28
“We found a new alien civilization,” the skipper of the Intrepid announced, breathless with joy. “I think we were there when they sent up their very first artificial satellite. I mean, there was nothing up in orbit, then there was this little thing going beep, beep, beep.”
“Did you get any pictures of these aliens?” Kris asked.
“Yes. They had radio and TV. Primitive sets. We had no trouble translating the pictures, but we have no idea what they were saying. Well, some. What passed for news had a lot on it about the satellite launch. At least, we think it did.”
“Please pass your data capture to the Wasp,” Kris said, keeping her voice even, but she sounded tired even to herself.
The captain seemed startled to have his news taken in with no more excitement than they were giving it. “Is something wrong?”
“The Hornet found what we think is a bug-eyed monster’s mother ship. It’s huge, and they look to be totally nasty.”
“Oh. Well, this was a voyage of discovery. Looks like we made quite a few good ones.”
“Excuse me, Captain,” Nelly put in. “Did you follow the course laid in by the boffins for your round-trip?”
“Yep. No surprises there. Five out, then four back. The bird people, that’s what we’re calling them. Their TV had an advertisement that seemed aimed at keeping eggs at just the right temperature for a perfect hatching, or that’s what it looked like. Anyway, the bird people were on the third system out from here. They sure looked like the nicest people you could ask to meet.”
“Third system out,” Kris said. She’d heard that number before.
“Kris, we have a problem,” Nelly said softly.
On-screen, Admirals Kōta and Channing turned back from whatever they’d been doing to give the screen their full attention. A Greenfeld commander who had stayed attentive to the screen took a while to get Admiral Krätz’s attention. He was none too happy to be disturbed.
“What now, Longknife?” he demanded.
“Nelly, please explain yourself,” Kris said.
A new window opened on the screen. It showed a huge swath of the Milky Way, five thousand by five thousand light-years square. Each of the four search sweeps showed as a long white loop. The Wasp had taken the rightmost sweep and showed the murdered planet as a flashing yellow datum. The Fearless had taken the left sweep and had nothing exciting to show for the trip.
The Hornet and Intrepid had the inside sectors. As luck would have it, they’d both started on the outside legs, farthest from each other. As they returned back, they swung inward.
Three jumps out, the Hornet’s hot datum showed a flashing red. A short distance from it, in galactic terms, the Intrepid’s datum showed a flashing green.
Nelly zoomed in on the two flashing star systems. Three short jumps connected them.
“I think we have a problem,” Kris said.