The tower of the department of transport human division was a wall of glass and steel. The marble globes before it and light show highlighting popular FTL paths was made to impress. Shilo was adequately impressed and found himself watching the lights bounce from one globe to another, simulating the FTL hops he’d taken to get to Prime. Prime City was the bustling, overcrowded, loud smelly place that was the kind of location that Shilo avoided. Too much of everything, especially the sky. He’d take the expanse of stars and glow of a gas giant any day. There was something unsettling about a blue sky with clouds that could turn into a storm. Or the press of a strong wind on his skin that left him feeling like the forces of nature might blow him away at any moment. There was no safety line, and the pull of gravity was inescapable. Just like his impending meeting with Kristy.

  Seventeen floors or so separated him from a reunion that he’d never expected. It would help if she would pick up any of his calls. The front desk clerk assured him that Kristen Gowen was in and had been informed of his arrival. A matter of security checks and pending permission from her was. At this point, Shilo was considering this whole matter some joke from Danny; unusual because the man wasn’t known for his humor or original thinking at that matter. Danny was the sort of man to use everything in the legal powers and workings of the system for himself. However, he could do the least and come out on top or at least with no one pointing fingers at himself—that is what Danny would do.

  “Shilo Zander. You’re cleared to go up now. Here’s your building badge.”

  Shilo took the badge and walked through the security check point that chimed a dozen times registering his police provided augmentations along with his weapons. Possibly his trench coat was even flagged, although it should clear most scanners. He tried to peek at the monitors, only to note that the security guard working the systems might have the same sense of humor that Danny did. “That way to the elevator?” he asked.

  The security guard confirmed his guess by pointing down the hallway. The elevator swiftly delivered him to the seventeenth floor, primarily because it was waiting and only provided him with the single option. It also didn’t stop until arriving at the seventeenth floor, which held a simple welcome desk where Kristy's assistant waited.

  “Welcome Mr Zander. Kirsten is this way. She’s very busy, but pushed off a meeting to make a quick ten minutes to see you.”

  The man led him past cubicles and hologram command rooms to a corner office where Kristy waited behind a large wooden desk. She nodded and dismissed the assistant with a wave. The man hesitated before leaving on her insistence. Not only her assistant but the guard as well, or possibly overprotective overachieving worker.

  “Shilo. I’m certain you’re here because Daniel Richards passed my request on.”

  “That’s correct. He seemed to imply this was rather urgent and I understand correctly, a professional matter?”

  “Yes, and Yes. However, the glitch in FTL route seven twenty-eight has been resolved. Your services are no longer required, I’m afraid. A simple oversight.”

  “A glitch. You called me to look into a glitch. I’m a detective, not tech service.”

  “Oh, not a computer glitch. There was an issue with the FTL. A minor glitch. Like I said, it was nothing. The matter has been resolved.”

  “FTL travel never has problems. About the only thing in the galaxy that someone can count on is a black hole.” And if a ship or pilot has an error during an FTL hop, it doesn’t end up as some harmless glitch. Shilo adjusted his trench coat and felt the urge to start an argument rise inside him. Kristy always knew how to waste his time. Now he was being harsh and didn’t want to stoop to old habits. “You could have saved us both time and answered a simple phone call or sent a message.”

  Kristy stood up and approached him. “You’re right. I could have. I should have. Now I might understand better how quickly time passes when you’re overworked. Four thousand FTL lanes that humans travel on daily. Security issues are constantly popping up and it never seems like enough eyes are watching. If you’ll excuse me, I don’t have time to waste. Another busy day ahead and taking this break to see you will set me back. Let me walk you back to the elevator. It's the least I can do.”

  Kristy walked past him, leading him back to the elevator he’d just arrived on. What was all this about? She even waited for the elevator doors to open before a strange awkward moment where he thought she was going to hug him turned into a quick handshake.

  She said, “Zander you’re trying to save the galaxy because you can't save yourself. I get that now.”

  The ride down was as quick as the ride up had been, and he’d barely noticed the piece of paper folded in the corner.

  Shilo only had time to drop down and pick up the paper before the doors opened and the elevator was chiming for him to get off. Shilo slipped the paper into his pocket and looked up through the floors between himself and Kristy. Had she dropped this note? Shilo picked up his pace and walked through security, past the marble globes and towards his spaceship. A nice luxury of having a police cruiser was its ability to land on New Earth; capability and clearance. Otherwise, he’d been out of more than time and fuel. A trip down using a space elevator wasn’t as cheap and not as quick as local teleportation. And no one used local teleportation on New Earth. It was humanity's prized treasure amongst the stars. Security trumped convenience or reason here, and Shilo couldn’t wait to leave. What a waste this had been. He set in his ship, his finger hovering over the autopilot feature, but that felt like an accident waiting to happen. New Earth traffic was chaos. Too many flying cars and wind that could change at any moment.

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  Danny had said this was a wasp moment and yet Kristy had been calm and dismissive. Shilo pulled the paper out. FTL seven-twenty-eight. Glitch. Zyvarn shipping vessel nine-forty-three. Thursdays.

  That was a note from Kristy, talking about her glitchy FTL lane and now a Zyvarn vessel. Shilo pulled the data up on the Zyvarn vessel and thoughts about waking up on in the dark hold of such a vessel crossed his mind. Sandra. Was she involved? Since Danny was already involved in this, maybe he could provide some help. Shilo punched through his contacts until he stopped at Danny’s.

  “Shilo. Hey. Shocker to hear from you.”

  “Danny. I’m hoping you could help with my wasp problem. FTL Route seven-twenty-eight. Zyvarn shipping vessel nine-forty-three. Cargo class. Possibly smuggling. Illegal flight paths.”

  “You know there are procedures for this.”

  “And you know that pertains to detectives on the force. I’m not as restricted as them.”

  Danny grumbled from the other end of the line. “But I am.”

  “Then look it up and you decide what you’re doing with the information. But according to galactic standard time, today’s Wednesday and I can get to Route seven-twenty-eight to inspect the entrances and report any Zyvarn smuggling to the authorities.”

  “You’d only report it.”

  “I’ve had my fair share of fights with the Zyvarn. If you’re bored, you should look up some Zyvarn-Human fights. Spoiler, I win the fight. But yes, those bugs are tougher and brighter than you’d think, and I’m not interested in pursuing thoughts on who else might be piloting a Zyvarn ship either.”

  “Well, hate to break it to you, but that ship isn’t flagged for anything. The system does show it takes FTL seven-twenty-eight frequently. Often on Thursdays, as you said. Here’s a weird note. The ship entered Maltin station black hole at three forty pm. But wasn’t reported on the exit station. Originally marked as a possible failure to transit, but it showed up again. Strange glitch, it only happened once. Computer error as the ship was seen entering Maltin station the following week. No data on its return trip to Maltin.”

  Zander perked up at the word glitch. “You’ve been more helpful than you probably meant to be.” He hung up on Danny and plotted a course to Maltin station FTL transit location. It would take most of the time, but he’d be there by noon on Thursday. Would the Zyvarn ship be there, or was this more time he was wasting?

  Autopilot flew him to the FTL station. Shilo turned the autopilot off during the busy sections but otherwise caught up on his sleep and thought about theories over Kristy’s glitch that she swore wasn’t a computer glitch. How could a ship enter the station twice without ever exiting? Was the original flight lost in FTL transit? Would someone take the handle for a presumed lost ship? Possibly, but to do it for a ship lost to FTL flight would be bold. It was also strange to have the new ship keep to the same schedule. So that left Shilo pondering on how a ship enters a black hole only to repeat it again the following week.

  Every black hole was monitored. Smuggling still popped up as the most likely possibility. But if that was the case, Kristy could have the security working Maltin station changed up, or the computer system audited if she thought someone was mucking with her security feed. And Danny said it only occurred once. That the ship returned to its normal schedule, presumably arriving at the exit point. So, only once, it had entered the station and never showed up at the exit point, only to repeat that the following week. Perhaps it was some strange glitch. But why a Zyvarn ship that Shilo worried was the same one he’d been on with a Kohask? It was the same model ship that he was certain of now. The dark hallways and simple design with the small front section for two Zyvarn pilots overcrowded with two large dangerous Kohask and him was an image burned into his mind forever.

  He stopped his ship near the queue for the black hole. Now he only had to wait and watch. The Zyvarn ship arrived on time, as it had been scheduled. Shilo pulled his ship into line behind the ship and waited for his turn to take the FTL trip. He was counting the twenty ships in front of him and stopped on the fifth to line. That was a Kohask ship. That ship slipped into the black hole, vanishing from his sight along with the others one at a time until it was the Zyvarns and then his.

  FTL travel should be instantaneous, so when he dropped back into the universe on the other side and the Zyvarn ship was twelve ships ahead of him travelling alongside the Kohask ship, Shilo was stunned. That’s a glitch. Somehow, the Zyvarn ship had skipped ahead of him.

  Was this time travel? No one had figured that out that Shilo was aware. But traveling through time meant it would explain how a ship enters a black hole twice. It also broke Shilo’s brain, and he wasn’t about to give in to the idea of time travel. Cause then effect. As a detective, he relied on the rock-solid belief that actions followed in a sequence. His job as a detective would be impossible if someone could travel through time. How do you solve a murder in the past if the killer was from the future? Shilo pulled ahead of the other ships and followed the pair of vessels. Something about the Zyvarn ship felt off. His system was also reporting that the Zyvarn and Kohask transponders were on top of each other. This wasn’t time travel, but holograms. A disguise. But if the Zyvarn ship in front of him was a hologram, where was the Zyvarn ship?

  Danny’s question about why old earth isn’t part of the FTL network crossed his mind. Could the stations go somewhere else? Each black hole was linked to a single other black hole and yet Shilo was sitting here while the Zyvarn ship was somewhere else. He dangerously pulled up alongside the Zyvarn ship and was inching towards it, attempting to brush it. A dangerous operation as the Zyvarn ship could fire up a burn at any moment and he’d be caught in the exhaust. Only that had occurred with nothing registering on his sensors alerting him of any dangers.

  The Kohask ship flagged him. Shilo answered the call and accepted the video call. He was speechless when JoLane and Sandra answered the call.

  Sandra said in a rough voice. “Shilo. I’m not thrilled to see you here.”

  “Why are we here? As far as I know, this isn’t Kohask territory and JoLane. I’d have expected you to be on a moon building colony habitats.”

  What did the Kohask need? The answer was simple: they desperately needed new space to expand to. What if they found a way to expand a new location that wasn’t on the FTL network? If they knew how to do that, the Kohask would take it. But wherever in the Galaxy it was, they’d still need habitats. “The Zyvarn ship is carrying Kohask’s a few hundred every week. Maybe if the flight is short and the Kohask don’t need moving room, you could stack a thousand in that ship.”

  Sandra sighed. “You’re going to be trouble, aren’t you?”

  Well, he figured out Kristy’s glitch. Now to find out if the wasp stings.