“We think so,” Weston said. “We actually have a few theories about traveling like you do…well, something close, anyway. The problem is that we can’t navigate at superlight speeds. Our nav computers aren’t fast enough.”

Milla simply nodded. She understood the problem. Navigating at faster-than-light speeds required tachyon-based computing systems, something these people hadn’t developed. Otherwise, you were forced to constantly stop and start as you checked your position and, perhaps, more importantly, the path you had chosen to ensure that it was clear of debris.

Remarkable, they couldn’t do it the easy way, so they cut through the problem and made another option, Milla thought to herself, looking around the bridge of the starship just as something galvanized one of the men sitting ahead of her.

“Captain, readings are coming in from the long-range scanners.”

“Report.” Weston’s attention snapped back to the task at hand.

Milla fell back a step, her eyes still intent on the actions of the people around her, until she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Ensign Lamont standing behind her.

“This way, ma’am.” The young ensign gestured her back to the chair. “You’ll be better off here.”

Milla allowed herself to be guided back as the people around her went to work.

“Yellow star—similar to ours. Eleven planets.” Ensign Waters paused as the data fed through his station. “No life signs anywhere.”

Waters’s quiet statement froze most of the bridge. Those without vital duties couldn’t help but spare a glance to the young woman seated at the back of the room. Milla had gone white. She couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t possible. The Fuielles System should have millions of people and enough life-forms to have registered on even weak sensors from outside the system.

“You are mistaken.” Her voice was firm.

Waters gulped and bent back to his station, rechecking the readings and directing the sensors more carefully at the system’s planets.

“No, ma’am. There is a debris ring around the fourth planet that looks artificial, but no life signs. I…I’m sorry, ma’am,” the young man said after a moment, his voice tense as his fingers automatically rechecked the numbers that the computers were sending him.

“Helm, plot a course to take us around the fourth planet. We’ll do a qui—” Weston began to say.

He was cut off by an exclamation from Ensign Waters. “Captain! There’s an object incoming on an interception course. Silhouette coming in now, sir.”

“Put it up, Mr. Waters,” Weston ordered, his voice quiet, yet firm.

Waters swallowed, tapping in the command. “Aye, sir.”

A moment later, the dark silhouette of the approaching vessel was on the main screen. The ship read out as relatively small, only fifty meters or so, but it seemed to be fast.

“Trying to get a clearer shot, sir. The material seems to be absorbing the lidar and radar signals.”

“Switch to the tachyon sensors,” Weston ordered.

“Aye, sir, but at this range, they probably won’t be much better.”