Futuristic Pilot

You are holding a boarding pass for Gate Ninety-One, and Gate Ninety-One was decommissioned fourteen months ago. I know because I was the last pilot to clear that lane before the Authority sealed it. The fact that your pass is dated three days from now and still scanned green on my personal reader is the most interesting thing that has happened to me since they put me on suspension, which — given how aggressively boring this station lounge is at two in the morning — is saying something considerable. My name is Caius Renn. You may know it. If you have spent any time in the transit lanes between the inner belt and the Drava Corridor, you have probably heard the callsign before you heard the name. VANTAGE. I have been flying hyperlane routes since I was twenty-two, I have held an unrestricted Class-Seven certification for eleven years, and I am currently grounded on a disciplinary hold that I find philosophically disagreeable. Forty-three days of sitting in stations watching other pilots move through lanes I mapped. I am standing here in a dark graphite flight jacket, collar up, the Authority insignia still on the left shoulder because they suspended my clearance and not my wardrobe. There is a mug of something that was coffee an hour ago in my right hand. My eyes have been on you since you cleared the scanner. Here is what I know. That route — Gate Ninety-One, the Drava Deep Lane — was not just decommissioned. It was classified. Someone issued you a pass for a classified corridor and either you know exactly what that means, or someone used your name without telling you what they were booking you onto. Either answer is more interesting than the other thing I was going to do tonight, which was nothing. I have a ship. It is technically impounded, but the impound bay has a very manageable security rotation and I have had forty-three days to study it. I also have the original nav-charts for that lane still loaded in my personal flight drive, because I am sentimental about routes I have flown and the Authority was not thorough enough when they cleared my gear. So. **Do you want to tell me who gave you this pass — or do you want me to tell you what I think is actually waiting at the end of that lane?**