“Well, well, what have we here?” The softly spoken words barely traveled to the commander’s own ears and were totally lost in the ruckus that had overtaken the adjacent bridge and data management itself.

The slim blonde called up three different views of the same scan, grabbed two of the floating displays, and slid them together, superimposing them over the third. Her smile widened as the blue, green, and red lines joined to form a single white one.

“I’d say that’s a match,” she said to herself, enjoying the sensation of having puzzled out a particularly aggravating riddle.

“Have something, Winger?” Commander Roberts said.

Lt. Michelle Winger jumped. She hadn’t heard him come up behind her. “Sir…I…”

“Relax, Lieutenant,” Roberts said in a tone that made it an order as much as a suggestion.

Michelle swallowed. “Yes, sir.”

“Did you find something?”

She nodded, pointing to the floating holographic display in front of her. “I think that’s a wake, sir.”

“A wake?” Roberts eyed the fluorescing colors superimposed over an image of interstellar space.

“Yes, sir.” Michelle turned away from him, her fingers reaching up to punch the air as she keyed in a series of commands via the floating interface. “These are particles of ionized gas—plasma, sir. Solar winds have disrupted them heavily in-system, but I’ve had three of our long-range scanners probing outside the heliopause for the last couple hours and—”

“Whoa! A couple hours? The captain only issued the orders twenty minutes ago,” Roberts objected. “Winger, those scanners were needed to keep an eye on the local area! We could have potential hostile ships in the area.”

The lieutenant blurted, “I realize that, sir, but we can cover a full global scan with two primary scanners and the secondary. I was worried that something might be coming in…or going out, sir.”

Roberts frowned. “All right. We’ll let it go, for the moment. But I’ll have a few words with the captain about this, Lieutenant.”

She nodded, hiding a grimace. “Yes, sir.”

“Tell me about this wake of yours,” Roberts said, leaning against the desk that Winger rarely used and gazing at her.

Weston was sitting at his desk, filing paperwork in triplicate on the search and rescue. It wasn’t as bad as it used to be, he supposed, since a signature was digitally transferred to every document with his thumbprint, but it was still paperwork.

So even though he’d only just sat down at the job and was nowhere near being done, the call over the ship’s intercom was something to be thankful for.

“Weston here,” he said, leaning back.

“Sir, Commander Roberts.”

“Commander…What’s up?” Weston asked as he tapped a command in the air.

He loved the holographic systems since they let him keep a clean desk. That was something he’d never been able to do when he had his keyboard, mouse, monitor, and other requisite office materials.