That enthusiasm, however, wore thin as the minutes turned to an hour, and still, there was nothing on the screens while they cut through the system on a ballistic course.

Weston considered the empty space of a star system made the battlefields of Earth look like a child’s playpen by comparison. Even discounting all the rather large solid objects that one could hide behind, it was impossible to scan more than a small percentage of the skies. And even if you could, there was every chance that you wouldn’t know what you were looking at when you saw it.

It made for a very ironic way of literally being bored to death.

“That’s two,” the ithan breathed in near disbelief.

Tanner didn’t blame her; it was beyond belief that any one ship could stand up to the force that had ground the best fleet his people had been able to mount to dust. The Odyssey and Captain Weston were marvels beyond marvels, as far as he was concerned.

Now if only the Forge would finish their work so he could do something productive.

Anything productive.

The admiral gritted his teeth, a decidedly uncivilized snarl, showing them to anyone with the courage to face him.

Had it not been for the Odyssey fighting a war that was not theirs, this planet would be dead before the Forge could have become a factor at all.

On such whimsical flickers of the universe rested the fate of an entire world.

“Radio pulse!” Waters’s voice was excited as he looked at the signal.

“Tracking its source now, Captain,” Lamont answered the question he had yet to formulate. “We got a clearer bead on this one. The Electronic Warfare Department is narrowing it down to a tighter tangent.”

“Thank you, Susan,” Weston said. “My compliments to them. Mr. Daniels, bring our bow around, if you please?”

“Aye, aye, Captain, coming around. Thrusters only.”

The Odyssey rumbled and moaned as it came around again, its nose dipping down into the gravity well of the red giant star, toward the source of the last transmission.

“We’re lined up, sir.”

“Very well, Lieutenant. Take us ahead—dead slow.”

“Dead slow, aye, Captain.”

A chirp sounded through the lab, startling the young tech as he looked around for the cause.

“Relax,” Palin told him. “I inserted a command into the system to alert me if we detected another radio transmission. Call it up, would you please?”

“Ah…yes, Doctor,” Evan replied, tapping out a command.

A new signal, audibly identical to the others, as far as Evan was concerned, filled the room, and Palin frowned and leaned back as he closed his eyes.

“Doctor?”

“Shh…” Palin said softly. “Place it on a continuous loop, if you please?”

“Uh…yes, sir.”

The file played over and over as Evan watched Palin rock in his chair with his eyes closed.