“But the way he said it, you could interpret it as he was just being a tough soldier,” Hurst says. “That’s what Jen did. She saved our butts.”
“She got us a lot of information,” Mikk says.
“Like what ?” I ask.
“The ships have a minimum complement of soldiers,” Jennifer says. “They aren’t paying a lot of attention to what’s going on around them. I even got the sense that it took them a while to see us.”
“All the time we thought we were being watched, and they probably hadn’t even noticed us,” Hurst says.
“They consider it the worst duty in the sector because it’s so dull,” Jennifer says.
“It makes sense,” Hurst says. “They were trained for battle, and there they are, circling some abandoned ship for weeks, with nothing really to do.”
“What about the command ship?” Squishy asks.
Mikk looks at her. His expression is measuring, as if he doesn’t really want to talk with her. Squishy is not making herself popular with my team.
Hurst is the one who answers her.
“The command ship is the one detail we weren’t able to figure out,” he says. “They didn’t tell us why it was there, and we couldn’t ask.”
“I tried,” Jennifer says. “I said something dumb like how come it wasn’t the big ship that came for us, and they said that the big ship rarely does hands-on work. But that’s all they said about it.”
“They probably didn’t dare say anything else.” I scan the table. Everyone is watching Jennifer, Mikk, and Hurst. Apparently they haven’t told this to the team—or if they have, they haven’t told the story in its entirety.
“Then what?” I ask. “Did they detain you?”
“They talked a little bit,” Jennifer says. “They wanted to know about diving.”
“We had to be careful,” Hurst says. “We didn’t want to sound too knowledgeable.”
“But we did want to seem enthusiastic,” Mikk says. “I think we achieved that.”
“I don’t think they cared,” Jennifer says. “I think they wanted something to do. Imagine circling around that wreck, waiting for something to happen.”
“They’ll be itchy,” Squishy says. “That’s dangerous.”
Turtle nods. So does Hurst.
Odette leans forward. Her movement is so abrupt that it’s an interruption all by itself.
“You were on a fact-finding mission,” she says to Mikk, sounding like she’s the leader instead of me. I let her take this. Odette can be quite forceful if need be. “You discover three ships—two small military vessels and something you call a command ship. Four restless soldiers who really didn’t investigate you all very deeply from what I can tell, and a manufactured scan of the Dignity Vessel. Is that all you found?”
“It doesn’t sound like much when you put it that way,” Hurst says.
“You’ve given us details, but no understanding,” she says. “For us to make plans, we need understanding.”
“I have to add one more detail,” Mikk says. “We did get a good scan of the Dignity Vessel. One of our own.”
We all look at him.
He spreads his hands as if he’s apologizing. “It’s not too different from what you found. But … Squishy? Is that really your name?”
“It’s what Boss calls me,” Squishy says, “and that’s good enough.”
He sighs as if he doesn’t approve. “They never fixed the hole where the probe is. The ship is still open to space. They haven’t put anything on it. The radiation readings were in the normal range.”
“With the hull still open to space like that, then that means they didn’t get the ship’s internal environment up and running,” Turtle says.
“The ship is the same vessel you found,” Mikk says to me. “Same low power reading, same openings. If anything, the hull is even more pockmarked, but I can’t say that for certain.”
“They haven’t done anything with the Dignity Vessel?” Squishy asks.
“Not that we could tell.”
“No life signs on board or anything?” Squishy asks.
“The Seekers equipment wasn’t that sophisticated,” he says. “We couldn’t get life sign readings from any of the ships.”
“The military vessels were shielded,” Squishy says.
“I figured,” Mikk says in that gentle dry tone that implies he’s humoring her. “But we couldn’t get anything from the Dignity Vessel either, and I doubt they shielded that.”
“It would’ve been too risky,” Turtle says, taking him seriously.
Squishy just frowns at him. “I can’t believe they’re not working on the vessel.”
“I told you,” I say. “They’re waiting for my father and Riya Trekov to finish their experiment.”
“I thought they did, with you,” Squishy says.
“Things move slowly in the Empire,” Hurst says. “As former military, you should know that.”
She glares at him, then leans back.
“Maybe that’s why the command vessel was there,” Turtle says. “Maybe something is happening. Or am I misunderstanding what a command vessel is?”
“You’re not,” Hurst says. “That’s the mystery of the place. With two tiny military vessels, they didn’t need a vessel that big. We couldn’t get any information about it, and they certainly weren’t going to tell us why it was there.”
“Do you think they’re bringing in more ships?” Bria asks. “Maybe that’s why it was there.”
“You’d think the ships would arrive before the command vessel,” Hurst says.
“It’s all speculation,” Odette says. “We need facts.”
I agree with her. We need facts.
“Here’s what I understand,” I say. “The Dignity Vessel is exactly where we left it. They have a small team of guards surrounding it. Two small military vessels with a crew complement of—what?”
I look at Squishy, then at Hurst. I’m hoping they know.
Hurst shrugs one shoulder. “I can’t imagine more than eight soldiers on each of those ships.”
“They’re built for ten,” Squishy says. “But if this is easy duty, the military isn’t going to waste twenty soldiers on some wreck in space. There might only be four on each vessel.”
“You mean we saw the entire crew?” Jennifer says. “That makes no sense. Someone had to remain with the ship.”
Odette nods. “It makes sense to me. Five. That’s half what the ships will bear. If you have five on each, then you have a redundant system. Something can happen to one ship, and you haven’t lost your entire crew. But you’re not fully staffed, so you’re not wasting money either.”
“What about the command vessel?” I ask.
“I’d like to see the specs,” Squishy says. “Maybe it’s a scout vessel.”
Finally, Hurst gets annoyed. “Believe me,” he says, “it was a command ship.”
“That’s a minimum of thirty,” Squishy says to me, as if she hasn’t noticed his irritation.
“On the command ship?” I ask.
She nods.
“So we have forty soldiers, minimum, maybe fifty,” I say, “and God knows how many nearby.”
“We didn’t register any,” Mikk says, “but they could’ve been in stealth mode.”
“I don’t see the point of that,” Odette says. “Especially if nothing has happened to that vessel in years. I think we have to assume there were only the three ships.”
“All right,” I say. “Three ships. Maybe fifty soldiers. No one on the Dignity Vessel. And probably no one is doing long-range scans or they would have come to get The Seeker much sooner. They wouldn’t have let The Seeker get that close.”
“I agree,” Squishy says.
“They may be itchy,” I say, “but they’re also complacent. It’ll take them a while to get up to speed on any situation. The question is time.”