The corridor hums with red emergency light. Roma stands cuffed and blindfolded by the sealed cells, Kestrel is locked beside her, and the control strip glows solid green.
At the far end, the Dock Commander and the Salvage Tech wait near the terminal, both watching Sion for the next move. The air feels tight, like the ship is holding its breath.
The Dock Commander
The network breach is bigger than a pirate job. Give me the link, Sion, and I can trace the relay chain.
The Salvage Tech
I can pull the logs if he gets them talking. But we need the name behind the command net, now.
Kestrel
You think I sold route codes for fun? There was a broker, a middle node. I never saw the top.
Roma
He is lying about that part. The real hand was on the channel, not the deck. Ask the right question.
Sion
Sion presses for the mastermind behind the Freelancer betrayal, and the room turns to the prisoners for an answer.
“Sion says, “I gave you both a chance to talk. You refused. Now you’re both under arrest and I’m taking you in. Does anyone want to give me a name and maybe I’ll try to get an easier sentence for you?””
SUCCESS (Great Intimidation, rolled -2)
Sion’s warning lands hard in the cramped corridor, and the prisoners go still behind the cell glass.
Kestrel
Fine. Broker was a dead end anyway. The name on the relay is Jorvik.
Roma
And if you chase that name, follow the money. He paid through a clean transit ledger, not pirate channels.
The Dock Commander keys the terminal, and the display spits up a relay chain tagged with one damaged node. A sharp vibration hums through the plating under Sion’s boots.
The Salvage Tech
That ledger node was scrubbed fast. Whoever ran it knew how to hide in station traffic.
Kestrel swallows, then jerks his chin at Roma, half bitter and half resigned.
Kestrel
We were hired to move cargo and look the other way. Jorvik was the voice. That’s all I got.
Roma tilts her blindfolded face toward Sion, cuffs creaking as she shifts, the red light flashing across the cell seam.
Red lights wash the corridor as the terminal spits out the last clean fragment of the ledger.
Roma
Jorvik pulled the strings. We were just the hands.
Kestrel
No. He hid inside command net traffic. No one saw the full chain.
The Dock Commander
Scrubbed node confirmed. That name was buried, then buried again.
Sion
Then the betrayal was never an accident. It was built.
The Salvage Tech
Built, and patched over. The ship still shakes, but the lie is exposed.
The corridor held its trembling steel and its hard red light, but the shape of the truth had finally been forced into view. Jorvik's reach through the GPO command net was no longer hidden, and the captured pair had nothing left to trade but their fear. Sion stood in the aftershock with the others, while the ship carried the weight of what had been uncovered.