Thiago didn’t say anything, so that was a win.

ART said, I’m also detecting debris, probably from a series of destroyed satellites.

“Do you think it’s recent?” Up on the control deck, Arada stepped back as the scanner image passed through her head. She moved around, trying to angle for a better view.

ART said, Analysis suggests the debris has been in orbit longer than forty corporate standard years.

“I don’t suppose you can tell how it was destroyed?” Thiago asked.

If I could, I would have said so already, ART said. It added, The dock is our best source of information. The active power levels aboard it suggest that it is/was in use, including life support. Possibly the explorer did return after its attack on me.

Arada frowned up at the dock’s image. “But the explorer isn’t here now. And there’s no way to tell if anyone disembarked here without searching the place.”

Overse didn’t look happy either. “I don’t know what I’m worried about most, having to find and search this colony, which is probably full of hostile alien-remnant-influenced people, or having to track down and board an armed ship.”

“Also full of hostile alien-remnant-influenced people,” Arada murmured, distracted by reading ART’s figures on the dock’s power usage.

Arada and Overse were back to getting along after spending time together in an unused bunkroom while we were traveling to the dock. I hadn’t bothered to monitor them on ART’s cameras or try to slip a drone in; the chances that they were having sex and/or a relationship discussion (either of which I would prefer to stab myself in the face than see) were far higher than the chance that they were saying anything I needed to know about.

(I mean they might have been plotting against me, but you know, probably not.)

(Around the same time, I had also caught part of a conversation between Thiago and Ratthi. Thiago had told Ratthi about our conversation in the bunkroom, and Ratthi had told him what he knew about the whole attempted assassination incident. Thiago had said he felt like he should apologize and talk to me more about it. Ratthi had said, “I think you should let it go for a while, at least until we get ourselves out of this situation. SecUnit is a very private person, it doesn’t like to discuss its feelings.”

This is why Ratthi is my friend.)

ART had gotten a far-range live scan of the planet. It had a lot of cloud cover in swirling patterns, some indicating massive storms. As the clouds whirled, there were glimpses of brown and gray and vivid red that seemed to be the surface. “Is it supposed to look like that?” I said.

“You’re thinking of failed terraforming?” Ratthi said, frowning absently at the displays. “That red could be algae. They’re probably using air bubbles to hold in breathable atmosphere over their colony sites and agricultural zones. That’s what we did on Preservation before the terraforming completed.”