Yuri gave me a look that invited me to continue. He was my boss, respecting my opinion. No change there. Callum was expectant, wanting to hear some options, clearly eager for answers. Alik continued to sit there, mug of hot chocolate in his hand, waiting like every good interrogator for the suspect to talk too much. Those lifeless face muscles of his were as still as a millpond.

“Exercise,” Kandara said eagerly. She grinned at me. “That’s what you mean, isn’t it?”

I gave her an appreciative shrug. “The simplest solution always applies. And the only real way to maintain muscle tone is through exercise.”

“So Soćko wakes up once a week,” she said. “Or a month. Whatever. And spends a few days getting in some calisthenics sweat-time. Then goes back into hibernation. He’s on a timer.”

“Not a chance,” Loi said.

Kandara shot him a challenging glance. “Why?”

“Where does he do his calisthenics? The ship has been in a vacuum for over thirty years. There’s no space suit; he couldn’t even step out of the hibernation chamber.”

“So why is he in such good shape?”

“Genetic modification?” Loi said uncertainly.

“The medical team sequenced everyone’s DNA,” Lankin said. “Soćko doesn’t have any modifications; we didn’t even find vectors for telomere treatment in him.”

“We’ll find out soon enough if he wakes up,” Alik said. “We just ask. Meantime, let’s focus on what we do know. We came here to assess if this ship indicates a clear and present threat.”

“It does,” Yuri said. “Aliens with a significantly more advanced technology base have established a secret beachhead either in Sol or one of our settled systems. They snatch humans for unknown, but fucking dire, reasons.”

“That’s not necessarily a threat,” Callum said.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Come on, man, face it: We’re scary. We can cross interstellar space, and we’re still aggressive, unreasonable, badly behaved, and own continents full of weapons. Hell, if I encountered us, I’d want to hold back and watch for a while.”

Alik’s hand shot out, pointing at random. “Did you even see what they did to those poor bastards? They dissolved them! They dumped humans into some kind of alien version of acid, or something, and dissolved them! What’s left is being taken back home to be torture-experimented on. That is a fucking threat, you dumbass hippie! You got kids, right? Suppose you found one of them on board—no arms, no legs, their goddamned eyes ripped out. And that’s just the start; fuck knows what else would’ve happened to them if this ship hadn’t fallen out of the wormhole? That could be you and your family in there, asshole!”

For once Alik’s neck and jaw muscles were flexing. Loi and Eldlund were regarding him in concern.

“Their ethics might not match ours,” Callum said. “They are alien, after all. But they haven’t been overtly aggressive. That has to mean something.”

Alik snorted in contempt and turned to Yuri. “I need to talk to my people.”