, honestly? It doesn't matter where we go, so long as we're together."

Sarah looked straight at him for a moment, studied his harsh brown eyes. Before bursting into laughter.

"Careful, you'll spill your drink!" Bish cried.

"That was so cheesy!" she spluttered. "Ahaha!"

"Thanks, Sarah," Bish said sarcastically. He frowned. "...Are you okay?"

She shook her head, pointed at her throat, and he rose from his seat in an instant, chair toppling to the ground behind him. A step later and he was behind her, left hand supporting her chest as she bent forward, right hand driving into her back between her shoulderblades as a waiter started running over. Once. Twice -

Sarah gasped, a tiny shard of orange flying out of her mouth. She coughed a few times, the waiter passed her a towel.

"Are you okay?!" Bish cried.

"Ahh…" she wheezed. "Yeah, I'm good. I shouldn't have laughed so hard…"

"Ha," said Bish, somewhat sadly. "I was that cheesy, huh? Ha, ha."

"Y'know what, though? That's what I like about you."

"Ha- eh?"

"You're so honest. I mean, sure," she rolled her eyes, "it gets funny from time to time… but in the end, I know I can trust you."

"We're back!" Aisling called as she, Nathan and Philip passed the gate to Samel's shuttle emporium. "Heard you got the fuel."

"Yeah," replied Jaggerjack, coming to meet them, Samel at his side. "And the oxidiser, too." He slapped his hand on a large iron silo - empty, from the dull sound it made.

"I've filled the fuel and oxidiser tanks already," explained Samel. "These two birds are ready to fly."

The birds in question sat side by side in the sand in the centre of Samel's shuttle emporium, dormant for now but carrying enough fuel and tritium to jump across the solar system in a few hours.

"Thank you guys," said Samel, "for everything. Really." He looked at Aisling. "You saved my daughter and my ass from those Militia tax collectors. I really can't thank you enough."

"Well, it's been a pleasure," replied Jaggerjack for her. "And you've saved our asses too. I can't believe you managed to pull three custom shuttles together in such a short time."

Samel smiled. "I had helpers. Three of them, in fact."

The two men shook hands and Aisling ruffled the hair of a very sleepy Elizabeth, who, by the looks of things, was awake way past her bed-time so that she could say goodbye.

"Cya later, kid," Aisling whispered.

"When will you be home?" mumbled Elizabeth. Just like my own sister, thought Aisling.

"I won't be 'home' for a while," replied Aisling, somewhat sadly. "I'll visit as soon as I can."

"Okay…" said the girl, who promptly collapsed in her father's arms, fast asleep.

"The shuttles are yours now," said Samel. "I wish you the best of luck in whatever endeavours you are about to pursue."

"We'll need it," thanked Jaggerjack, before turning to his soldiers. "Alright, everyone! Get aboard!"

The shuttle's airlocks retracted backwards to reveal the interior, seats facing sideways with their bottoms toward the shuttle's thrusters. Aisling waved one last goodbye to Samel, owner of the shuttle emporium on Alpha, before clambering inside and lying backwards on a seat and strapping herself in. Nathan lay to her left - and Danniek lay to her right.

"Hey, Aisling. How's it going?" he asked. "Nice work on the shuttles; it's a pity I couldn't have helped."

"Ah well," she sighed. "We got them done in the end. I'm exhausted, though." She yawned. "I wonder if I can get to sleep during the jump?"

"Depends on the engines you installed. Fusion rockets and mass drivers are pretty quiet but I'm not so sure about chemical thrusters. You might be able to."

"Overwatch?" asked Jaggerjack from the cabin of the first shuttle. "Plot a trajectory to the TKY Shikinami. Once you're done, I want you to wait until I am strapped into my seat before launching and taking us along the trajectory you've plotted. Understood?"

The computer display said, "Understood."

"Overwatch, this is Pilot Riley Jones, codenamed Rimjob," said Rimjob from the cabin of the second shuttle, licking his lips. "Engage the thrusters and take us to the Shikinami."

The computer display said, "Understood."

They paid for their meals and left, throwing coats over their shoulders in the frigid thin air outside the Sandtrap, gazed upon each other under the sky and under the stars and starships that hung above.

"Thanks for tonight, Bish."

"It was a pleasure. We should do this more often."

"Yeah… anyway, think about the holiday idea, okay? There are a couple of jump freighters in orbit above Beta city right now that might be headed for somewhere nice. We could fly over to Beta and board one of them."

"I'll think about it. See you later, okay?"

"See ya." Sarah drew him into a hug, held him tight. He could smell the perfume on her hair, feel the rising and falling of her chest. She closed her eyes and suddenly he was kissing her, head tilted backwards and to the right, nose pressing against her cheek, eyes closed without a care in the universe. For a few short moments they ceased to be Sarah and Bish, morphing together as one being, hearts intertwined, connected by the lips until they could hold their breaths no more.

She smiled that cheeky smile of hers once again. With a wave he turned to walk back to his apartment, ready to fall asleep high on Euphoria.

Aisling felt the seat rumble beneath her as the shuttle began to rise - slowly at first, then faster, then slower as the shuttle began to hover. Beneath her, the jump drives began to whirr as the flywheels inside started spinning up to store the energy necessary to create the miniature black holes necessary for their operation. The noise rose to a high-pitched whine. The thrusters began to turn now, and the shuttle started moving upwards. She found herself being pushed further into her seat and the shuttle began to angle upwards and then there was a bang! and the whirring noise stopped.

"That was a sonic boom!" called Daniek over the noise of the chemical thrusters. "We just jumped through the atmosphere!"

Aisling unbuckled her seatbelts and stood up, stretched her legs. The thrusters were now angled entirely downwards; resulting in her being pulled downwards toward the floor. Around her others did the same.

"Sorry to disappoint you, everyone," said Jaggerjack, "but we'll be docking with the Shikinami in a couple of minutes! You all need to sit back down again."

"We've found the hacker," called Christina Baxter over her communicator. "He's with his girlfriend at the moment."

"Ohohohoho," murmured Virgo Evans. "A romantic, huh?"

"Maybe you can kidnap yourself a man," shot Dominic Hu.

"Evans: 0, Hu: 1," muttered Lawrence Wesley.

"Shut up," growled Misha. "They've finished kissing. Baxter, he's headed your way. Are you ready?"

"Copy that. Ready."

A second later, her voice came over the communicator again. "Package secure."

"Oi, Stone. Do you copy?" called Misha.

"Yeah, I'm here," said Stone from the Shikinami. "What's the matter?"

"We've completed the mission. We'll be sending you the best hacker on Venice 3 as soon as possible."

"Great work, team A."