There was a certain art to the process, however, and Tanner clearly didn’t know the protocol.

“You’re not supposed to just out and tell me that, you know,” he said finally as he broke out chuckling.

“I’m not?”

“No, Admiral, you’re supposed to inquire casually about my mission . . . nothing classified, of course,” Eric said, “then maybe I drop a hint or two, and we move from there. Being so blatant is a bit of a faux pas.”

Tanner looked at him quizzically. “I hadn’t realized things were so involved.”

“It comes from dancing through classified minefields,” Eric admitted with a shrug. “Probably not needed out here, not yet anyway, but there you have it.”

“I apologize then,” Tanner said, seemingly getting the joke. “However, the question remains.”

“Primarily, we’re on a deep recon mission this time out,” Eric said after a moment’s deliberation. “Nothing too classified. Earth’s governments want to know more about where the Drasin came from.”

“Understandable,” Tanner conceded.

“I’ll try to keep the Odysseus out of the way of your forces, but we’ll start by backtracking the Drasin’s known contact points with Priminae worlds,” Eric said. “After that, we’ll be aiming to see if we can figure out a pattern. We’re obviously concerned with the Drasin, but on a personal level, I’m more interested in the unidentified ships the Odyssey encountered on our second mission.”

“Yes, I read that report. That detail was deeply troubling,” Tanner said. “Have you any new information? Did you get any clear images of the ships that we can compare with our files?”

“Nothing,” Eric lied without hesitating. “They stayed in the cloud. Very cagey, I’m afraid.”

Tanner slumped. “Of course. Well, I wish you the best on your mission then.”

Eric watched the smaller man closely, looking for any sign that the admiral either had recognized the lie or knew the truth. He saw nothing, just disappointment in the lack of intelligence. Eric still wasn’t fully sure he could trust his own gut here, but he rather liked the admiral and personally hoped the man, and his people, had nothing to do with what had transpired.

He didn’t believe them to be culpable, not as a whole, but those ships had been very similar to Priminae design. The materials science behind them was markedly different, but the designs were nearly identical.

There had to be some sort of connection.

Until he knew what that was, Eric knew better than to entirely trust anyone. Even the Priminae members of his own crew, few though there were, had to be held under some level of suspicion until they were fully cleared.

That was why Earth had, and needed, the Rogue Class destroyers. They were human ships, with human crews, tasked with digging out the truth of the galaxy.