The old woman survived. Bio didn’t ask any questions when her husband’s body was taken away for processing. He was old and everyone assumed he’d died because of all the stress he’d been under. Chester let the woman cry and then go home to rest. Her children and grandchildren would take care of her and in the meantime Chester would gather whatever information he needed from her through the neural connection.

“None of the ships in the port are functional,” Quartermaster Cosa informed Chester. “I’ve had engineering working on them for weeks but there’s parts that we need and just don’t have here to finish those repairs.”

Chester hadn’t really expected any of the ships to be in good condition after the explosion and fire but he had at least hoped they could scrounge something together.

“What about the ships waiting to come in and dock?” Chester asked. “Any of those I could take?”

“Not without raising alarms,” Quartermaster Cosa said, shaking her head.

She immediately grimaced and put a hand to her forehead, groaning.

“The dizziness should pass in a day or two,” Chester assured her, though he didn’t know why he bothered. “Back to the ships,” he prompted her, “are there any that I could get onto as a passenger?”

“All ships have to register their passengers and I don’t think you have a viable ID anymore.”

“What if the crew all agreed to overlook the registration?”

“You’d run into problems once you tried to get off the ship someplace else,” Quartermaster Cosa said. “The ship wouldn’t have a record of you so as soon as you stepped out and got scanned they’d have you arrested for unlawful travel.”

Chester forced himself to keep his teeth from clenching and grinding in frustration.

“Jezah said you could help me,” he grumbled to himself.

Something flickered in the quartermaster’s mind but was quickly subdued.

“What was that?” Chester asked and pushed on her mind.

She resisted, frustrating Chester and making him more aware of how substandard his necrology process on her had been. If he’d had full access to his old lab, with purified chemicals and state-of-the-art tools…well he would have to make due with what he had. The neural injectors worked, even if not optimally. The neural gel worked even if it wasn’t perfectly mixed.

“Tell me what you thought about when I mentioned Jezah,” Chester commanded.

There was another moment of resistance before the mental barrier came down.

“I was caught smuggling supplies to the fringe years ago,” she explained in a flat tone. “As punishment I was reassigned to the lunar colony and denied genetic repairs. Since then, the fringe resistance have contacted me from time to time for help.”

“And have you helped them?” Chester asked.

“When I can, yes,” she replied, “but the governor of the lunar colony knows to watch me closely so my assistance is generally small.”

Chester hadn’t given much thought to who the lunar governor was and was more than happy to keep on avoiding contact with them. Although, now that he had his necrology equipment up and running, perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to have a meeting with them.

“The governor doesn’t reside in the colony,” Quartermaster Cosa said before Chester could ask about them. “Their representatives here send regular reports and perform inspections on all incoming and outgoing shipments.”

“Then who are their representatives?” Chester asked.

“They died in the port fire. Their replacements will be sent as soon as the port is reopened.”

“Can the port operate before they arrive?”

“The resupply ship is the only vessel cleared to land and unload before the new representatives arrive.”

“Then that’s the ship I need to get on. Where is it heading after it unloads?”

“We fill the resupply ship with refined metals and other materials which it takes to manufacturing colonies throughout the core.”

“And do you know of anyone at any of those colonies that would help me?”

“I do,” she said but did not elaborate.

It was like pulling teeth, trying to get this information from Quartermaster Cosa. She wasn’t resisting so much as he had to be fairly specific with his requests for her to give him the information he needed.

“Explain to me, in detail, the best, safe way you know possible for me and as many of my drones to get off of this colony and to a fringe world that would be friendly to me. Feel free to include any skills and resources I and my drones have at our disposal when figuring out your plan.”

She was silent for a time, though Chester noted a lot of neural activity going on so he let he take her time and consider the situation. She knew he was a necrologist and he’d linked the other drones into this conversation so she would be aware of their abilities as well.

A dull throb was beginning in Chester’s head. It was the price he paid for having so many drones. He needed a new node to help handle all the drones but that would require a whole different neural gel that he simply didn’t have the time or resources to make. Not unless he started having the quartermaster requisition the chemicals and tools he would need.

Finally, Quartermaster Cosa’s mind calmed down and she looked back at Chester.

“I don’t know how to get you to the fringe safely,” she stated.

“Then do it with a bit more risk!” Chester was losing his patience by this point. He’d gone through all of this trouble to get control of the quartermaster and she was turning out to be practically useless.

“The crew of the resupply ship would not take you onboard willingly,” Quartermaster Cosa finally said, “but if you converted them into drones then their complaints would be moot. You and your current drones could board their vessel, posing as additional crew and simply never leave the ship so you wouldn’t be scanned by port inspectors. If the ship is subjected to an inspection then you would need to turn the inspector into a drone as well to ensure they don’t report you. Once the resupply ship reaches the shipyard called Zenith you will convert the dock master, Cuaron Phray, into another drone. Have him issue you a ship under the command of one of the resupply ship’s crewmen so the documentation doesn’t look suspect. Redistribute your drones however you see fit between the two ships since both will need to continue on as normal for a time to avoid suspicion. Then take your new ship to any of the fringe worlds where your current drones have contacts. Infiltrate their ranks by converting them into drones and you will find a welcome place for you to reside. I suggest you have the resupply ship suffer a catastrophic failure some time after you leave it so everyone on board is killed to avoid having them found to be drones.”

That could work, Chester admitted to himself. It would definitely require a lot of drones, and at least one new node.

“Anyone have ideas on this?” he asked the rest of his drones.

“Let’s just make the entire colony here into drones,” Lyon said, “along with a handful of nodes.”

“That’s…way too many people,” Chester said, shocked at the suggestion.

“Not with the nodes,” Lyon replied.

“I meant there’s no real point to doing that to all these people.”

“You’ll need a large amount of neural gel,” Lyon said, defending his argument, “and it’s going to need to be better processed than what your current lab can produce, otherwise the resupply ship’s crew will be too hard to manage. Cosa’s already a struggle for you to keep on task. Imagine a dozen more just like her.”

He had a point that Chester would need a higher grade of neural gel, but why take the whole colony? As though following along with Chester’s own thoughts, Lyon continued.

“You need free access to the chemical stores as well as their processing equipment. You’ll need to have better tools made and all of it moved into the resupply ship. Essentially, we need to have the entire colony working for you around the clock from now until we leave.”

“I’ll have to use the lower grade neural gel to start with, though,” Chester said. “So the first several colonists will be just like Cosa. Once we leave and I’m not around to keep an eye on them, I don’t know what’ll happen. The neural connection might be too weak for such a long distance.”

“The colony has a long history of mice,” Lyon said. “Once we’re gone you can instruct your mice drones to create dozens of hull breaches.”

“That would kill everyone here,” Chester didn’t like senseless killing, but he also wasn’t above letting everyone here die if it meant he could get away. It was the moral cost of doing what he did, he supposed. “Fine,” he stated. “Let’s get it into motion. Cosa, order Vinay to go and check on the chemical stores. He’ll get me the chemicals I need to begin with. Tomorrow, Cosa, you’ll need to have all the colony’s leadership come together for a meeting. By then I should have enough neural gel for them. Then we’ll begin having the chemical processors shift into manufacturing neural gel, but we’ll need to keep the records as stating that everything is still running normally.”

“I can do that,” Siffronia said. “I’ve had to fix a few data points already to cover up the chemicals we’ve taken. Shouldn’t be hard to just make up a few day’s worth of data. Copy them from a few months back. No one will notice.”

“Good. Lyon, I want you to begin fitting the large conference table in the administrative offices with bio-electric dampeners. That way I can get them all at once.”

“On it,” Lyon replied.

“Pald,” Chester said as the final bit of his plan came together, “I want you to begin scheduling everyone for a medical examination, beginning two days from now. That’s how we’ll get everyone else. The rest of you, find out where you can help the most and do it.”

Everyone set off and Chester felt his fatigue return. He was late for his usual bedtime and he knew there would be enough activity over the next couple of days that sleep would be a rare commodity. So, with everyone else busily working away, he made his way back to the hab. The drones knew how to mix the basic neural gel so they could handle that part without him. He’d have Tsukasa and Xerc work on making another pair of neural injectors but those wouldn’t be ready for at least another day so he’d have to make do with the one he’d already made for now.

He headache was blossoming fully, now, unfortunately, and there wasn’t much he could do for it other than hope it didn’t keep him awake.