Turning away from Nick to leave the café, Keith focused hard on his thoughts as he said his goodbyes. Head back to the Internal Audit HQ and speak to sergeant Jeffries. Arrange a warrant for their arrest, even if I have to reveal everything!

He knew he had to hurry and that his window to act was closing fast. The more he thought about it, the more certain he became that this encounter had been engineered by Nick. Now that he had had a chance to watch him closely, he was almost certain that Nick knew that he was being watched.

Keith had spent the last days listening to the strange conversations in the apartment, and it was all still so unbelievable to him. The strange alien living inside Nick, everything they had done over the past few days - stealing nanites from the medcentre! - and everything they were now planning! This Goose... if it got loose in the hab networks, they had nothing to stop it from taking complete control. Keith saw a situation which was quickly escalating to the most dangerous risk the hab had ever faced. Several times he had tried speaking with sergeant Jeffries, asking permission to drag Nick in for another interview; but had been refused every time. "There are bigger things going on right now than some piracy, Keith", Jeffries had kept saying. Keith had almost let slip what he knew about the alien intelligence and their plan to subvert the Pegasus project. But he couldn't do that without revealing his sources. Dammit, he should have handled things differently from the outset.

Safely away from the café now, Keith slowed down to collect his thoughts. He cleared his mind, and considered his options. Of course, he couldn't go to the sergeant for an arrest warrant. That would never do. But in the café he had a sudden epiphany. To trick this Goose, he was hoping that they had read his mind when he was focusing on the bluff. That should leave him a few moments to act.

There was no more time, and the time had come to take some risks. Keith decided to search the apartment and then to make an immediate arrest based on what he found. His chance was to collect sufficient evidence in the apartment to make the arrest stick. After the dust had settled, nobody would care about the sequence of events once they learned about the severity of the transgressions.

Flagging down a taxicart, Keith entered his credentials and marked the trip as an emergency. The cart started flashing with the blue and white of Internal Audit, as it sped down the narrow corridors towards Nick and Sae's apartment.

-

Easy, Nick. Calm down. Goose said. We still have time - it will take Mr. Garner at least an hour to go by the Internal Audit administration building, get the warrant, and then get to the apartment.

Nick was not reassured. He fought to keep the panic at bay, and as he urged the taxicart to go faster he messaged Sae and Rashi. "We need to run. NOW. Internal Audit is coming for us. Gather at the apartment!". Even with Goose confidently asserting that Mr. Garner was heading to pick up a warrant, Nick had an uneasy feeling about this.

Sae's reply was instant. "Negative. Stay AWAY from the apartment. There's nothing there that we need. I have cleared it. Start moving towards the harbour area and wait for instructions".

Rashi's acknowledgement came just before his own. Nick put his head in his hands and felt his shoulders tightening as a sudden rush of fear was threatening to engulf him. He was struggling to keep his breathing calm. Not now! He thought. He can't arrest us now, when we are so close!

A message from Rashi pinged in, just for him; "Nick, don't panic. Trust Sae. We haven't been idle. We just need to get to the harbour area safely."

How did she know he was panicking?

Goose added: Listen to her, Nick. We have the tools we need to handle this situation. May I have your permission to prepare 10% of the nanites for offensive activities?

Offensive WHAT? Nick replied. What do you mean?

With some simple modifications to the nanite skeletons, they will be able to move through the air and... take actions. I predict this to be very useful if Mr. Garner attempts to stop us. I have a few possible programs ready that we can load as needed.

Nick was dumbfounded for a moment, but eventually remembered to signal to Goose that Yes, ok. Go for it. How much is 10% of the nanites by the way?

That would be approximately two hundred thousand individual nanites.

Again, Nick was left completely surprised. So what you are saying is... you've been able to build two million nanites?? Trying to picture the number of tiny robots that were parked inside him, Nick almost felt disconnected from reality for a moment.

Sure. But that's not very many, considering their size. They would all fit easily at the tip of your finger. Ideally, we want to build at least ten times as many and keep as an on-demand supply stock.

As the taxicart was hurrying towards the hab harbour area, Nick was shaking his head and remembering the very strange conversation he'd had with Sae and Goose late yesterday. Sae had finally, after several days of development, testing, checking and double checking the security introduced a direct interface between Goose and Nick's mindpal.

"In order to control the nanite swarm, we need to set up an interface in the mindpal", Sae had said. "So... I've created a signal channel between Goose and the mindpal to facilitate programming the swarm. Remember; the nanites by themselves are just inert and very small machines. Each task that we want them to do needs to be programmed. The original nanite interface used in the med centre was pretty obsolete, and clunky for our purpose. Most of the command set was designed for operations in the human body. Together with Goose, I've created a new operating system and a command set for the nanites."

Nick had deployed the update Sae sent to his mindpal, and a new menu option had appeared, right at the centre of his vision: Nanite Swarm was even now drawing his attention at the top of the screen.

After going to bed last night, Nick had played around with the ability that Sae and Goose had created to test the system:

{Nanite Swarm -> Night Vision}.

Closing his eyes, Nick had activated the {Night Vision} ability and held his breath as the room around him slowly appeared in the mindpal interface. He could not see the nanite swarm itself, but Nick had pictured them whizzing around the room and mapping the place; sending the information back to his mindpal which was putting together a fuzzy picture.

With only a few thousand nanites flying around it had still been a pretty slow process. It took a long time for them to bump up against all the different surfaces, and if Nick turned his head the picture in the mindpal would dissolve as nanites rerouted to start building the image of his new field of view.

As Nick was looking out the window of the taxicart as it arrived at the harbour area, Goose suddenly said; Accept this new program, please. Nick noticed the transfer request, and after hesitating for a moment he accepted. A new ability had appeared!

{Nanite Swarm -> Disorient}

Curious.... He resisted the sudden urge to test it, remembering Sae's admonition to be very careful about when and how to use the abilities. Also, even as he wasn't quite sure what the ability did, he was still pretty certain that testing it on himself would be a bad idea.

Getting out of the taxicart, Nick could see Sae and Rashi rushing towards him from one of the harbour gates. Walking towards them he idly wondered how Rashi was able to maintain that smile and the bounce in her step, even now.

-

Leveraging his Internal Audit superadministrator access, Keith used his universal access card to open the door to the apartment. Drawing his sidearm just to be on the safe side, he shouted "INTERNAL AUDIT ENTERING, SIT DOWN AND STAY QUIET" as he opened the door and moved quickly inside.

Moving from room to room, clearing the space and making sure nobody was hiding, Keith quickly ascertained that the apartment was empty. That matched his intel, and gave him valuable minutes to search the place. His primary goal right now was to find actionable evidence.

Before moving on to inspect the rest of the apartment, Keith quickly removed the surveillance bugs he had placed in the living area earlier that week. With the bugs safely in his pocket, he went through to what he hoped was Sae's bedroom. She was the hacker, and most likely to have information that would condemn them.

Her bedroom was sparse; with a simple bed along one wall, and a computer desk and a wardrobe along the other wall. Finding her wardrobe nearly emptied, Keith began to worry. The rest of the room was also completely empty of personal effects. Moving quickly into Nick's bedroom, he found another abandoned room where someone had obviously left in a hurry.

What is going on here? Keith paced around the small apartment, as he tried to think. Even if the hab wasn't very big, there were still places they could hide - at least until they tried to use their mindpals. He set up a trigger that would alert him of any mindpal activity from the kids, his mind working the problem.

Of course. They were planning to head for Mars...! They might have decided to move up their plans after the encounter in the café. If he had followed protocol, he could go through the sergeant and issue a block on all shuttles from leaving the hab.

As that was no longer an option, he had to go there himself. Knowing he was probably already too late, Keith grabbed a taxicart, set it to emergency mode, and rushed towards the harbour. With no evidence of anything. This is going to hell in a handbasket fast, he worried.

-

"Nick!" Rashi hissed. "Stop pacing. Stop looking around nervously. I'd think Goose would be able to teach you how to seem normal!"

Nick realised she was right. They were queuing for shuttle tickets, and he had been pacing back and forth, trying to watch all the entrances at the same time. Only, the queue was moving so slowly!

He knew Mr. Garner would quickly conclude that the apartment was clean, and was certain his next move would be to capture them at the harbour. With the proper authorizations, he could probably even stop all the shuttles from leaving!

With shuttles leaving for various destinations every few minutes, Rashi got them tickets on the first ride out of the habitat. Finally a bit of luck! The next shuttle was going to the Titan transit station; Titan Terminus was the local traffic hub, and would be ideal to throw off a pursuer.

Hurrying as calmly as they could over to the boarding gates, Nick's heart stopped for a moment as they scanned their tickets at the gate entrance. Green lights, and the gate snapped open! Breathing again, he quickly stepped through and joined Sae and Rashi and they moved down the gangway to the shuttle entrance.

The shuttle was a small model, with a passenger capacity of only 50 or so. It was a simple commuter shuttle, with three rows of two seats. Nick, Rashi and Sae grabbed seats towards the front to make for a quicker exit, and sat down.

Hundreds of people commuted between the hab and other stations around the system every week, but for Nick this event was significant: It was the first time in his life that he left the habitat. His parents had arrived here just after Sae was born, and had never been able to afford going on any trips.

Stepping onto the small shuttle, a shiver went down Nick's spine as he realised one of his big wishes was finally coming true: Travelling outside the hab. He only wished it was happening under better circumstances! Well, I've always wanted an adventure....

With a sigh he took his seat. Goose, do you think Garner is on our trail? he asked. All OK, I think. I've been monitoring the local networks, and so far there's not been any alerts.

All around him, travellers were wearing bored and tired expressions, almost all with fogged eyes as they were watching something on their mindpals. Nick nearly forgot to be afraid, as he glued his face firmly to the small porthole to watch the undocking procedure. Smoothly and with a small metallic click! the shuttle disconnected from the hab. He could see small bursts of white from the maneuvering thrusters pushing them away from the docking port.

"All aboard; please prepare for acceleration!". A sudden voice broke through in his mindpal, and a few seconds later he felt himself gently pushed back in his seat as they headed off towards Titan Terminus.

-

Using his Internal Audit credentials to force his way through the gate, Keith was trying to keep his cool. If only he had acted yesterday.... He had been so close! Keith was normally not a man to second guess himself, but his frustration was getting the better of him. Time enough to flagellate that self later, he put a stop to that train of thought and increased his pace.

Moving through the small harbour, it didn't take Keith long to ascertain that they were nowhere to be seen. His eyes found the Departures screen, and scanning it he quickly identified a possible gate.

"Sir!" he exclaimed, perhaps too loudly, as he ran up to a gate agent who was just closing the doors to a gate. Flashing his credentials, he asked "Did these people get on this shuttle?". He sent pictures of the three runaways to the gate agent, who accepted the transfer. Eyes going glassy while he looked the pictures over, he eventually looked back at Keith and nodded.

"I think so, yes."

"Where was the shuttle headed?"

"The Terminus."

Damn, Keith thought. From there, they would be able to go anywhere!

Now he had a decision to make. Thanking the gate agent, he paced over to the large route map hanging over the ticket counter and considered his options.

He could head back to administration HQ and fess up to his sergeant. He had built up some trust over the past years, and it was possible that his minor... inconsistencies in appropriating the right paperwork would be overlooked. On the other hand, the sergeant had seemed more distracted and busy than usual over the past week or so. Adding another irregularity on top of everything might just make the man shut the operation down - and Keith would not be able to refuse a direct order to stop his investigation.

Another option was to... to proceed on his own, and call in some favours. He would have to work without official sanction, and as soon as he stepped onto a shuttle he would be leaving his jurisdiction. Of course, he hadn't worked for nearly two decades in Internal Audit without building some pretty good relationships with officials in other places. He knew at least two people in the Titan Terminus he was pretty sure would help him if asked. Screw this. This is bigger than me. Right now, apprehending the kids was more important than following procedure.

Looking at the list of routes and departure schedules, his decision was made when he noticed the next shuttle for Titan Terminus leaving in only ten minutes. He hurried over to get a ticket, and he soon found himself seated and waiting for the shuttle to depart.

Tapping his foot and trying to think clearly, he told himself; trust your instincts. They have led him true until now.

-

Nick had to make a conscious effort to not stumble on his own feet as they made their way down the walkway from the shuttle and into Titan Terminus. The habitat where he had spent his whole life - which had been his whole world until now - was nothing compared to this massive station.

A high ceiling was supported by massive beams intersecting the room - and Nick suspected they continued below the floor for maximum structural integrity. The ceiling was transparent, and he could see the familiar star sky slowly rotating above as the station rotated in pace with its orbit around Titan. Some objects in the sky were marked, and Nick could read off possible destinations. Europa Station, Ganymede Central, Amalthea: Jupiter Industrial, Callisto, Titania, Oberon, Enceladus Orbital (home!), Tethys Station, Venus Science Nexus, Deimos Shipyards, Mars Colony Orbital, Luna, Earth Space Elevator Pacific, Earth Space Elevator Atlantic, Mercury Observatory.... The solar system was literally waiting at his feet, and he made a conscious effort to shut his mouth when he realised it had been hanging open.

Nick felt a gentle tugging at his sleeve as Rashi was trying to get him moving. "No time for that, Nick. The next shuttle from the Enceladus hab will arrive in only another 30 minutes, and we want to be well on our way before then!"

With a last look around, taking in as much as possible, Nick let himself be guided over to a ticket booth. "Here!", Sae said in a low voice as she handed Nick and Rashi ID chips. At the same time, their mindpals pinged with a new incoming ID certificate from Sae. "Take these, and accept the ID certificate as part of your identity certificate chain. Make it the primary, and set the current ID cert to disabled status."

"Whaaa...", Nick just had time to say, looking at Rashi who looked just as confused as he felt. "Oh you guys are illiterates.", Sae said as she sighed, eyes fogging over as she did something on her mindpal. "There. Follow the instructions in this document", Sae said at the same time as they received a message from her.

After completing the instructions, Nick nodded to Sae. A moment later, his mindpal received an ID request from Sae, which he accepted. "Alright", Sae said. "You did it right. You are now Mr. Noah Aaron. I am your sister, Susie Aaron, and Rashi you are Rachel Patel. Memorise it. You have 30 seconds."

Nick wasn't sure if he was supposed to be scared or impressed, but seeing the insistent look in Sae's eyes he decided to do exactly as ordered. Noah, Susan and Rachel. Noah, Susan and Rachel. Aaron and Patel. Noah Aaron. He repeated it a few more times, before telling Sae, "Ready!". Rashi... no, Rachel, also gave Sae a quick nod to indicate she was ready.

"Good. No slip-ups now, guys. From this moment, every action needs to be careful, so we drop the trail. No using our real names, no mentioning the big bird, and no mentioning our friend Mr. G! Stay off the network. Don't use it for anything, except to verify your ID at the counter."

The short queue had disappeared in front of them, as Rashi/Rachel stepped up. "Three tickets on the first available shuttle going to Deimos Shipyards, please!"

"Certainly ma'am." The clerk's eyes fogged over briefly as he used his mindpal. Nick's heart skipped multiple beats when the clerk looked back at Rashi and added, "Ma'am. As you probably know, Deimos is only accepting passengers that have a valid purpose of visit. The purpose can be for employment, or to meet with legitimate business interests. I need to validate this before I can sell you tickets. What is the purpose of your visit?"

Nick was certain that was it, and was already thinking of ways to get out of the situation, when Rashi replied: "We are all interviewing for jobs. I believe Mr. Paul Pearston of the Pegasus Project will be expecting us". Rashi shared their identities, the clerk did a lookup before he gave them a smile and nodded. "Perfect. You are in the system and Mr. Pearston has marked you as expected. We have available seats on the shuttle leaving in three hours; would that be suitable?"

"Ok!", Sae said; handing the ticket agent a credit chip. Nick looked at him carefully for signs that he thought using untraceable credit chips was strange, but Goose reassured him: It was nothing out of the ordinary. He's probably used to all kinds of people, Nick thought.

"Great. Mr. Aaron, Ms. Aaron and Ms. Patel; please accept this transfer which contains your tickets."

Nick accepted the incoming transfer request, and studied the ticket. He finally took a deep breath, feeling slightly calmer.

Perhaps Mr. Garner wasn't coming, and they could spend the next three hours in peace?