Across the room, the other two men chuckled at something, making the scene too bizarre for Molly to comprehend. The laughter and horror didn’t mix, they just wrapped around each other, swirling like oil and water.

A distant voice called out amid the laughter: “Hey Paulie, anything you spill is coming out of your cut!”

And that really got them going.

21

Anlyn pulled out of Edison’s embrace as the hyperdrive traces flared up on the nav screen. She tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. Edison glanced at her screen and grunted at the results.

“We just missed them!” Anlyn said.

Edison brought up a different display on his own screen and typed something on the keyboard. The info showed on Anlyn’s as well, but she couldn’t read any of the numbers. Still, she didn’t have to know what they said. The intensity of the signatures was more than enough.

“This is impossible,” Anlyn said. “You don’t see traces like this except for right after someone jumps. These are too fresh to be—”

“They’re a week old,” Edison said.

“No, love, these are brand new.” She hit the zoom button, bringing the scope out. The traces were spread throughout the entire system. Hundreds of them. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

“The computer says they’re a week old, and it has a destination.”

“A destination? They all go to the same place?”

Edison grunted. “You’re right. This doesn’t make any sense.”

“What? Where do they lead?” She hated not being able to read the screen, relying on just the raw images.

Edison flipped over to the nav chart, pulling it up on both screens. He zoomed in on a single point.

“Here,” he said.

Anlyn couldn’t read the name under the object, but she recognized the symbol from Bern charts. It was a star. A class V star.

“They jumped into a star? So the traces are blowback.” Anlyn shook her head. “That explains the strength and age. Maybe they are a week old. But still, why would they . . . why jump into a star?”

“I’m not a big fan of the prophecy,” Edison said. “You know that. But I also don’t like coincidences. Do you think—?”

“That the Bern are gone? Mass suicide? No. Only because I’ve learned to not jump to my favorite conclusions.”

“Give me an alternative.”

“Okay . . .” Anlyn thought for a moment. “They scuttled their ships before moving off, keeping them out of our hands.”

Edison frowned.

“Or they . . . maybe it was a waste-disposal program.”

“Only if they were disposing themselves of ships. A dozen of these signatures come up as the same class and model as this one.”

“Maybe there’s a rift in the center of that star!”

Edison shook his head. “Wouldn’t work. The mass in the star would just leak out to the other side. No, I think they did it on purpose. Maybe they figured out some way to slingshot past your barrier. They could be attacking Drenard right now.”