The move to the new location was virtually identical to the first one, except for a noticeable lack of bounce in people’s steps. Ivan, once again, was first up on deep radar duty.

The target of the day was a large, vaguely peanut-shaped rock, with a smaller sibling in close proximity. The two rocks had so little relative motion and spin that Ivan couldn’t tell initially if they were just passing by, or were in some kind of mutual orbit.

“Target’s locked,” he announced. Seth took up position, and Tenn worked the controls. Another boring four hours, watching radio waves propagate.

Ivan followed Tenn’s occasional instructions, and otherwise let his mind drift. If he turned his back on the deep radar unit, the only item in the universe was the Mad Astra, floating in the distance. The sun glinted evenly off the oval of the ship, broken only by the four fusion nacelles around the stern. Mars was currently on the other side of the solar system, but Jupiter could be picked out with ease. It didn’t quite show a disk, but at this distance it glowed almost as brightly as the moon from Earth.

“Take your time, sprout, it’s not like we’re on duty or anything.”

Ivan jerked as he realized that Tenn had been talking. “Um, sorry, what?”

“Sleep on your own time, noob. Which will be soon, actually. Shift’s over, as soon as you can see your way clear to signing off the unit.”

Nodding, Ivan reached for the console and logged out. He gave a thumbs up to Seth, who typed a few rapid commands, then pushed away from his seat.

And with that it was end of shift, finally. Ivan, Seth, and Tenn did a quick post-shutdown inspection, then gathered to jet back to the ship together. Ivan was surprised to see three space-suited figures approaching.

“What the hell?” Tenn said. “We didn’t have another shift scheduled. What’re you guys doing?”

Aspasia’s voice came back over the radio. As usual, her tone conveyed her disapproval of the universe and all its inhabitants. “Aiello called us up at the last minute. They want a re-scan. Looks like you guys screwed up.”

“Horse maneuvers,” Seth replied. “No red lights at all.”

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, bucko.” Aspasia took a moment to bring herself to a dead stop. “Pretty sure I didn’t volunteer to do this all on my own. Take it up with Aiello.”

“Weird,” Tenn muttered.

“Uh, I don’t suppose there’s any chance they’re rescanning because they found something?” Ivan couldn’t keep the hope out of his voice.

“That’s certainly an alternative explanation.” Aspasia grinned at him, her face clearly visible through the helmet. “But I’m going to go with my theory.”