Lieutenant Higgins shook his head, surprise pushing away the boredom he’d felt a few seconds earlier. “Check the schedule. Did we miss a freight shipment due from the Rim? Look ahead a few days. Maybe we’ve got one running early or something.” Higgins snapped out the questions because he couldn’t think of anything else to say, but he knew damned well there was no scheduled traffic, and certainly nothing as big as the ship that seemed to be coming.

He’d been Stingray’s skipper for over a year now, patrolling the Rim border and monitoring incoming ships, what few there were. The Confederation maintained a trickle of trade with several of the Unaligned Worlds, but traffic was always slow, usually no more than one or two ships a month. And mostly free traders, small operator-owned vessels that risked the deep space journey to bring back exotic luxuries from the systems beyond the Rim. Certainly nothing that would qualify as “big.”

“Okay, let’s get moving toward the gate and get a closer look. Three g’s. Active scanners on full.” Higgins held back a sigh. He’d managed to get himself assigned to the remotest corner of the Confederation, as far as possible from the looming war. Dealing with things like unknown ships was exactly what he’d hoped to avoid when he’d taken the posting.

It’s nothing. Just a some kind of mix up.

After all, what else could it be out here on the edge of nowhere?

Still, there was no reason to be careless. Or to ignore procedure. “Send a flash com to Condor. Give them an update, and inform Lieutenant Childress we are moving to investigate.” Higgins wasn’t the bravest spacer in the Confederation fleet, he knew that much about himself. He hadn’t been above trying to find a quiet posting before the start of a war everyone knew was likely to be a holocaust. But he wasn’t a coward either, nor was he incompetent. And whatever was coming through the transwarp link, he knew it was his duty to check it out.

He didn’t really think the ship would be a problem, more than likely just a foul up in the shipping schedules, or at worst someone trying to smuggle some embargoed shipment from one Rim system or another. But he understood the safeguards border protocols demanded too.

“Yes, sir. Sending flash com now.”

The bridge was silent, save for the faint sounds of the engines in the background. There were only three crew members present, and only eighteen on all of Stingray. Higgins’s ship was technically navy, but he knew his customs boat was far from a true warship. If it was something hostile coming through…

“Approaching the transwarp portal, sir. Ship exiting now…”

Higgins sat quietly, trying to ignore the fear building in his gut, despite all his self-assurances about what was coming.