The warning lights at the Jenova-Celato jump beacon sprang to life. They pulsed, slowly at first but then rapidly as the Bohr’s-field event horizon coalesced.

Bright flashes of blue and white were accompanied by invisible burst transmissions on a hundred different frequencies, all broadcasting the same warning: jump incoming.

The curtain of stars shimmered and twisted in upon itself. For one infinitesimal moment two star systems appeared to occupy the same space – for one infinitesimal moment, it did – then reality remade itself and twelve spacecraft hung in space where before there were none.

One by one, eleven ships lit up their main drives and began their slow transit of the Jenova star system. The small fleet gradually broke apart. Each vessel left alone to chart its own course and lock their destinations into navigation systems.

One ship remained behind. A battered, box-like craft of burnt orange with a stubby horn of sensors protruding from its nose. It drifted by itself five hundred kilometres starward of the nexus beacon.

On board, Ellie was arguing with Malachi.

‘That wasn’t fourteen minutes! It wasn’t even fourteen seconds. It was instant.’

‘It only seemed that way to us,’ Malachi said. He kept his gaze on the console to avoid being distracted by another question he had already answered a dozen times. The short-range scanner embedded in the console blossomed to life. The projected vectors of their former companions traced their colourful lines across the display. Each curve would ultimately intercept some distant rendezvous point; a planet, a space station or even one of the other two jump beacons where they would continue their journey to the Kendal star system, or to Praxis, which was unlikely. Very little legitimate traffic had cause to go to Praxis.

Only two of the other ships appeared to be heading for Parador.

Ellie was still adamant. ‘I timed it!’

Malachi drummed a fingertip on the ship’s chronometers.

‘Look, this is local system time. This one is Celato system time. See the difference? Our chronometers are reset to local time by the beacons when we arrive.’

He could see Ellie was still struggling with the concept. Malachi knew his own brain could get tied up in knots thinking about the weird physics involved in instantaneous travel between the stars, but there was no reason for Ellie to know that. She didn’t need to know he didn’t really get it either. Not really. He simply had a basic knowledge she didn’t, and a familiarity with concepts of physics she never had to think about.

Without a trace of meanness in his voice he said, ‘Ellie, you’re a fantastic pilot, but a lousy astronavigator.’

‘Well, you’re a great engineer, but a lousy pilot,’ she shot back.

Malachi offered Ellie his hand. ‘Agreed.’

She shook it with mock seriousness. ‘Okay, I believe you, even if it makes no sense.’

Malachi offered the same hand to Tila, who had watched this conversation with folded arms and, unsurprisingly, a frown. ‘Agreed?’ he said.

Tila swatted his hand away. ‘Now we are all friends again, can we, Mal, chart our course to Parador? That is why we came, remember? Or have you forgotten that in the last few minutes?’

‘Seconds,’ said Ellie, and playfully poked Malachi in the ribs. Malachi sighed theatrically before he answered Tila.

‘The computer’s plotting the course now. Our little runabout can’t do the calculations as fast as those other ships.’ He pointed at the quickly receding ships they could still see through the cockpit.

Tila leaned over the colourful arcs stretching across the scanner display. She traced the lines with her fingertips.

‘Wouldn’t it save time if we followed one of them?’

‘It’s not as simple as that. We have to calculate our route based on our own thrust and mass, and we don’t know exactly where those ships are heading. This ship is good enough for flying around the Juggernaut but a cross-system journey like this is more complicated, so we’ll take the most efficient route we can.’

‘Will that take long?’ Tila was already growing impatient again as she fell back into her seat.

‘Not once we’re underway. You’re lucky we came when we did. Parador’s orbit is close to us this time of year. We should be there in less than a day.’

‘A day?!’ exclaimed Ellie.

‘Hey, it could be worse! If we were really going to Mirador, like I told my father, we could be stuck sitting in here for at least two days.’

Ellie grumbled something about it taking too long.

‘Hey, I’m a great engineer, remember?’

‘Well then, it’s a good thing we’re not going to Mirador,’ said Tila, pushing the memory of that lie from her mind. They would have to deal with those repercussions later, but for now it was light-years behind them.

Before them was a new star, new planets and hopefully, thought Tila, answers to old questions.

Four planets orbited the G-type yellow dwarf star that was Jenova. Only three were inhabited.

Terador occupied the smallest orbit. It was a perfectly liveable world if you could stand the heat. Few could. Even the poles were hotter than some equators.

Next was Barador, an almost lifeless world of grey rock and poisonous gas. Industry had found a home here in the plentiful mineral and gas mines of the planet, but it was no place to settle.

Third from the sun was Parador, and like most third planets in the Commonwealth it was considered the place to live. For as long as anyone could remember, the third planet was most often favoured by settlers because it evoked the memory of earth, but a third planet which had a yellow dwarf as its sun, and the approximate mass of humanity’s first home meant that it was the proverbial cherry on the astronomical cake.

Superstitions existed even here, and this favoured status was why Parador had always been the most desirable of the three populated worlds of the Jenova star system. It was also why it had, in time, become the wealthiest and the most powerful.

Finally, there was the fourth planet – Mirador. A huge world with a rich, natural biosphere. It had been settled and been augmented with plants and wildlife seeded from earth. Almost half as big again as Parador, its low-density core meant that Mirador’s gravitational pull was almost earth-normal nevertheless.

At this time of year, Barador and Terador were on the opposite side of Jenova to the Celato beacon. Mirador was visible at this distance, but only as a white half-circle facing the sun. Parador, a smaller dot of pale yellow was, despite its lower orbit, presently the closest planet to the Celato beacon.

As well as the four planets, Jenova was home to several moons and a dozen artificial satellites. Orbital habitats, military bases, research stations and shipyards dotted the system, but none of these held any interest for Tila. She had focused in on one city, on one planet, that she felt sure held the answers to her one question: what really happened to the colony mission?

But they were still many hours from their destination, and as alert as she was after their narrow escape from the Juggernaut, Tila was wise enough to know that she should rest while she could.

‘I’ll be in the back,’ she announced to the others. Tila left the cockpit and stepped into the rear cabin. She folded a narrow bunk down from the wall, and sat on it, testing it for softness, of which it had very little, before lying down. Tila could feel the hard plastic refusing to yield through the worn padding and grimaced as she tried to find a position which would allow her to relax.

Still, no one said this would be a comfortable adventure.