Now all it took to clean up was a wave of his hand, shutting down the desktop office suite and activating the catering service. In the time it took Roberts to start with his report, Weston was already reaching for a hot cup of coffee.

“Lieutenant Winger thinks she may have found the entry path of the fleet,” Roberts reported over the intercom.

Weston frowned, turning back to his desk. Another sweep of his hand and a poke in the appropriate place activated the floating screen again and he found himself looking at Roberts. “Oh? How certain?”

The imposing man shrugged. “As certain as anything gets right now, I suppose. It’s not human technology, and it’s sure as hell not one of our wakes, but it looks like someone dumped a lot of energy along a tight trajectory out there.”

“Have you extrapolated a point of origin?”

“I’m afraid not, sir. Nothing along that path for a thousand light-years.”

“Hell.” Weston frowned, more than a little disappointed. It would have been nice to see an inhabited alien planet, even if they had to sneak a peek from way out past the system heliopause.

“Winger has an idea on that, sir…” Roberts said, with a twist of his lip.

“Oh? Do tell.”

“There’s one star system—it’s within ten light-years of the path and only twenty light-years from here,” Roberts said, tilting his head, his expression one of skepticism. “It’s the closest system along the path.”

Weston considered the information. It could be a longshot, but it was still worth it. “All right. When the shuttles are finished gathering samples, bring them back into the pen. In the meantime, have Waters plot us an escape trajectory that’ll coincide with this wake. We’ll do some tight scans and then transition out to the lieutenant’s planet.”

“Yes, sir,” Roberts said, managing to sound elated and disappointed at the same time.

The display went blank, revealing the synthetic cherry wood grain of his desk. Weston could understand the commander’s thoughts on the subject. This was turning into a very interesting maiden voyage. So interesting, in fact, that there seemed to be a strong case for going home right now and reporting it.

Although, Weston would order a tight transmission beam to be sent—it would take several years to get home, but if anything happened to the Odyssey, that was the best they’d have. He wasn’t ready to cash in the mission just yet. He wanted to see what else was out here—and more importantly, who else.

Dr. Rame was tired. He had been working for several hours straight, his mind refusing to let him take a break from the fascinating case study in front of him: a human who not only wasn’t born on Earth but had never been in the Sol System at all. Her body registered as human on every scan the doctor could imagine; even the brain waves appeared completely normal. Since she’d come on board, hundreds of theories had evolved in Rame’s mind, only to be discarded.