"So," he said, bringing himself to a halt by grasping the rail girdling the threat-well. "How do we find this miner? Or has he left, even before we begin our search?"
A lesser being than the lieutenant commander would have given Hadeishi an open glare, he was sure, but the young Sho-sa contented herself with failing to bow before beginning to speak. "We know the Tyr-class refinery was here, Hadeishi-san, not only from the evidence of the shuttle photograph, but from the results of our navigational survey." Her stylus tap-tapped on the control display for the threat-well. A series of points winked in the holo, describing a long, rough arc.
"This is a compressed display of the Ephesian system," she said. "This gray section is the asteroid belt occupying the orbits between Three and the distant, irregular orbit of Four. We acquired the navigational scans made by both the original Imperial probe and by the Palenque upon arrival in the system. Luckily," and she allowed herself a wintry smile, "Sho-sa Cardenas was a careful man. Like yourself, he ordered his navigator and exec to conduct a systemwide navigation survey as soon as they arrived in Ephesus orbit."
Kosho made a sharp motion with her stylus and most of the objects in the well vanished.
"This is the condensed version of the Palenque scan. You see it is moderately detailed. Luckily for us, Navigator Gylfisson concentrated a fair amount of his long-range scan activity on the asteroid belt. I believe that he — like the presumptive miner — was looking for planetesimals bearing heavy ores, radioactives, rare metals and so on. We made the same kind of scan during our survey…" The stylus moved again, and a second layer of data appeared, showing a much thicker representation. "…with superior equipment. Hayes-san has been running orbital comparisons of the three sets of data, looking for disturbances and anomalies."
The stylus indicated the arc of winking points.
"Something has moved through this cloud of asteroids, altering spins, altering orbits, producing a faint — but identifiable — trail. We believe this was left by the Tyr as she worked through the belt. I also believe the refinery is still in the system."
Hadeishi raised an eyebrow. Kosho's eyes glittered, though she remained outwardly calm.
"We have gravity scans from the moment the Palenque entered the system up to the accident. During that time, we see no evidence of a hyperspace transit. Our trail of sensor fragments begins in the middle of a dense pocket in the asteroid belt. I suspect the Tyr was already here — and working — when the Palenque arrived. The trail continues up to the end of the Palenque data."
"And now?" Hadeishi had been watching Hayes's face grow longer and longer. "Wouldn't the miners have been monitoring the Palenque's transmissions? Wouldn't they realize something had happened and jump out as soon as the coast was clear?"
"I don't think they did." Kosho glanced sideways at Hayes. "Thai-i Hayes does not agree, but…the Valkyrie was photographed only three days before the accident. At that moment, the time to transit between Ephesus Three and the presumptive location of the miner was almost twelve days. So at best the shuttle has to go meet the refinery, which leaves the asteroid cloud to rendezvous between the belt and Three. If the shuttle leaves Three the same day; if they just dropped in, grabbed whatever they were looking for and jetted out, then the minimum time to transit is eight days."
Kosho's wand sketched a box in the air, describing a fat volume of space between the red disc of Ephesus and the gray scattering of the belt.
"So at event plus five, they could have met — somewhere in this volume — and made gradient to hyperspace. Now — a Tyr masses in excess of three hundred million tons empty and I think she'd have taken on at least another hundred million tons of ore samples, or more, by this time. The departure spike from such a large mass leaves a lasting footprint — and I don't see one in this volume."
"Hayes-san?"
"Chu-sa, I'm not sure we'd see one in this system for more than a few days, no matter where the departure took place." The weapons officer scratched his eyebrow. "The planetary orbits in this system are all messed up and irregular, there are queer gravitational tides and eddies. Our own footprint is barely discernible today and we know our entry-point to the centimeter!"
Kosho made a dismissive motion with her stylus. "We're a fraction the mass of a Tyr and our hyperdrive is tuned to leave as little footprint as possible. Look — " A new set of data clouded the well. "There's no spike on any record; not ours, not the Palenque's…and I believe our scans of the asteroid belt in the projected path of the Tyr show evidence of further disturbance. I think the refinery ship is still here. I think her captain is greedy and kept right on working after the accident on the Palenque. He badgered as soon as we entered the system, hoping we'd go away. Now he's stuck — ore holds are full of rich samples — and he doesn't want to dump mass. If he tries to make gradient to hyperspace, he'll have to light up like a temple tree and we'll see him."
Hadeishi raised a hand. Kusaru appeared silently with the tea and miso. Both of the junior officers took the light meal with grateful bows, though only Hayes drank from his z-g tight cup.
"I understand," Mitsuharu said. "Is there a swift way to tell if the refinery ship is still here?"
Kosho nodded sharply. "Yes." Her stylus stabbed at the last winking point. "We creep in here and check the area of disturbance — if he's slagged out a rock, we'll be able to get a reading on his drive exhaust and be able to tell how long ago he was working." A flicker of hungry pride flashed across her composed oval face. "To the hour and the minute."
Mitsuharu nodded, privately calculating their course and time to intercept. "Hayes-san, plot us a course and execute. But gently, very gently. We must creep away from the planet and approach this prey with equal caution."
The Palenque
The main hatch into the Medical bay opened suddenly, sliding into the overhead with a soft thump. Gretchen looked up from where she was kneeling on the deck of the examining room, her work lenses dialed to hi-mag. She heard Bandao hiss and step back and a low growl from Magdalena. Flipping up her lenses, she found herself staring into the black snout of a shipgun, held in the hands of one of the Marines — she couldn't tell which one — in combat armor.
"Over against the wall," the Marine said, his voice a buzz through the suit. Bandao moved back, automatic held gingerly between his thumb and forefinger. The Marine crabbed into the room and was immediately followed by another, taller, man also in matte-black combat armor. "Just lay the gun down on the deck."
Gretchen rose, spreading her hands wide to show they were empty. A heated sense of outrage was warring with the urge to laugh aloud at the insectlike appearance of the soldiers, and she managed to remain composed. The two Marines surveyed the room, then relaxed fractionally.
"Clear," the taller one — Fitzsimmons, Gretchen guessed — said, his voice almost unrecognizable through the faceplate of his suit. Then she stiffened as his rifle swung toward her. From this vantage, the weapon seemed very large. "Doctor Anderssen, please leave the examining room and stand over here by Bandao-tzin."
Almost tiptoeing, she ducked through the damaged doorway and moved to join Bandao — who had adopted a very calm expression — and Magdalena, who was emitting a near-subsonic growl which raised the hackles on the back of Gretchen's neck. Worried, Anderssen took hold of the Hesht's paw to restrain her.