?So, in summary, dead ends everywhere?“, Amara said, visibly unhappy.


    The people in the meeting room nodded. She had assembled the intelligence, police and military heads as well as Gordon Fleills, the Minister of External Affairs.


    ?Someone“, Gordon explained, ?really knows how to set up a corporate structure. Ownership of the involved companies is spread out and identifiable people reside outside the Junkstorm. We also have a few cases of identity theft, with the people on the paperwork having no idea someone had opened a company in their name. One of the shell companies is owned by a man dead for five years.“


    ?All the sites we have discovered so far have since been shut down. Where we found employee records, they were forged or made up. We are now working on the companies renting out these spaces, they might be involved or they might have been duped as well.“, the head of police added.


    It was night already, and the day had gone by too quickly. The last light of Erulas’ sun had just disappeared, and dense clouds covered the sky in patches of black and gray. The city below was shining in lights as it always was. In the distance, she knew the Felindar ship was sitting at the spaceport, though she could not see it directly.


    She turned around, away from the window back into the room. This was the third meeting in a row and the air conditioning was barely keeping up pumping fresh air into it. She was exhausted. ?Everyone makes mistakes.“, she said, ?Look harder, find the ones our enemy has made.“


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    She excused herself and left the room, hurriedly moving to her office. Dr. Chen was waiting for her. The empty cup on the table in front of him indicated that he had been waiting for a while.


    ?Madam president“, he said, rising to greet her.


    ?Dr. Chen“, she answered, while walking over to her side of the table and sitting down behind her desk, ?I hope that you have something for me, because nobody else has.“


    ?Insights more than facts, I’m afraid.“, the alien expert said, ?First, the Felindar claim that the ship that launched from their ship was bought from the Xylars, but manned by Felindar. They refused to discuss details. I doubt they were truthful. The Xylars are higher dimensional beings compared to the Felindar. I don’t see how they could even operate a Xylar ship.“


    ?Agreed“, Amara said plainly, ?Now what do we make of that? For years we are alone in the Junkstorm, and then within a few days three different alien races show up. Does that make sense to you? Even assuming that they are all interested in that pirate loot?“


    ?They do seem extraordinarily interested all of a sudden, yes. What are you getting at?“


    ?Not sure myself. We are missing something, doctor. I was hoping you had some insight?“, Amara said.


    Dr. Chen was not easily made uncomfortable and he stood his ground without flinching: ?Not enough reliable information for guidance at this time. I was talking to the pirate governor, hoping that he could tell me something about his prisoners. He promised to question them more, but it very much seems like it is not a priority for him.“


    Amara sighed. ?Thank you, Dr. Chen. Let me know when you have any progress.“


    ?Of course.“, Dr. Chen said and stood up.


    As he left her office, Amara turned to her computer displays, going over the information they had collected so far. It had been a long day. A long week, in fact. After perusing the dozens of documents once more, she decided that a good night’s sleep would probably be the most productive thing to do for now and shut the computer off.