Part of the hold had been damaged as well, so Kaine thought he’d look for anything unusual while he was there.

After fixing the hull, he searched through the large empty room.

“Whatever created the rift is here? You are certain of this?”

“Yes,” answered Nim’s voice.

“Can you pinpoint the exact spot within the hold?”

There was a brief silence.

“It’s at the back, near the door. Behind the black panel.”

Kaine glanced around until he spotted it.

He trotted over to the panel and stared at it for a moment.

There was nothing remarkable about it. It was an ordinary-looking sheet of metal, with echion-charged hooks to hold it in place.

“Alright, then,” he muttered. “Let’s see what’s here.”

He grabbed a disabler from the toolbox he carried to fix the ship and proceeded to unhook the panel.

When it came off, he set it down gently on the floor and looked inside the hole.

He had expected circuits or cables, but there was none of that here. Instead, all he saw was a little red box. It did have some wires linking it to the ship.

“Okay. And what is this?”

“I don’t know,” said Nim.

Kaine pursed his lips. He’d seen something like this before. A long time ago. It felt familiar. Like something he would have learned while he was training as a fixer. Which meant it was something common that every ship likely had.

He raised his wristpad, took a picture of the red box, then ran a search.

The answer popped up almost instantly.

He stared at the text for a moment.

Frowned.

“That doesn’t make sense...”

“What is it?” asked Nim.

Kaine opened his mouth to answer, then closed it without a word.

He dropped his arm and stared at the box.

“Well, this changes everything,” he muttered. “Nim!”

“Yes?”

“Can you access this thing?”

“I’m not sure what you mean...”

“You control everything on this ship, don’t you?”

“I think so.”

“Then you should be able to control this as well.”

“I cannot control what I cannot access.”

Kaine stood, leaving the panel open, and hurried out of the hold, heading back to the control room.

“Are you telling me that is the only part of the ship you cannot access?”

There was another brief silence.

“I had not considered that angle, but yes, I suppose that is the case. I just double-checked, and there are no other parts of the ship I cannot access.”

“Huh. So it’s like a blind spot. Interesting. Very interesting.”

“What does it mean?”

Kaine bit down on his lip.

How was he going to explain this to Val without Nim overhearing? He wasn’t sure she’d want him to know about this.

Maybe he’d have to wait until they landed and tell her once they were off the ship.

“Why can I not access that section?”

He thought he heard a hint of concern in the voice.

“It’s no big deal,” he lied. “It probably got damaged when we hit the asteroid field.”

“Can you fix it?”

“Sure, but I’ll need to get some special tools from Derkanash. How much longer until we land?”

“We’re almost there. Another two hours.”

He nodded and walked on quietly.

His mind was made up. He’d wait until they were on the planet.

Only there would he tell Val.

He entered the control room and sat down.

Val glanced at him and quirked a brow.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said.

She frowned but did not press him.

“Are the damages fixed?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Except for a spot in the hold,” butted in Nim.

Kaine cringed but said nothing.

“Oh?”

He shrugged. “I did all the urgent stuff first. That part can wait until I have better material to work with.”

She stared at him for a moment, then went back to her displays.

Starrider finished its journey without further incident.

Ondine jumped out of her seat and ran to the front. Standing between them, she pointed toward the gray globe that had appeared ahead of them.

Val smiled and ruffled the girl’s hair.

“Yes, dear. I don’t know why you’d want to go there, but that’s Derkanash. Who knows, maybe we’ll even get some answers there...”

The next half hour seemed to last forever. Kaine was dying to tell Val what he had discovered. It was so mind-blowing he was not sure he believed it himself.

When the ship finally landed, he jumped out of his seat and hurried toward the exit.

“Come on,” he said over his shoulder, “let’s go.”

The girl was quick enough to follow, but Val was startled.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“I only want to help Ondine,” he called out from down the hall. “You coming?”

A few seconds later, he heard her hurrying to catch up.

“Just want to say you’re acting really weird right now.”

He shrugged without commenting. She’d understand soon enough.

They walked out of the ship and found a small unmanned shuttle waiting for them.

As soon as they got in, he looked at Val.

“Okay. Are you ready to have your mind blown?”

“What?”

“I found out what created the space rift.”

She blinked.

“I don’t understand—”

“I couldn’t tell you earlier because I don’t think you’d want Nim to hear this. But...”

He took a deep breath.

“You have a dormant AI on board your ship.”