Free Rebel Stars 1: Outlaw by Edward W. Robertson

age was the same as his actual one. He had a way of moving that was difficult to describe, though. Flowing. Like a dancer, or Simm's Rainese knife fighting, or someone born to near-zero gravity.
    "Rada!" He threw aside the fishing pole and rushed toward her. "Please—tell me the Tine is okay."
    "I'm afraid it…it went down, sir. We had to swim vacuum all the way here."
    He gave her a look, then turned to Simm. "Is it okay? Your message said you'd been attacked."
    Simm smiled, looking past Toman's shoulder. "You will be gratified to learn the aggressors turned tail the instant the Tine showed its teeth."
    "I am gratified." He patted Simm on the shoulder and gestured Rada to a nearby rock. "Pull up a chair. And tell me exactly why I'm putting my people—and my ship—at risk."
    She sat on the large, flat stone, warmed by the artificial sunlight. There was even a bit of a breeze swirling around. Flies jounced on the surface of the lake. It was almost more than she could stand.
    "I thought you read our message," she said.
    "And I judged that it was too flimsy a reason to keep you out there. Not if it means dogfights and lengthy, unsatisfying murder investigations." He lowered himself to a boulder across from her. "So: convince me."
    "First off, our contact on this is—was—Jain Kayle. Ex-professor, physics and astronomy, emphasis on exosolar colonization. Several years ago, she left that post for the private sector. One of your rivals, as I recall."
    "I wouldn't call Iggi Daniels a rival," Toman said. "Rivals have to be able to beat you."
    Rada let a moment pass. "Point is, Kayle was tops. She dedicated her life to getting us out of here and into the galactic neighborhood. Two years ago, there was a rumor that they'd done it."
    "She hadn't spent long enough with Iggi to get anywhere."
    "If true, they'd be the first ones to get outside the Oort. In this case, the middle of nowhere is a major somewhere. After she contacted us, we did some serious digging. Every corner of the undernet we could find, including some isolated networks in the deep Outer. Every twist of the Labyrinth. We didn't find any hard evidence of the mission, but there was talk. A lot of it."
    "That is because talk costs nothing." Toman shifted on the rock. "Unlike deep space missions designed to thwart an unknown threat that's vanished everything else sent its way."
    "You told me to tell you everything we know."
    He closed his eyes. "Go on."
    "Backing up, Kayle contacted us two weeks ago. To prove that she was talking to me, and not someone pretending to be me, she made me go on video with a paper sign, gave me a key phrase, and watched as I wrote it on the sign. After that, she asked for a meet."
    "To tell you what?"
    "Well." Rada drew her feet in to sit cross-legged. "She wouldn't say. Not until we were in person, on one of your ships."
    "The topic can be inferred by context," Simm butted in. "She was into deep space. We're bug-hunters. Presumably, she found something out there—something alien."
    "Yes, it's all very tantalizing," Toman said. "And it's just like Iggi to send the entire Solar System on a wild goose chase."
    "Before the crash, Kayle tried to clue us in," Rada said. "She Needled us one last message. Routed it all the way across the system to hide her tracks. Delayed its delivery by a whole day."
    "Why would she delay her final words?"
    "Best guess?" Simm said. "She didn't want us to arrive on the site while whoever killed her was still there. However, it was timed so that we arrived in sufficient time to get a read on engine sigs, flight paths, et cetera."
    Toman's shoulders bobbed with laughter. "So you agree she was murdered, Simm? I thought you needed more proof than that."
    "The evidence isn't conclusive. But it deserves further resources."
    "I looked into her message. The thing about the rabbit. Not a single reference to it anywhere."
    Rada sighed. "That's why we went after the e-sig instead."
    Toman turned to gaze at the yellow light