15

Aspera. At first he thought it was the name of the facility, of a penal colony on some backwater world, but a quick search turned up nothing of the kind. The only Asperas he could come up with were a school back on Earth, now defunct, and an uninhabited and uninhabitable planet, an uncolonized world far to the edge of the galaxy and away from normal trade paths. He found a satellite image of the school and saw it was collapsing. Definitely nobody there. No images seemed to exist of the planet. It had few valuable resources, and had been classified off limits to industrial concerns and other interested parties.

It was just one word, very little to go on, plus what Henry had said to back it up and the little he could infer. Maybe his brother was there somewhere on the planet.

Or maybe Aspera referred to something else, some off-the-vid corporation or lesser-known location on another planet. Or maybe he’d misunderstood what Henry had said—it could have been “Asberra” or “Hasparrow.” Those were possibilities, too, he supposed, but exploring those names didn’t turn up anything substantial either.

It was the first time in years he’d had any clear indication that Istvan was still alive. He had to ask himself: Do I really want to go after my brother? If he was in a penal colony, what could he do for him? Shouldn’t he leave him where he was? But despite himself, like a bad reflex, he found the same protectiveness for his older brother kicking in. Now that he suspected he knew where Istvan was, how could he stop himself from going after him? Even if he wasn’t there, even if he didn’t manage to see him, at least he had to try.