For just a moment, there was total silence from the other end of the com, but Gaines could almost hear the thoughts flashing through Jaruwalski’s brain. Twenty-five capital ships—minimum—was hardly a typical raiding force. And the three superdreadnoughts and four battlecruisers of the Seaford Picket could never stand up to what was headed for them.

“Understood, Sensor One,” Jaruwalski said after several seconds. “Patch your output straight through to me and do what you can to refine it.”

“Aye, aye, Ma’am.” Gaines felt immensely relieved to have passed the knowledge on to someone else—someone senior to him, who had become responsible for dealing with it. All he had to do now was keep the information flowing… and hope he could somehow survive what he knew was about to happen.

“Well, if they didn’t have us on sensors before, it’s clear they have us now,” Citizen Vice Admiral Ellen Shalus remarked to her people’s commissioner as the sparks of Manty impeller drives began to appear in the flag deck plot. She watched them carefully, then reached up and scratched an eyebrow while she frowned. Citizen Commissioner Randal saw the frown and cocked his head.

“Something is bothering you, Citizen Admiral?” he asked, and she shrugged.

“I don’t see enough impeller signatures, Sir,” she replied, and looked over her shoulder at her ops officer. “What did HQ say we were supposed to hit here, Oscar?”

“According to the analysts’ best estimates, at least six or eight of the wall, plus a dozen battlecruisers, Citizen Admiral,” Citizen Commander Levitt replied instantly. From his tone, he knew he was answering the question for the official record, not because his admiral hadn’t already had the information filed away in her head, and Shalus looked back at Randal and pointed at the plot with her chin.

“Whatever that is—and we’re still too far out for good reads—it sure as hell isn’t a squadron of the wall, Citizen Commissioner. And I’ll be very surprised if there are a dozen battlecruisers out there, either. It looks to me more like three or four of the wall with a screen of heavy cruisers.”

“Could the other units be hiding in stealth?” Anxiety honed the edges of Randal’s question, and Shalus smiled thinly. The same thought had already occurred to her, because it was just the sort of thing those sneaky Manty bastards liked to do.

“I don’t know, Sir,” she said honestly. “It’s certainly possible. On the other hand, Citizen Admiral Giscard and Citizen Lieutenant Thaddeus did warn us that a lot of our data was out of date. We haven’t exactly swamped this area with scout ships since the war began, after all. That’s one of the reasons we figure the Manties are probably feeling smug and secure about it. And I suppose the answer could simply be that they’ve pulled the missing SDs home for refit. Intelligence said they have a lot of capital ships in the body and fender shop.”

“Um.” Randal moved to stand beside her and folded his arms, gazing down into the plot. “Can you make any estimate of what they’re up to?” he asked after a moment.