8
An hour later Drake’s thoughts were still chasing themselves in circles. The Disputed Zone wasn’t somewhere any captain in their right mind wanted to go, not without being part of a convoy that was military in all but name. Even then it wasn’t a trip to make lightly.
The zone was a buffer between the Federation and the Eternal Domain. The two had very different ideas on… well, on just about everything, from how power should be controlled right down to the rights and responsibilities of individual citizens.
Those differences had led to many conflicts down the years, from border skirmishes to all-out years-long campaigns. None had been decisive. The border was simply too long and the two sides too large for the loss of a few worlds to break the deadlock.
For the moment things were
