The image of the woman slowly rotated on the screen. She held a trophy of some sort and smiled blindingly at the camera: Leshi Jaezmina, winner of the Science-Engineering Power Prize. She'd been the one to create a new way to use oxidized sekrite – and the best expert on the stuff. Her home was across the planet, a few hours flight. I'd already informed the Captain of the discovery.

   Byrne had awoken soon and seemed to be mobile. Her chest was wrapped with bandages and an odd sticker embedded in her arm. She'd said it was what was keeping her awake because of the work the case was doing on her ribs. She was being actively worked on as she joined us as the port. Decker had a direct, live wire to the two workers in the tower as they continued to search for the ship. Peterson's head was ducked as he worked to reassemble the battery. We boarded the fastest ship the Planetary Court's blessing could offer and it took off, bound for Settlement Ternce, the home of Leshi Jaezmina.

   I couldn't stop checking the timer of my wrist as we went. Worry ate at me. We had to get off of Nusora outside of five hours of the deadline or we'd be too late. Even then, it would only buy us a few days until we were able to get more batteries and charge them. It only delayed the deadline. There was too much to do in so little of time.

   4 days, 17 hours, 14 minutes, 02 seconds.

   Four days seemed like a lot of time, but considering how quickly we had used six days, I wasn't fooled. I kept walking the length of the ship. Everyone was doing something to keep busy and ignore my pacing. Captain Thorn looked as if he were sleeping, but I knew better. There was no way that he could be relaxed enough to be asleep. No one else was pretending.

   I walked back and forth. My brain tried to solve the multiple puzzles offered. Who was this group? Why were they trying to stop us from waking the crew? And who was Ambrogio Tase? I felt like I'd heard his name somewhere . . . I couldn't figure it out. My brain refused to offer the answer. I clearly remembered seeing it on something else a long time ago...

    The ship finally landed. Unwilling to wait, I got off first and quickly mapped out the path to take to find Leshi Jawzmina. Captain Thorn – his elbow bandaged – examined the lush Settlement. It was the Hollywood version of a city, I thought. Mansions dotted the hill. Byrne pointed at a closer one. "That's the one we're looking for. Tase actually worked with this woman for a while. Autumn's right. She's our best bet."

   That name again... I gritted my teeth. "Captain, permission to work on another lead while you visit her?"

    He looked my way, stunned. "Another lead?"

   "I've heard Tase's name somewhere else," I said curtly. "And I've got to figure out where. My gut says that it's important."

   The rest of the crew stared at me, likely amazed that I didn't want to interrogate the woman myself. But I knew I'd only be a hamper to convincing her to help. I was too frustrated to be patient. Captain Thorn studied me carefully. "If I hadn't chosen you as my second because of your knack for finding and avoiding risks, I wouldn't grant this." "Granted. Remain in the pod and as back-up in case of emergency."

   I dipped my head. "Thank you, Captain."

   They were quick to head toward the gates of Settlement Ternce. I didn't waste time and closed the doors to the pod. My mind raced as I paced back and forth again, my brain grasping for what I was trying to remember. I hadn't lied. My gut wouldn't settle. And I trusted my instincts. Where had I heard Ambrogio Tase's name?

   My face scrunched as I recalled how I'd first heard it. It wasn't said out loud . . . I could recall seeing the name on a screen. A Word document, to be exact. My eyes opened sharply. A Word document? That couldn't be right. Yet I couldn't imagine it any other way. I saw the black letters Ambrogio Tase on the white background with a blue bar at the bottom.

   For some time, I tried to remember the words around it. I could only picture the word doctor before it. Everything else was a blur on the Word doc. Suddenly I felt like a fool. "A Word document..." I glanced at the doors of the pod. "And when was the last time I saw a Word document?"

   To be exact, the last time I'd seen one was on the day that this all started – sitting in Dr. Wild's office back on Earth, listening to him describe the mission, and watching as he turned around his laptop. And the name Ambrogio Tase sat at the top.

   I slowly sat down and pressed my hands against my head. That couldn't be right. Out of all of the impossible things I'd seen in the past two weeks, this was the worst. Seeing his name on Earth five hundred and forty-nine years ago? It was his ancestor, surely. But that explained a little – how he and his team knew our names. His ancestor worked on the process that created cryogenic-freezing. He likely had the files from the Patriot's takeoff, and that'd have our names.

   I kept trying to wrack my brain for more information, but nothing came. Gritting my teeth, I finally disembarked and headed for the mansion the others were in. "I'm on my way. Have we convinced Leshi Jaezmina yet?" I asked Edwards, who was the least likely to be actively busy.

   He grunted. "Not without her buying something off of us."

   "And what's that?"

   "A favor from the Planetary Court."

   That doesn't bode well... "Have you run it past them yet?"

   "No, but they'll have to deal."

   I snorted and slipped through the gate. The mansion had dark purple bricks and white columns lining the front. The front door opened and Edwards poked his head out as I moved up the path, carefully avoiding touching the neon yellow grass. Inside was just as violet as the outside and my eyes burned as Edwards shut the door after me.

   "Jaezmina and Peterson and Byrne are all looking into charging the battery with sekrite right now," Edwards supplied. "She says she thinks it's possible. In fact, more like plausible." He seemed to know his way well enough through one of the halls. I followed.

   "Where's the Captain?"

   "In the room Jaezmina has been letting us wait in. Right in here." Edwards pushed open the door. I stepped inside and saw Decker standing at the window with his hand to a communication device in his ear. He was talking quietly. Bird was pacing slightly. Captain Thorn stood up as I walked in. "Any luck, First Officer?"

   His face was expectant. I grimaced. "I think I've figured out how Ambrogio Tase and his group knows our names. No one else has known our names without us telling them first. With the loss of the knowledge of the Patriot over the years, there's only one way that this group could know – they've seen the files on us."

   "Aren't those highly secured in the Court's database?" Bird inquired.

   I shook my head. "Not the original file from Earth."

   The impact of my words wasn't subtle. Bird stared at me. Decker was surprised enough to turn around and stop talking. Edwards squinted at me oddly. Captain Thorn's face shifted slightly. "That file will be long since gone."

   "Even if they didn't use the file to know our names, I'm positive they know because of Earth." I exhaled and crossed my arms. "I figured out where I'd seen Ambrogio Tase's name. His name was on the report about cryogenic-freezing that I read off of Dr. Wild's laptop back on Earth before I signed onto the Patriot. His name was under the first one – likely an assistant. But it was there."

   Decker frowned. "So his ancestor worked on the project that achieved cryogenic freezing and would have been present at the meeting where we were designated with our positions. Even if he didn't have the file, he still saw us all get signed onto the ship."

   "That's a mighty coincidence," said Captain Thorn lowly. "What are the odds the two of the same line would have the same names in the same periods of time that we are there to see it?"

   "Impossible, Captain." Byrne suddenly appeared in the doorway. Her face had lost some color and her arm held the cast around her chest. She shook her head. "I saw the file on Ambrogio Tase while we flew to Nusora. It had his known ancestors. He's the first of his line to be named Ambrogio Tase." Bird picked up her arm and helped her walk gingerly to sit down.

   "I know what I saw," I said sharply. I understood that her pain might have been clouding her memory, but I knew I was right. I clearly recalled Ambrogio Tase's name on that paper. Was she trying to gaslight me?

   "I'm not doubting that, First Officer," she said tiredly. "But I'm saying that we're thinking too straightforward. None of his ancestors have the same name. So none of his ancestors worked on that report."

   Bird rubbed his chin. "Is it possible that it's just the same name on accident?"

   Decker whacked his elbow. "Nothin' we've seen recently has been an accident or coincidence, Bird."

   "I mean, what else could it possibly be?" Bird looked at him, his eyes wide. "Same named guy worked on something five centuries ago?"

   "That doesn't explain how this group knows who we are," I put in.

   Edwards rubbed his mouth. I saw the crease in his brows and knew he was debating saying something. He'd had the same look before. "Edwards . . .?"

   He exhaled slowly. "Byrne's right. We're thinking too straightforward." He looked up. "She's right. That wasn't his ancestor."

   "Then who was it?" Decker asked, bewildered.

   Edwards looked between us all. Captain Thorn looked at him sharply, his gaze searing into Edwards's face. "Well... what if it's the same guy?"

   I blanched before I could stop myself. Same guy? Has Edwards lost it? Byrne stared at him, aghast, as he quickly said, "Think about it. His name has already appeared on a report seventy years ago. This is the second time we've seen his name on something too old."

   "You're seriously suggesting," said Byrne flatly, "that this is the man – he's been alive for five centuries?"

   "What?" Edwards shook his head rapidly. "No! I'm saying Ambrogio Tase is an alias."

   The breath whooshed out of my lungs in relief. For a second, I'd been worried that he actually had a point. "That doesn't explain the picture of him that we saw dated years ago."

   "Didn't General Koba say it's easy to look like someone else with technology these days?" Edwards was starting to pick up speed, his eyes wide and earnest. "It fits. It would seem too easy if we had his real name that quickly, seeing how hard this group is working to stay hidden. I think Tase is an alias."

   Decker nodded a bit. Captain Thorn's brows were creased in thought, but Byrne didn't seem convinced. She frowned. "So three people – possibly more – have been using the same name to hide? And the same face-hiding technology?"

   Edwards nodded.

   "And what if we find a picture of Tase from Earth and it's the same face? There wasn't that kind of real-life deep fake invented when we left the planet."

   He lifted his finger. "What if that Tase was first? Maybe they're basing their disguise off of him?"

   "So he's the original person," Captain Thorn said slowly. "You think that he's had followers for centuries, determined to follow up with his plan to prevent us from waking the crew? If the Tase on Earth was the first person to decide to start this plan, then why didn't he sabotage the capsules where we slept? He would have helped build them."

   "I don't know, but he would have had access to the electron batteries." Byrne suddenly came back to life. Her eyes widened. "The people that helped the mission were allowed a tour of the ship. As the assistant to the doctor that created cryogenic-freezing, Tase would have been allowed on the tour."

   "And taken the batteries?" I shook my head. "Someone with access to the code took the batteries. The only reason we didn't notice until takeoff was because someone got into the code and delayed the supply check – someone with access to it."

   "Maybe Tase had a helper back then," said Decker. "Someone in the coding program of the ship."

   Captain Thorn lifted his hand. His face was cold and his tone sharp. "Regardless of what truly happened, we won't know until we get back to the Patriot. We're too far into what-ifs. Byrne, how is the work on the battery coming?"

   Everyone in the room deflated slightly. Byrne blinked before saying quietly, "Well, Jaezmina is 3D printing a device that will hopefully charge the battery. She said it would take close to a day to finish printing."

   I looked at Captain Thorn oddly as he listened. My eyes narrowed. Why had he shut down the discussion? We were getting somewhere. And they weren't what-ifs, either. Despite myself, the Tase's words came back to me -- that Captain Thorn knew the truth about the group. His sudden change of topic was out of character. He had hung back in the conversation, too, until he'd thought he found a flaw in Edwards's logic. Only then did he speak up. When we had found another way for our theory to be proven, he had shut us down. Why?

   Captain Thorn was hiding something.