The orbits of Captain Orbitz as told and retold by trillions of Orion systemizens, indeed systemizens from across many a galaxy, never fluctuated from their purpose of helping Captain Tycho "Tych" Orbitz conquer his home galaxy. Tych was firm from the day he resigned his commision as a courier in the Star Alliance to the day he vanished into space. Many were afraid he would come back. Many more hoped he would. They thought he was out pirating somewhere with Lalunia, his pheromonically irresistible great-great-great-great-niece, or ruling a planet with the beautifully blue Sara Lee, or fighting the jilted queen of the Astrazeneca or playing chess with CAROline the computer that loved him. They didn't know he was dead. They had no idea he had died long before he had even resigned his commission. Before he hijacked the tesseract marking the beginning of his rebellion or piloted the stolen ship Nautilus into the singularity the man had physically removed his own dead body from the bridge. He had no choice. At the time the ship was scheduled to be inspected by Star Alliance sanitation officers.

Orbitz arrived at the Houston space elevator. He took no bags through customs. Nobody questioned him. At the orbiting platform he bought a fancy skin suit. He chartered a shuttle to take him to his ship. Within an hour he saw the widowmaker stretching out towards the galactic pole. Forestays came into view. They glittered from the main mast in quick succesion like spectral strands. Stone tentacles emerged. From every direction they clustered into the humongous figurehead of the Nautilus Pompilius. Its one brooding eye kept careful watch above its gaping hyponome. Orbitz pulled the hood of his skin suit over his head. He affixed his breathing apparatus. He disembarked directly into space. With a single canister of propellant he reached the airlock nearest to the bridge. He climbed aboard.

One day Orbitz finally emerged from his hotel room. He was carrying what looked like a book. He went into the shop. "It's you again," said the shopkeeper. "What do you want?" Orbitz said nothing. He dropped the book on the counter and left. One half of the surveillance team followed him all the way to the space port. The other half decided to find out what was going on. They raided the shop. They found nothing. The book Orbitz had been carrying was an antique. It was stamped with the name of the hotel. When one of the agents went to the hotel to ask about it the clerk behind the desk wanted it back. He said every room was supposed to have one. It was tradition. He had no idea why. He said the owner would get mad if one of them disappeared. The owner was questioned about the book. He said the same thing. It was tradition. Every room had a book. Every book was the same. He didn't know why. He didn't care to know. The Amazon cared. According to his sources there was a chance the book had a connection to the Wiki-en Society. He ordered the hotel closed. He arrested the owner and the entire staff. They proved themselves innocent quickly. The Astrazeneca found no deception in them. The shopkeeper was different. He was held long after the others had been released. He wasn't lying about Orbitz. He had never seen the man before in his life. He was lying about the way he did business. He claimed he was an honest businessman. It was a lie. He claimed he knew a good bargain when he saw one. Another lie. The Amazon wondered what was happening. Orbitz had gone from the space port to a low orbit cruise ship. Aboard the same ship was Sara Lee. The scientist who had confounded the Astrazeneca in the first place. He assigned a surveillance team to watch her. She walked around and gazed at the blue planet. She didn't see Orbitz at all.

Inside the singularity the four-dimensional tesseract squeezed into the two-dimensional space of the interbrane world. All three ships survived the implosion. In the three-dimensional bubble lelt behind time passed slowly relative to the rest of the universe. Within half an hour their velocity reversed. They swung back towards the brane they had just left. After a small change in heading to the left, a roll to the right and a small adjustment in pitch downward all three ships emerged into the Trapezium cluster. The gas giant loomed nearby. As soon as the Argo was clear of the tesseract Orbitz programmed his ship to land on the surface of the planet. Orbitz Número Dos was going to need it.

A quiet corner. A back alley. By the harbor. An ocean liner. The continents from space. Looking through a glass of water. A wildfire. A man on horseback. Surrounded by horses. Galloping. Going to a horse show. Dressage. Austria. Rich people. Descendants of nobility. Peasantry. Young people. Their future. Uncertainty. Old folks. The sky. The phasing of the moon. A crescent. Smiling fortune. Powerful people. Success. Happiness. Envy.