Before it meant an uninhabited planet, island meant land surrounded by water. Pirate, however, hasn't changed: a person who ransacks the brave souls who dare to traverse the uncharted—or maybe they're just stupid.

Like me.

My hands shake as I strap myself in and type the coordinates into the autopilot. After a countdown of one minute, we'll hyperjump. Then I'll finally find the artifact and prove to them all that my work is valid and Captain Archeleiope really did invent hyperjumping a century before its official unveil.

Or will the legends fail me? They all say her mysterious ship would pop out of nowhere, pillage freighters between solar systems, then disappear out of sight. No one's ever proved how she did it, though.

Until now, anyway. I activate the holomap I dug up on some moon. Her map. In the center, glowing yellow, is a dwarf planet not found on any database. Where she hid the core to her jump matrix. The metallic, truntilium case, housing a jumble of particles that makes no sense to me. Somehow, it helps us to jump to other galaxies. Helped her.

The countdown ticks off the final second. Uncharted space, here I come.