"It's no longer necessary for us to go to Heartland," Vathion announced as he stepped onto the bridge. "We'll be going to Marak instead." Vathion yawned behind his hand, aware of Gatas' scowl, but chose to ignore it as he dropped into his seat.

Wo'Chira and Li'Codas turned to look at him. Fae'Erekdra had her seat partially turned, legs crossed, as she picked under her nails with a file.

Ma'Gatas growled. "Would you make up your mind? First Kimidas, then Heartland, and now Marak! What do you want at Marak anyway?"

Smiling coldly, Vathion settled back in his chair and pulled his ankle up onto the other knee. "Well, you bitched so much about Kimidas, have you changed your mind? We could still go there, you know. However, we would be disobeying the Emperor's direct order."

Puffing his cheeks, Gatas finally said, "Fine. I guess it's better than Kimidas."

Vathion watched Gatas suspiciously for a moment, twitching his elevated foot. His sudden acceptance was odd. "Ca'Bibbole. Inform the Fleet and station that we're heading to Marak."

Nodding, the Hyphokos said after a moment, "Station confirms. Normal undocking procedures commencing."

Erekdra spun to face her station.

Exhaustion dragged at Vathion. He'd only gotten a few hours of sleep after going to bed so late. Nightmares. Again. He'd skipped breakfast because he felt nauseous. Now he was beginning to feel loopy. Did I eat dinner? he wondered. Leaning back, he rubbed his eyes with his fingers. More importantly, what was Natan doing in Cargo Bay Four? He kicked the floor, sending his chair spinning.

Cargo Bay Four was full of storage crates, nothing but repair parts for the fighters and ship. No one regularly went in there unless they needed to do inventory. Which had been why the crew had been there that day. Surely Natan wasn't stupid enough to walk in there to get murdered. So, what had been the point of going down there? Why had I'Savon broken the law and created a clone of Natan?

Cloning was used for organ and limb replacements, but making a complete body had a lot of ethical issues attached. Did it qualify as a person? Who was responsible for raising it? Did it have rights?

Given the developmental stage, Vathion could only assume Savon's clone had been given growth hormones. It was essentially a blank slate with no experiences.

What was the point of having an empty husk that resembled Natan?

"Ha'Vathion!"

He set his feet down, stopping his spin abruptly to look over his shoulder at his bridge crew. They stared at him with pale faces and wide eyes. "What?"

"Where'd you hear that song?" Codas asked, breaking the silence.

Vathion turned his chair to face them. "Was I singing?"

Bibbole flicked his ears. "Yes... Not loudly. You're better than Natan, for sure. But where did you learn that song?"

Vathion shook his head. "I didn't realize I was singing." He grinned. Too sleep-deprived to curb his impulses, he spun the other direction, hands in the air. "Whee!"

Gatas covered his face with one hand. "I'd hoped the insanity wasn't inherited."

Thumping his feet on the floor, Vathion turned and wagged his finger at Gatas. "I'm not insane! You're just a walking corpse! Trying to make your stench my problem."

They all turned to gape at him. It looked much like the expressions Zandre and Logos had worn when he had suggested the restaurant the other day. Déjà Voodoo again, he supposed.

Wo'Chira turned away, shaking her head. "I'm not sure which is worse: you acting opposite Ha'Natan or just like him."

"Ha'Vathion, hail from Da'Bur," Bibbole interrupted.

Lowering his hand, Vathion put it on the hilt of his baton as he got to his feet. "Front screen."

Da'Bur had mousy blonde hair with streaks of grey suffusing the underside of her loose bun. Her square face bore wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, giving her an authoritative look. Vathion didn't take her frown to heart. He knew from Battle Fleet those wrinkles were from laughing. "Ha'Vathion." She saluted crisply, almond-shaped eyes flicking towards Gatas as he scowled at her.

"Da'Bur," Vathion said, giving a vague wave of a salute. "Gotta problem?"

She shook her head. "I'd like a Captain's meeting."

Pursing his lips, Vathion glanced around his bridge. "Hmm, alright. Soon as we get out of Baelton's traffic lanes."

Nodding, Da'Bur said, "Thank you, Ha'Vathion." She paused, lips quirking slightly at the corners in her characteristic half-smirk, "So which ship is your favorite?"

Vathion dramatically laid his hand on his chest. "Why, the one named after me, of course!"

Laughing, Da'Bur shook her head, "Flatterer. Good to see that you're not the stick in the mud you seemed on the all-fleet announcement, Ha'Vathion."

He linked his hands behind his back. "I take my duty seriously. But there's nothing important going on right now."

"I see," Da'Bur said, that smile still crinkling the corners of her eyes. "Can we get Ha'Natan there, too?"

 Vathion forcibly maintained his smile, stung by the reminder of his problems. "Of course. He'll be there. See ya soon." He nodded to Bibbole. The channel closed.

"Well? What're you going to do now?" Gatas crossed his arms, turning to face Vathion. "You told them Natan's on vacation. You just promised he'd be there. You're not going to have the AI fake him, are you? Kiti can't do that. She might be almost lifelike, but there's no way Kiti could pull that off!"

Turning an obnoxiously brainless smile toward Ma'Gatas, Vathion said, "You'll just have to find out later."

Gatas' face flushed red with fury.

Ignoring him, Vathion sat, turning to the screen attached to the arm of his chair. Pulling it over his lap, he decided to try something he had been able to do in Battle Fleet back home.

He stared at his screen for a moment and thought loudly, :Kiti, give me all the info we've got on Marak. I want everything from Rebel activity to who trades there on a regular basis.:

His screen lit up with text, and Vathion settled back with a smile. Back home, he'd had to use a visor to do something like that. I guess Dad gave me grade-four implants.

"Insolent brat," Gatas muttered, intentionally just loud enough for Vathion to hear.

The school cafeteria was more distracting. Vathion easily ignored the noise. As he had suspected, all the information in Battle Fleet had been current. He sped through the files.

Marak was a binary star system on the edge of Imperial territory, full of asteroids and dust. Useful for mining but not much else. Marak Station orbited near the system's center, circling a large mass of rock with no atmosphere. It was a hotly contested asset due to the massive shipyard, ore refinery, and locally sourced ore. The terrain made it easily infiltrated, so surprise attacks were frequent, though rarely got beyond the outer asteroid orbits. Multiple Imperial Fleets had been stationed here permanently. If Marak were lost, the Empire's ability to make or repair ships would be crippled.

With Kimidas now officially in Rebel hands, the system was in even more danger.

"Officially" was the operative word. The West Wind's defection had not been the cause of Kimidas' fall at all. The station had been an underground Rebel supporter for years. Now they would have a harder time collecting Imperial information. Strategic loss. Vathion had found that out through Battle Fleet when he had played the Battle for Kimidas over and over and lost every time, no matter where he put his fleet. The West Wind and her fleet always turned coat, too. Vathion could take the hint that the whole thing was staged.

Closing out his files, he stared off into space in thought. Gatas had finally shut up and sat down, writing a report on his screen. Curious, Vathion flipped his screen back on to take a look and found that Gatas was writing a report for the log book. Vathion tapped his finger against the edge of his screen in thought. The infraction was minor, not to mention pompous. He decided to do something about it. For a second, he hesitated. It would be rude to dress Gatas down in front of the other officers on the bridge.

:Freeze Ma'Gatas' screen,: he ordered Kiti silently.

Gatas frowned, tapped a key a few times, tried other keys, and then banged on the keyboard. A new document opened, and Vathion typed directly onto Gatas' screen, using one hand.

"Thank you for your kind efforts, Ma'Gatas, but I believe that entries into the logbook are MY duty."

Spinning his chair around the large second in command took a breath to raise his voice.

Erekdra announced, "Ha'Vathion, we're now outside Baelton space."

"What's the scanner look like?" Vathion asked.

After a quick check, Codas reported, "All clear. It's just us out here, sir."

Nodding, Vathion ordered, "Move us out of the traffic lanes. Bibbole, send an all ships notice for a Captain's meeting at twelve hundred. Kiti, arrange for lunch."

Vathion turned to Gatas with a smile. "You're such a hard worker. Could find the time to greet them, Ma'Gatas. I have a few things to attend to." Standing, Vathion turned and headed toward the door, "Going on call from now until the meeting's over." He stepped across the hall into his quarters. "Kiti, where's Paymeh?"

"Right here," Paymeh said from the couch, drying his hair with a Hyphokos-sized towel.

Vathion eyed the Hyphokos. "You're going to answer some questions. Why is I'Savon making a clone of Natan?" Leaning his hands on the arm of the couch, he loomed over the Hyphokos. "You were in on his plan, and her reasons for doing this dictate what punishments she'll get for breaking the law."

Tail flicking, Paymeh cleared his throat. His eyes were ocean blue, which made Vathion's bright violet Bondstone make very little sense. Bondstones always shone the color of the Bonded Hyphokos. Bondstones were always dim when no Hyphokos was merged. "He asked her to." He shuffled, pulling the towel off his head and wrung it between his hands.

"Why?" Vathion leaned closer. Paymeh shrank down, ears flat against his back. The thought of physically hurting the lizard did cross his mind. Despite how satisfying it would have been, he didn't act on it.

Looking away, Paymeh remained silent for a long moment, wringing the towel until it was tied in a tight wad but Vathion still didn't avert his gaze. "He didn't plan on really dying..." Paymeh finally said. "Cargo Bay Four was the perfect place to have a murder. Just... his murderer moved before we were ready."

The answer... was exactly what he'd expected. Vathion knelt, trying to contain his disappointment. "So, he was going to use me and Mom as bait to get whoever was after him to come out."

Paymeh nodded. "Exactly so. He was going to lay low and come back when he had the information he needed. He was going to keep his promise! I swear!"

Slamming his fist on the carpet, Vathion shouted, "Jerk!" Taking a breath, he sat up. "Then why did mom go somewhere else? What was set up?"

Head hanging, Paymeh worked at untangling the towel and smoothing it out. "It was because Gatas sent it. The Plan was supposed to go off shortly before you arrived. Gatas was supposed to hand the disk to you personally. He originally wrote the letter with something else in that spot, but since Gatas sent it through Kiti, she had orders to replace the line. Gatas sent the transport without telling Zandre or Logos, but Kiti informed them and held it long enough for Zandre to get on."

Taking a shaky breath, Vathion shook his head, "If I'm going to find who did it, Paymeh, I need the information Natan had. Retracing his steps will take too much time. But for now, I want you to go down to sickbay and get his ashes."

Lifting his head, Paymeh leaned forward. "You come with me."

Vathion snapped a hand up before Paymeh could continue and grabbed the Hyphokos' jaw between his fingers. "No," he growled, "I don't... I won't go down there, Paymeh. It's hard enough sleeping in his bed." Standing, Vathion shoved his hair back from his face. "I don't want to get the full effect of his smell. Getting emotionally attached to an empty husk wouldn't do any good."

"Vathion!" Paymeh protested, "But it's not... That's not it. Memory Lives On!"

Shaking his head, Vathion brushed his leggings off and turned, heading to his study. "I gave you an order, Paymeh. And no matter what you Hyphokos think about death amongst yourselves, it doesn't apply to Gilons. We can't blend personalities like you do. Otherwise, there'd be none of this nonsense with the Emperor and his uncle Gelran." Pausing, Vathion looked over his shoulder at the still and silent Hyphokos. "Do it now, Paymeh. I've got a Captain's meeting to attend in another fifteen minutes, and I need those ashes."

Glaring, Paymeh dropped the towel for the Daisybots to take and scurried out the door.

Taking a seat at his desk in the office, Vathion gave a flick of his hands to settle his sleeves back from his wrists. "Kiti, I want surveillance on Gatas from now until I'm back on the bridge."

"Okay, Stud Muffin!"

"I'm so reprogramming that," Vathion muttered. He opened his Battle Fleet folder to decide how honest he wanted to be with his captains. Afterward, he figured it would be safe to check on Se'Mel and get an interrogation going.