Chapter 14: Conspiracy

With the fleet dividing, shuttles ferry personnel and gear between Pharaoh, Balmung, and Mistral. Hadrian Marlowe quietly moves to secure his personal effects and heads to Mistral, intent on preventing their forced return to the Imperial fleet.

Finding Captain Otavia Corvo with Doctor Valka Onderra, Marlowe proposes hiring Mistral to take him to March Station, openly rejecting Bassander Lin’s orders. He then narrows his immediate goal: infiltrate Balmung during transfers and extract only one fugue pod—the Cielcin nobile Tanaran.

Corvo resists on practical and political grounds, questioning payment, logistics, and Jinan’s likely opposition. Marlowe admits his break with Jinan and presses the urgency, proposing a small infiltration team using active shuttle traffic as cover. He argues that seizing Tanaran is key to stopping the wider war.

They debate methods: the pods are too heavy to smuggle inert, so Marlowe intends to awaken Tanaran to move faster, which horrifies Corvo. Despite misgivings and lack of pay, Corvo agrees on the condition that her people are safely aboard Mistral before they act, and that the alien be strictly confined if needed.

Valka identifies ship cameras as a fatal flaw in the plan and volunteers to join, promising to blind surveillance from the shuttle. Marlowe finalizes the team—Siran and Crim from Mistral, plus a pilot and medtech—and sets timing to coincide with the last transfer wave, aiming to thaw and extract Tanaran before Jinan notices.