“Beginning deceleration from starflight,” Valthyrra announced a short time later. “Six minutes to sublight transition.” Changes of speed within starflight, although actually far greater, were far less stressful than those below light speed. The reason was simple enough; matter cannot be taken past the speed of light, but the acceleration dampers let the ship cheat by never allowing its bulk anywhere near that speed. Once the ship was moving through space faster than light, its relationship with the universe was altered and changes of speed and direction resulted in a greatly reduced energy of acceleration.
“Have you been looking at the system map?” Gelrayen asked. Valthyrra brought her camera pod around. “Let me put it up on the main viewscreen.”
She cleared the current image and installed a map of the system ahead as it appeared in her library, correcting the orbits of the seven planets by mathematical interpretation and laying in her own approach path. Like most of the systems in Union space, it was moderate in population, industry and importance. But if the Dreadnought had taken it by surprise, the damage could have been devastating.
“Captain Tarrel, do you know this system?” Gelrayen asked, looking up at her.
She found the button that released the pressure on the straps and leaned forward in her seat to look down over the front of the console. “I’ve been here a few times, but I really don’t know all that much about the system. I don’t recall anything unusual. ” He turned to Valthyrra, who had the advantage of knowing what every other ship had seen and filed. “Mining, both metals and hydrocarbon. The debris in this system is very rich. And there in a very large gas giant, which has two very large moons heated by gravitational stress, that have actual seas of hydrocarbons. Most of the plastics and other hydrocarbon products for the Rane Sector come out of the bulk processing plants in orbit here.”
Captain Tarrel made a vile face; it helped to keep her from saying certain things out loud. She remembered this system only too well now. Those orbiting bulk processors turned raw hydrocarbons into the base material for the making not only of regular plastics but hydrocarbon-based ceramics, many other synthetic materials and a variety of solvents and combustion fuels, so that only the finished products had to be shipped out of system. The Dreadnought would have ripped apart more orbital hardware here than it would have found in any ten normal systems, and the economy of the Rane Sector could well feel the effects for a century to come.
“Captain Tarrel, you seem to recall where you are now,” Valthyrra said, having witnessed her reaction.
“I do indeed,” she agreed. “You just don’t think about such places as being that important until you realize what will happen when they’re gone.”
“It could be even worse,” Valthyrra said. “My files indicate that two million people lived in orbit here. That is the reason why Starwolf attacks have been so selective here for centuries. ” “I doubt that any of them got to safety,” Tarrel said, settling her armor back into the seat. “The facilities for rapid evacuation just aren’t there. Station life is so completely free from hazard. ” Valthyrra called their attention back to the viewscreen. “If that is the case, then we must expect that major attacks took place on the second planet, the only inhabited world in this system, and at the stations on the moons of the fourth and fifth planet. This was a very slow-firing star in its early development, allowing gas giants to form close in, where lighter gasses are generally swept farther out by solar wind. Some two-thirds of the orbital facilities were located around the fourth planet, which had larger moons and warmer conditions as well as relative proximity to a belt of debris very rich in rare elements.” “What about the inhabited planet?” Gelrayen asked.
“Very little interstellar traffic was going in and out of there,” the ship explained. “There was quite a lot of specialty manufacturing, but most of that went out to the stations for shipment out of system. Most of the planet was colonized to feed the stations. As large as stations can be, it is still much easier and cheaper to farm planet-side.”
“And what if it is still in system?” Gelrayen asked. “If you were the Dreadnought, where would you be?”
“We have discussed the subject once already,” Valthyrra answered. “As it happens, that is more difficult to predict. Most of the system traffic and a large portion of the orbital hardware was at the fourth planet. We must now assume that those stations are gone and the personnel dead. A rescue mission is probably expected to press on to the only place where there is still anyone alive, the second planet.”
“Is that what the Dreadnought will decide?” he asked.
She made a curiously hopeless gesture with her camera pod. “I do not know what the Dreadnought will think. That depends very much upon the level of sophistication of its ability to plan, and we know now that we cannot predict that. If the stations and all traffic in-system was destroyed, then it would probably look to the inhabited planet. There would still be power sources there to draw its attention, if not its fire.”
“Commander,” Tarrel called to him. “Will you have any back-up on this? I know that a Starwolf freighter has been here once before.”
“Yes, another carrier arrived several hours ago and is standing by some distance outside the system.”
“And what about that freighter?” Tarrel asked. “Even if the Dreadnought has not been — or no longer can — follow your transmissions, would the presence of a Starwolf ship in this system encourage it to go into hiding in the hope of ambushing another?”
“Yes, that is a valid concern,” he agreed. “Until you brought that up, I had been very certain that we would not find the Dreadnought here. Now I am given to wonder.”
They could speculate on that matter for a long time, but the moment came at last when the Methryn had to take herself out of starflight. Guided by their discussion, she dropped down from starflight well inside the system, using a minimum of power to brake below threshold and then coasting at nearly light speed. The carrier was running with her shields at stealth intensity and her normal scanners were silent, containing any emissions that might have betrayed her presence. She cautiously began a quick, very low-intensity sweep with her impulse scanner.
“No contact on first sweep,” she announced to the bridge crew. “Scanner sweep did indicate a great deal of debris, including some very large pieces, above the fourth and fifth planets. There are also some two dozen intact and functional ships in this system, mostly of Union military class. It seems that we are not the first to arrive.”
“The Dreadnought might still be hiding somewhere,” Gelrayen cautioned her. “Continue your sweeps at a higher level.”
Valthyrra Methryn needed only a few minutes more to feel very certain that the Dreadnought was no longer in this system. Her own impulse scanners had detected nothing, and she had registered no contact by an impulse beam from any other ship. The Union fleet was involved in some indeterminate work in the wreckage above the fourth planet, unaware even yet of Methryn’s presence. Since there was no indication of danger, Valthyrra suggested that they have a brief word with the Union forces before they continued their hunt for their enemy.