MARS-SUN L4—UDACHNYIsidor Orlov sat at his desk under the transparent dome of his Udachny Complex orbiting Sol at the Mars-Sun L4 Lagrange point leading Mars in its orbit by 228 million kilometers. He smiled with smug satisfaction. He had his starship. Soon he would test it within the Solar System and then with a round-trip to Proxima Centauri. He looked through the dome at his creation, floating several hundred meters distant, outlined against the multi-colored, star-studded expanse of the Milky Way.
Then Orlov turned to the business at hand. His starship was a big deal, but he had a company to run, one that required his focused attention across a broad spectrum of activities—some completely legal and aboveboard, others mired in the worst kind of human trafficking, illegal weapons sales,
