As the door to the command center swung open, a huge figure spun around an extended a hand. "Call me Myles - you must be Lee Cossat. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"..." said Lee, gasping as his knuckles ground together under the pressure of an iron grip.

"Sorry about that" said Myles, reducing the pressure and then freeing Lee's hand. "You know Lee, you really have those Future Corp goons pissed! You have no idea how many strings I had to pull to get you on my ship and out of their hands."

"I regret causing you trouble captain. But if I may ask, aren't you and Future Worlds Corp working together out here? From what Bart Fullerton said, it sounded like they wanted me to take this posting so they could keep tabs on me". Lee was thinking rapidly, trying to process all the new and conflicting information he was receiving.

"Bart may have a fancy title, but he's relatively low on the food chain." explained Myles. "He's not actually a bad bloke, just does what he's told. It's the higher-ups that really hate you, and if they had their way you'd probably be floating out in space waiting for your air to run out. See, the Service and FWC are still friends on paper, but we've been smelling something fishy for some time now and our investigation has made some of their execs very uncomfortable."

"But why would they want me dead?"

"Because you ask too many questions. And because you spoke to me." The voice came from behind Lee, and it was one he hadn't expected to hear ever again - Jim Mullagan, from Hab 5, whom Lee had assumed dead.

It turned out that Jim's questions about the explosion at Hab 3 had indeed set him in the sights of Future World Corp, and they had arranged a little 'accident' for him. But, through a combination of luck and skill, he had managed to survive and escape as a stowaway on the Hammer. Outside the command room, only a handful of people knew that he was alive. And now he was working with Myles, trying to figure out what FWC was really up to out here in the middle of nowhere.