“It’s very close to the last one, but quite different from the first,” the linguist said, frowning. “There are three sequences that repeat in both. But they have slight differences from each other…something familiar there…But it escapes me at the moment.”

The technician shrugged helplessly.

“Play all three—no, just the last two. Continuous loop.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

The tension mounted as the bridge staff found themselves staring at everything their passive arrays could feed them. In this game of cat and mouse, or hide-and-seek, the first side to see the other would be the victor, and they were determined that they would not miss the enemy for the lack of a pair of eyes.

“Nothing yet, Captain,” Waters said unnecessarily, his eyes glued to the board.

Weston just grunted in response, his own eyes watching the captain’s displays. The enemy had to be there somewhere, though perhaps they learned from their last mistakes.

He expanded his display’s range to look outside the cone the RDF tangent had indicated, looking for anything suspicious.

“Dammit…” Waters cursed under his breath. “It’s all the interference from the star, Captain. It’s making it damn near impossible to see anything.”

“I know that, Mr. Waters. Just keep looking,” Weston said.

Whether on purpose or by accident, this one had managed to set itself between the system’s primary and the Odyssey. Normally, this might aid them by providing a bright background in which to look for a dark ship. However, the interference generated by the star was wreaking havoc on the delicate reception systems.

Something about that just didn’t sit right with Weston, either. What were the odds of the enemy just happening to appear there, at that angle?

Slim to none was Weston’s guess, and he opened his mouth to order them to break off but then frowned and held his peace. Sometimes you went with your gut, but usually, the numbers were the best path. Knowing when to draw the line was the hardest skill you could master, and Weston didn’t think it was the time, not just yet.

Their best bet was purely visual-based sensors; however, those were relatively easy to spoof in this situation, as the Odyssey itself had proven with the black hole settings on their adaptive armor.

“She could be right there…” Waters whispered. “Right out there, just waiting…”

Weston was about to respond when the intercom went off, blaring as someone dialed into the bridge. He slapped the controls, cutting the noise off, and snarled into the device.

“Goddammit, whoever this is I’m a little busy right now…”

“Captain! Captain!” a very excited voice came over the speakers.

“Dr. Palin?” he asked. “How did you get access to this line?”

“Yes, Captain, I just made a discovery!”

“Doctor, if you don’t mind, I’m in the middle of a battle up here…”

“What? Oh, yes, yes…But, you see, it’s a coordinate system!”

Weston closed his eyes, rubbing them with his right hand. “What?”