“Escalate the transmission,” Roberts ordered. “Something is going on in this system, even if it’s not what we wanted.”

“I think something went on in this system, Captain,” Shriver said, “but whatever it was, it happened a long time ago.”

“Well, at least it wasn’t the Drasin,” Roberts said with a carefully suppressed shudder. He hated those spider beasts.

“Small mercies, Captain.”

►►►

AEV Odysseus

► “There was a species here, once,” Miram said thoughtfully as she examined the data.

Eric walked over, checking the display over her shoulder. “Native?”

“No way to tell now,” Miram admitted. “Lots of space junk around the second planet, though. Could be native, an example of a prespace culture making the transition, but the debris could also be the results of a mining operation or something else I have no frame of reference for.”

“How long ago?”

“That I can’t say either, but it’s been a while. A lot of the material is in pretty low orbit, obviously decaying. I’d say hundreds, if not thousands of years. Closer to thousands.”

“Not our concern then,” Eric said. “Mark the system for later study. I’m sure someone will love the job. Get the squadron ready to move out.”

“Aye Captain.”

Eric stepped back, looking over the stellar telemetry they were using for navigation and the data taken from the charts the Autolycus had recovered.

“Commander Michaels, make course for Kepler 571,” he said. “We’re going to check out the installation reported there and see if there’s any sign of Imperial habitation.”

“Yes sir,” Steph said from his station, most of his chemical burns healed and his voice almost back to normal. “Insertion point?”

“Well outside the stellar influence,” Eric declared.

“Interstellar space, aye Skipper.”

Steph put in the course calculations, then sent the new data out to the rest of the vessels in the force. With Eric’s orders countersigning them, observation duty was put aside in a few moments as the ships prepared to leave.

The task force wheeled as one, never even breaching the heliosphere of Kepler 452, and adjusted their trajectory as they prepared to transition.

Seven ships flickered for an interminable second, then vanished in a puff of reality, leaving the dead system far in their wake.

►►►

IBC Shion Thon, Flagship, Third Reconnaissance Squadron

► Navarch Plotu examined the feeds from the enhanced scans they’d done of the system, noting some aberrations but nothing exceptional. The most obvious, of course, was the world that had been destroyed by the Drasin much earlier. They’d give that a wide berth, even if they had to descend into the system—which they usually didn’t—just on general principle.

The odds of any drones having survived the breakup of the planet were slim, almost impossible really, but slim and almost didn’t cut it when dealing with those things.

She glanced to one side, where Captain Aymes was silently waiting for her attention on one of the command displays.