She let him trail off. There really was no need to finish that statement. Even simple atomics were more than enough to cause severe damage to her vessels if they somehow got inside the hull.

That didn’t explain how the abyss they’d gotten there, however, and that was a question she needed the answer to immediately.

“No one has been on, or off, the ships since Imperial space,” she growled. “Are we dealing with sabotage?”

“We do not know,” the analyst insisted.

“Then find out!” she screamed. “If there are more of these devices in my squadron, I need them found and disabled—now!”

The analyst scrambled off, hurrying to pass on her orders and, no doubt, at least some of the responsibility. Misrem didn’t have time to worry about him as she turned her focus back to the scanners.

“Timing,” she murmured.

“My Lady?” her second asked tentatively.

“The timing: it’s too much,” she said. “Sabotage . . . How could they? But . . . what else?”

None of it made any sense. In fact, it made so very little sense that she was considering pulling her squadron back from combat and withdrawing from the system until they could get all the data from the incident analyzed properly. But she refrained from voicing such a command, because her forces were already effectively committed to at least a passing engagement, and there were only three enemy ships.

“How long until contact?” she snarled. At the very least, she wanted to deliver her displeasure directly to the enemy.

►►►

IBC Piar Cohn

► Captain Aymes found himself studying the scanner records over and over as they hurtled through the black expanse, heading into the teeth of the enemy. The situation felt like one he’d experienced all too recently, and he had no doubt now.

These new contacts, they were the anomalies.

Three of them this time, so they weren’t dealing with a singular ship, some advanced prototype. No, this was an organized force that was putting real weight of metal into the black. They were a real threat, not like the Oathers.

He didn’t know who they were besides their likely connection to the anomaly recorded at the Drasin structure, but it was clear to him that the Empire had just contacted a potentially serious threat.

We need more information, damn it to the abyss. Where did these people come from?

He opened the squadron comm. “Navarch . . .”

“Not now!” the navarch barked, glowering at him through the screen.

“These are the anomalies, Navarch,” he said softly. “I am sure.”

She rolled her eyes. “And you believe I haven’t worked that out for myself? The only other possibility is that someone sabotaged my squadron back in Imperial space, Captain. Not an impossibility, perhaps. I have made enemies in the houses, but the timing reeks.”

Aymes tipped his head slightly, acknowledging that much to be true.