“Aero! It's nice you see you again!”

Oh God, it's the chatterbox. Turning, he said, “Lily, it's… nice to see you again.”

“So you're joining us again right?” Lily bounced up to greet the Wraiths. “Ah! And sorry about Twain by the way. He's an idiot, but it's okay. Con will be in command next time!”

“Wait, Con?” Aero asked. “Who's that?”

“Our org leader of co– Oh! Oops, people here call him Sid,” Lily said.

“Oh, so you knew him from before Parallax,” Aero said.

She pouted. “Well obviously. He's my big brother you know…”

Wait, how was I supposed to know that?

The pout transitioned back to her earlier smile. “So are you coming next time?”

“Yes, but we won't be your escorts this time,” Aero said. “We're bringing our destroyer this time, so our fleet will operate around it.”

“Oh, I know,” Lily said. “I asked Con to hire you again, but I think he only agreed because you had that.”

“I see…” Aero said.

“You were just so amazing with frigates and fighters, I really wanna see what you can do with something more.”

“Uh… Thanks?”

“But Con's even better you know. This time, you'll actually get to see how we Innocent Bystanders are supposed to battle.”

“I'll… look forward to it… I guess.”

“Oops! I was supposed to meet Andy right now. See you next time Aero!”

The Wraiths watched as she dashed down the corridor and disappeared around the corner.

“Wow Aero,” Sinn said. “Congratulations on finally getting a girlfriend.”

“What makes you think that!?”

“Well she's obviously interested in you,” Sinn said. “And it's nice to see you flustered every so often.”

“It's not like that,” Aero said. “Not like that at all.”

“So who was that?” Myles asked.

“Lily Parks,” Aero said. “She was commanding Doctor Fred back in Twin Arcs.”

“So it's another fun character,” Sinn said. “Where do they get all these people from?”

“She behaved the same way back in the battle,” Aero said. “I was tempted to block her on comms.”

“I can see why,” Myles said. “She'd be bouncing off walls if this were zero-g.”

“I'm sure she gets the job done,” Aero said. “Sister or not, that Sid Griffen wouldn't put someone incompetent in command of a priest ship.”

“Aero,” Sinn said. “I understand your preferences, but you should be careful. It's not just her VR body, she's definitely underage in real life.”

“What the hell makes you think I'm interested in her!?”

“We're here April. You can start now,” Nova said.

“Thanks Nova,” April replied. “I'm starting the gravitational wave scanner again.”

April's personal ship, a small survey craft named Ivory Moon, arrived in the Specter system with April, Nova, and Stevie onboard. Though tasked with choosing the best system for a dominion's development, their search remained fruitless two systems into their expedition.

“Anything yet?” Stevie asked from the copilot's seat.

The panels before her beeped and hummed, with several displays flashing data from their instrument scans, with each searching for something different. “Not yet Stevie,” April said. “You can see there's a yellow star out the window, but aside from that, these things take time.”

“Well time is money,” Stevie sighed. “We're still fifty million credits short in starting a domain, why would Aero ask us to start scouting now?”

“Sinn said something about a big windfall,” Nova said. “Is there any job worth that much?”

“Not that I know of,” Stevie said. “Unless he's selling the Phantasm, which is impossible knowing Sinn, we still need about two weeks of escort jobs to begin development.”

“They're meeting with the Innocent Bystanders,” April said. “They told me at lunch earlier.”

“Whoa there,” Stevie said, “You mean those Innocent Bystanders? Why are we working with them again?”

“He said he wanted to borrow their shipyard and repaint the Phantasm,” April said. “I'm not sure if he was serious though.”

“Sinn's like that,” Nova said. “He's serious.”

“Yeah, that's our leader,” Stevie sighed. “At least Myles will make sure any deal is reasonable.”

The instrument panel chimed and displayed the scan's first results. “Huh, that's weird,” April said. “Who was it that mapped this gate?”

“It was Jake,” Nova said.

“Is something wrong?” Stevie asked.

“Not really,” April said. “Just that there's only one gate here, so this is a terminus system. Why didn't Jake say anything?”

“We ran out of propellant, so I guess he just collected the nav data and turned around,” Nova said. “What's special about a terminus system?”

“It's easily defensible,” Stevie said. “You only have one gate to guard, so you can spend less on defense. On the other hand, there's no escape for a fleet if you're defeated.”

The instrument panel chimed again, signaling its completion. “Looks better than the last two systems,” April said. “The scan found three gas planets, two rocky planets, and two asteroid belts.”

“Where should we start looking?” Nova asked.

“We're looking for exploitable resources,” Stevie said. “Those would be in the asteroids, so let's go to the closer belt.”

“Okay,” Nova said. “How close should we get?”

Why do they always want to look at the floating rocks? April sighed. Having explored countless systems, April soon realized that among all the systems of Parallax, only their asteroids bore a resemblance to each other. Regardless of their contents or size, asteroid appearances typically fell within three categories – the common black lumps of rock, the uncommon dull lumps of rock, and the rare shiny lumps of rock. Yet within their surfaces contained the majority of a system's economic value, so explorers and prospectors never failed to scan those regions first.

“Um… April? Can you hear me back there?”

“Huh? Oh sorry,” April apologized. “What were you asking?”

“How close do we need to be for your sensors?”

“About a hundred klicks,” April said. “I can get a good estimate if you skim by enough of those lumpy rocks.”

“Roger,” Nova said. “ETA is five minutes.”

Another fifteen minutes until we can look at the planets and moons. April stared at a faint red dot beyond her window, a gas planet according to the sensors. In stark contrast to the asteroids, the variety of planetary systems exceeded imagination. With her own eyes, she had seen oceans of magma, cliffs of ice, metallic plains and prismatic clouds. For her, nothing in Parallax trumped her enjoyment from flying over alien landscapes in an atmospheric cutter.

Halfway to their destination, Stevie asked,“Do explorers actually profit from this? Seems like a waste of time to me.”

April cringed. Obviously, not everyone shared her views. “It's not about the profit,” she said. “There's far more to exploring than mineral prospecting.”

“I don't see it,” Stevie said. “There's nothing else in undeveloped systems that is worth any credits.”

“What about the gas giants?” Nova asked. “Can't we pull propellant and coolant from those?”

“Even the last two system had those,” Stevie said. “It's convenient, but you won't profit much from them.”

“No offense Stevie,” April said, “but is making credits really all you think about in game?”

“It is,” Nova interjected. “I think making credits's the game for him.”

“That's a perfect way to put it,” Stevie said. “It's why I had Sinn make me the treasurer too.”

“Each to their own I guess.” April watched the stars fly past her window as the ship turned towards the asteroids.

“We're here,” Nova said.

“Thanks Nova,” April said. Outside April's viewport, numerous lumps of rock drifted by, and she started their search for valuable elements. Their ship traced along the asteroid belt for five minutes before the scan's completion and its results appeared on her tablet.

“Hmm… Looks better than average.” April passed the tablet into the cockpit area. “Take a look, Stevie.”

“Not bad,” Stevie said. “If the other belt's like this one, then this system could support a small ship factory and a defense station or two. Since its a terminus system, I'd consider this place for a dominion site. We should check the other belt too.”

“There's a gas planet on the way,” April said. “We should pass by there too.”

“How long of a detour is that?” Stevie asked.

“Okay, we'll go by,” Nova said.

“Wait, why?” Stevie asked.

“'Cause April wants to,” Nova said. “And I'm in charge of exploration.”

“Fine,” Stevie groaned.

“Thanks Nova,” April said.

Lasting all of five minutes, their flyby of the red gas giant allowed April to confirm its suitability for fuel extraction and the presence of two moons, one volcanic and one icy. With the planet's data collected and its appearance saved to April's screen capture portfolio, the three proceeded with the inner belt survey. As expected, the inner belt had a prospective value which mirrored the outer belt. Such results satisfied Stevie, so Nova turned the ship towards the gate.

“What's the next system?” Stevie asked.

“The one Jake named Phantom,” Nova said. “He said it's got a binary star system.”

“Do those still have asteroids?” Stevie asked.

“They can,” April replied. “Just no close-by planets.”

“Two more systems to search,” Stevie said. “Then I can finally get back to my investments.”

Suddenly, one of April's sensors chimed.

“Just a second Nova, I think I should run a few more scans,” April said. Could it be?

The signal, detected by her wide-area scanner, originated from the system's second rocky planet on the other side of the system.

“No way. That can't be right.” At such distances, wide-area scans lacked accuracy and most often gave incorrect readings. But, this reading couldn't be ignored, and April focused every sensor on her ship toward that planet.

“What's wrong?” Nova asked.

“Oh my God,” April said. She shook with anticipation. Each additional reading reinforced her suspicions. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…”

“Uh… you're scaring me out now April,” Stevie said. “What are your sensors even saying?”

“Nova, get us in orbit around the second planet!” April said. “We've got to take a closer look.”

“Okay, okay,” Nova said. The ship realigned itself and flung itself toward the distant sphere and launched itself forward at full throttle. “Just tell us what you're seeing back there.”

“I don't know,” April said. “I've never even heard of anyone discovering a combination like this in Parallax!”

“Just tell us what it is!” Stevie said. “You're killing us here.”

“Oxygen,” April said. “Lots and lots of oxygen... Like, the planet's atmosphere has oxygen gas, carbon dioxide, and even water vapor. I've never heard of an oxygen reading this high. The nitrogen level's barely sixty percent!”

“Hold on,” Stevie said. “That sound's like Earth's atmosphere.”

“It is!” April said. “Only the terraformed planets in Confederacy space are like this.” According to the game lore, no human habitale planets had ever been discovered. Instead, several worlds had their original environments nudged into human habitability over the course of centuries at great costs.

“I see it,” Nova said. “But it looks purple colored for some reason.”

“Well that's not very Earth-like,” Stevie said. “Are you sure your readings are correct?”

“I'm sure about the readings, but that doesn't mean it'll look like Earth. We'll know when we get there,” April said. As they advanced, more and more data bolstered her confidence. Under her breath, she murmured each result. “Orbital distance, two AU, average surface temperature, fifteen Celsius...”

A blue, red, and white globe greeted them on their arrival, with oceans of flowing water segregated by rusty-brown continents and clouds of white stretched across much the surface. With clouds obscuring half the planet's geography, Nova flew the Ivory Moon below them to reveal snow-covered rocky mountains and coursing rivers. Though seemingly devoid of life, every instrument told April the world could sustain human life without modification.

“We're definitely starting our dominion here,” Stevie said. “The development potential of this planet is almost infinite!”

“Let's hurry back,” Nova said. “The others need to know too. Actually, we should bring 'em over.”

“See, Stevie?” April asked. “Exploration is not a waste of time!”