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other ships were beginning to disembark into the corridors. He gave them a casual salute as he passed them. He made his way through the space station, past the habitat ring and colonists quarters and into one of the main arterial lifts. It was being guarded by two Colonial Guards. He nodded at the hidden faces and smiled.
    “Morning gentlemen, the chancellor is expecting me,” he said. They turned their dark faceplates towards him. He had to restrain himself from knocking them out every time he was this close. He had almost succumbed to his hatred for the guard on a number of occasions which would have certainly seen him airlocked. They stepped aside slowly and entered a code into a door panel which released the entrance to the lift. He stepped inside and let out a deep breath steadying his heart rate. The elevator began to rise.
    Moments later the doors opened to a long walkway at the end of which stood another four Colonial Guards. He approached them confidently and stood in front of the door. One of the guards whispered something into a comm system on his wrist. Aron took a long slow breath and waited.
    The doors to the chancellor’s office opened slowly and he walked inside. The chancellor sat at his desk facing the rear of the office. Thelarge window looked out at the sprawling connected space stations. Aron stepped inside and walked to the middle of the room. He stood in silence.
    “Good morning, Chancellor,” he said after a minute or so thinking that the old man had fallen asleep or something. The chair behind the desk swivelled and Arturo turned to face him. He gave him a wry grin. A figure moved behind him making him turn. Hector Stanley emerged from a shadow in the corner and stood behind him blocking the door. He nodded at the large man and frowned at him. He noticed a considerable change in his heartbeat and cleared his throat.
    “Mr Elstone, I am delighted to see you,” said Arturo rising from his chair and moving around his desk.
    “What can I do for you, Chancellor?” said Aron trying to get to the point quickly so that he could get out of there. He reckoned he could have a fighting chance against Stanley on a good day, but he was feeling fatigued after his journey.
    “Straight to it, ay, Aron? I like that about you,” Arturo replied smiling. Aron didn’t respond. Arturo continued to approach him.
    “How did the mining mission go?” Arturo asked.
    “Very well, sir. We have just over twelve cubic meters of Helium 3 in our tanks. My crew is unloading it now,” he said.
    “Excellent,” Arturo said placing a hand on Aron’s shoulder. “Your service to this colony has been outstanding,” he said.
    “Thank you, sir,” Aron said blandly. Arturo looked at him for a moment and he suddenly felt uncomfortable. Like he was being hunted.
    “Aron, we need to talk,” Arturo finally said dropping his smile.
    “Sir?” Aron replied.
    “A very exciting thing happened late last night. A very exciting thing indeed,” he said moving away from him and back towards the window overlooking the space stations. Aron watched The Kandinsky as it drifted past the window. How the hell was he going to tackle that ship?
    “We received a signal. A very old signal,” Arturo said still facing away from him. “It appears to be the locator beacon from The Agathon,” he said.
    Aron’s mouth opened.
    “What?” he said.
    Arturo turned and looked at him with a deathly seriousness.
    “The Agathon, Aron. We confirmed it with the old archived data and it is definitely the same signal,” Arturo said.
    “My God,” Aron said. The Agathon was a myth at this stage. He had never believed that the ship had survived the FTL test all those years ago and that it had simply been a story that parents had told their children to help them sleep at night.
    “Indeed,” Arturo said.
    “Has there been any communication?” he asked.
    “Ah,” Arturo said, “Therein lies the rub. Communication is not possible at this distance. It