The air in the Helios boardroom was stale. Renick stared at the cityscape below, the endless neon glow of Varros Prime's commerce zones painting his face in garish colors. Deals were being made down there, fortunes won and lost. And here he was, stalled.

"The team is prepped," Finn said from behind him, datapad in hand. "We have schematics of the Drifting Leaf. It's soft. No heavy security, just organic walls and tourists. We can have them extracted before anyone knows what happened."

Renick didn't turn. "Extraction is messy. These aren't common thieves. They outmaneuvered Omni-Stellar's entire security apparatus. You think they'll just let us walk in and take them?"

"Then what? We ask nicely?" Finn's voice was edged with frustration.

"We make them an offer," Renick said, finally turning from the window. "A generous one. People with their skills don't want to be fugitives forever. We can give them protection, resources… a future."

"And if they say no?"

Before Renick could answer, the boardroom door slid open with a quiet hiss. Three senior executives filed in, their faces grim, and took positions along the wall. They didn't speak.

A moment later, she entered.

The room seemed to still. She was young, her features mostly human, but marked by her heritage. Her skin had a subtle, pearl-like iridescence, and where a human would have hair, fine, crystalline filaments the color of spun silver grew from her scalp, catching the light like a halo of tiny prisms. She moved with an unnerving grace, as if the planet's gravity were a minor suggestion.

Renick straightened up immediately. "CEO Selyn."

Finn looked like he'd been struck. This was Kaela Selyn. The head of Helios Division.

She offered no greeting. Her eyes, a startling violet, scanned the room and landed on Renick. "Your report."

It wasn't a request. Renick cleared his throat. "We've identified the source of the broadcast. A group of off-worlders, currently residing at an organic inn called the Drifting Leaf in the old quarter. We were just discussing the best approach for… recruitment."

Selyn's gaze was piercing. "Recruitment. Is that what you call surrounding a civilian inn with assault teams?"

Renick faltered. "A precaution, ma'am. To ensure a… controlled negotiation."

"You cannot control what you do not understand." Her voice was calm, melodic, but it cut through the room's tension like a blade. "These individuals exposed a competitor's greatest crime. They did not do it for credit or reward. They did it because it was right. That makes them dangerous, but not to us. Not if we are smart."

"With all due respect," Renick argued, a hint of desperation in his voice, "they are an unknown variable. They could turn on us next. We need to bring them in, assess their loyalties."

"You think like a man who sees tools, not people." Selyn walked to the head of the table, but did not sit. "I will handle this. Personally. You will stand your teams down."

Renick's composure broke. "You can't be serious! Going yourself? It's an unsecured location! We don't know what they're capable of!"

"I know exactly what they are capable of. They are capable of toppling giants." A faint, knowing smile touched her lips. "That is a capability I wish to understand, not cage."

Kaela Selyn was not human, though she could pass for one at a glance. She was Xylos, a species from the high-gravity world of Xylos, known for its crystalline formations and immense geological pressures. Her people had evolved dense, mineral-laced bones and that distinctive iridescent skin, a natural defense against the planet's harsh radiation.

The crystalline "hair" was a sensory organ, allowing Xylos to detect subtle shifts in energy fields and atmospheric pressure.

She hadn't been born into corporate privilege. She was found. A Helios deep-range survey team discovered her as a child, the sole survivor of a Xylos colony ship that had suffered a catastrophic failure and drifted for decades. She was the only one who had adapted, using her innate understanding of systems to keep the ship's failing life support operational long after it should have failed.

The Helios team brought her back, a curious, silent child who could intuitively understand any machine she touched. She was raised within the corporation, but always as an outsider. She saw the intricate web of commerce and power not as a ladder to climb, but as a complex machine to optimize. Her rise was not a coup; it was a recalibration. The board had voted her in because she was the only one who could fix the company's stagnating systems. She was twenty-three.

Now, she looked at Renick not with anger, but with pity for his limited perspective.

"Your concern is noted, Director," she said, her tone final. "But my decision is made. I am going to the Drifting Leaf. Alone."

"At least take a security detail!" Finn blurted out, then shrunk back under her violet gaze.

"Security implies a threat," Selyn said. "I am not going to issue a threat. I am going to extend an invitation."

With that, she turned and left, the executives falling in behind her. The door hissed shut, leaving Renick and Finn in the suddenly vast and silent room.

Renick slowly sank into a chair, running a hand over his face. "She's going to get herself killed."

"Or," Finn said quietly, "she's going to succeed where we couldn't."

Down in the executive hangar, Kaela Selyn entered a small, unmarked shuttle. She didn't need a pilot. As the hatch sealed, the control console lit up, responding to the mere proximity of her touch.

She input the coordinates for the Drifting Leaf. The game was changing. Omni-Stellar had played with force and lost. Renick wanted to play with traps and leverage. She would play with truth. And she was confident she held the winning hand.

A/N

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