“Let’s look at this logically,” Barrett said. “We knew that there were Phage combat units still floating through space after we killed the core mind, essentially alive but without direction. Is this thing maneuvering or showing any other signs of activity?”

“Negative, sir,” Adler said. “It’s in a high, stable orbit over the third planet and appears to have a lot of unidentified ship traffic around it.”

“Not to get off subject,” Lieutenant Commander Washburn said, actually raising her hand, “but the third planet is most definitely inhabited and shows signs of an advanced society. EM radiation is about what we’d expect from one of our more heavily populated planets, and we’ve detected lit cities on the dark side.”

“Let’s talk about that for a moment and then come back to the Phage ship,” Celesta said. “This system’s location was supplied to us by the Ushin. Given that we’re assuming the last, uninhabited system was a trap, what do we think this is?”

“We know there’s a connection between the Phage and the Darshik from our initial intel brief, ma’am,” Accari said. He was the most junior officer in the room, which raised a few eyebrows, but Celesta knew that he sometimes saw things the others missed. “Our mission profile stated we were to come here second, but if we assume we weren’t meant to survive the trap set in the Tango System, I think the most likely conclusion is that the knowledge of this system was either mistakenly given or they wanted another Terran force to make its way out here when we didn’t make it back home.”

“Without even a rough psychological profile of the Ushin from CIS, Fleet R&S, or the Fed diplomatic corps, I think trying to guess the Ushin intent with that degree of accuracy may be a waste of time,” Celesta said. “Let’s just operate under the assumption we were fed this location on purpose, and when we get here it just so happens to have one of the combat units that killed millions of people from an enemy that almost wiped out the species.”

“If we lend credence to the theory that the Darshik were changed by their encounter with the Phage—that they began to deify it—that could be our answer,” Barrett said. “Maybe we were brought as a sacrifice.”

“That’s wildly primitive thinking for a species that has interstellar travel capabilities,” Celesta said, controlling the urge to roll her eyes. “But you could tell me they brought us here as cattle stock to feed the masses and I wouldn’t be able to refute your theory. Let’s keep this conversation to what we do know.”

“So far that’s very little,” Washburn said. “The passives at this range will need a lot of time focused on a single spot to begin getting a detailed picture.”