"The derelict appears to be a Valkyrie class, sir. An older model. Based on the damage pattern and residual energy signatures, I believe she was attacked by a Komodo. Unfortunately, there’s no sign of Galileo. We’re scanning now, but I have a terrible feeling about all of this.”

  “Do you think the outworlders are responsible for this, Commander?” Montoya asked.

  “It’s not clear, sir. The age of the ships suggests that may be the case. However, it appears one attacked the other, so I’m more inclined to think one or the other, or both, are pirate vessels or private fleet, and they got into a bit of a squabble.”

  “If that’s the case, why would they attack Galileo?” Montoya asked.

  “Again, this is purely speculation. But we don’t know if Galileo was attacked or destroyed. There’s no residual evidence. No debris. No emergency beacon. Nothing. The ship is just gone. And it’s not the only thing that’s missing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The Valkyrie’s data recorder. It’s possible whoever was on the Komodo took it. But did they do so before or after Galileo entered the system? Did they do something to Galileo because they happened to reach the Valkyrie first? We just don’t know anything yet. I intend to send a ship down to 1061’s surface to look for clues, with your permission, sir.”

  "Do what you have to, Commander. We need answers.”

  “Yes, sir. May I ask an unrelated question, Admiral?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Does Soren know about this yet?”

  “Not yet. But he will soon. I’ll relay most of what you told me to him. He deserves to know as much as I’m at liberty to tell him.”

  “He won’t take it well, sir.”

  “No, of course not. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to get out there to find her himself. Anyway, be careful out there, Commander. Something tells me this rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than we think."

  The log ended, the voices fading into silence. Lina looked up from her screens. “Are you okay, Captain?”

  Soren nodded. “Yes, thank you.”

  “Looks like Montoya has your number,” Jack said. “He’s probably already got you on the board out here.”

  “He knows me too well,” Soren agreed, with a smirk.

  “There aren’t many tranSat communications, Captain,” Lina said. “Should we sift through the ship-to-ship?”

  “Eventually. Were you able to access the enemy recorders?”

  "No go, I'm afraid,” Jack said. “They might look like FUP, but they’re using different encryption keys.”

  “Lina, can you crack it?”

  “That’s not really my forte, Captain. I might be able to get it eventually, but it will take time.”

  The one thing they were already out of.

  "We don't just need working keys for these recorders,” Jack said quietly, as if reading Soren's thoughts. "We need them to access the original Valkyrie’s black box, once we find it. Without the decryption keys..."

  "This whole search out here will be for nothing," Soren finished, his jaw tight. "Keep at it, Lina. Do whatever you have to do. Call in Wilf and Tashi, too, once he’s done with the vortex cannon. Those two have some special talents, and we need those recorders cracked."

  "I'll do my best, Captain," Lina said, squaring her shoulders.

  As she returned to her screens, Soren turned to Jack. "How long until Ethan and Tashi have the vortex cannon ready?"

  “A few more hours, I would imagine.”

  Soren nodded, returning to the command station. “Sang, we’ve lingered here way too long. Take us out from the wreckage. Keira, activate the cloak.”

  “Aye, Captain,” they both replied.

  “Cloak enabled,” Keira announced a few seconds later.

  Soren rested back in his seat, watching the viewscreen as the Wraith slowly drifted out from the scene of the battle, invisible once more. They had made it in and out with five new crew members, two shuttles, loads of ordnance, and even a bed.

  Maybe fortune was finally beginning to favor the bold.

  CHAPTER 34

  The Wraith slipped through the void, gliding away from the shadow of Wolf 1061 on whisper-quiet engines. Soren stood on the bridge, his eyes fixed on the viewscreen as the rocky planet dwindled behind them, along with the remains of both Recon Three and the enemy flotilla. A sense of anticipation thrummed through his veins.

  "We're clear of the planet's gravity well, Captain," Sang reported from the helm. "Ready to proceed with the vortex cannon test on your order."

  Soren nodded, his fingers drumming on the armrest of his command chair. "Ethan, Tashi, status report. Are we good to go?"

  Tashi's excited and nervous voice came over the comms. "All modifications are complete, Captain. The vortex wave emitter is primed and ready."

  “Excellent,” Soren replied. “Ethan, I want you to monitor the power systems. If anything even looks like it's thinking about fluctuating, I want to know about it."

  "Aye, Captain," Ethan said. "I'll keep a close eye on it. Capacitors are fully charged and the reactor is running smoothly. We should be in good shape."

  Soren took a deep breath, his gaze sweeping the bridge. "Alright, people. Let's do this. Mark, fire up those sensors. I want a full sweep, maximum range. Let's see what's out there."

  "Sensors are hot, Captain,” Mark replied. “Whenever you're ready."

  Soren leaned forward in anticipation. This was it. The moment of truth. If this worked, they'd have a way to scan vast swathes of space in mere moments.

  If it didn't…

  He didn't want to think about that.

  "Tashi, initiate the vortex wave. Let's light this candle."

  He felt the ship shudder beneath him as the cannon powered up, a deep thrum vibrating through the deck plates. On the viewscreen, a ripple of distorted space erupted from the Wraith's bow, expanding outwards in an invisible, conical wave.

  The bridge fell silent, every eye glued to the sensor displays as the wave propagated, washing over the surrounding void like a vast sonar ping.

  Soren held his breath, seconds ticking by like hours as they waited for a return signal or any hint of contact.

  But there was nothing. Just the empty, echoing silence of the void.

  “Tashi, how long until we can fire again?” Soren asked.

  “Two minutes, Captain.”

  “Sang, yaw forty-five degrees. We’ll try again as soon as the cannon is recharged.”

  “Aye, Captain.” Sang replied, adjusting their heading.

  “We can cover ground a lot faster, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be any easier,” Jack said.

  “Not at all,” Soren agreed.

  “Captain,” Ethan said soon after. “The cannon’s ready for another shot.”

  “Fire,” Soren ordered.

  Once more, the ship shuddered slightly, and the wave spread away from its bow, passing through space. Sensors monitored the ripple for anomalies, but again, they came up empty.

  “We’ll keep this up for as long as needed,” Soren said, settling back in his seat.

  And they did, falling into a comfortable pattern of firing and adjusting course so that they would cover every possible square inch of space within five hundred AU. They were on their fourteenth shot when the sensor grid finally registered a hit.

  "Captain, I've got something!” Mark exclaimed. “A contact, bearing twenty-six degrees, plus ten degrees at one hundred ninety-six AU.”

  Soren leaned forward in his seat, eyeing the grid over the barrel. So far away, but there it was. A single, tiny blip.

  "Is it the drone we’re looking for?” he asked, hardly daring to hope.

  Mark worked to refine the signal. “I’m not sure, sir. But it’s something. The only thing we’ve found.”

  “Sang, lay in an intercept course. I want eyes on our contact, asap."

  “Captain, what if it’s the enemy Komodo?” Keira asked.

  “Enable the cloak, just in case,” he replied. “If it is the Komodo, we’ll stay on it until we can line up a disabling shot with high confidence. We can’t risk the lives of my daughter or her crew, if they’re on board.”

  “Cloak enabled, Captain,” Keri announced a moment later.

  The Wraith surged forward, engines flaring as they accelerated towards the mystery contact. Soren’s fingers gripped his seat’s armrests tightly as they closed the distance.

  Silence reigned on the bridge, the tension increasing as they approached the object. Every eye remained locked on the sensor display, watching as the blip grew larger. It finally resolved into a shape.

  “Bring it up on primary, full magnification,” Soren said.

  “Aye, Captain,” Mark replied.

  It appeared on the viewscreen, confirming the sensor readings. A drone matching the ones on the stricken Valkyrie.

  “There she is!” Jack said excitedly.

  The craft had lost power some time ago, drifting dark and silent through the endless void. But thanks to Tashi, they had found it.

  “Tashi, excellent work,” Soren said over the comms. “Ethan, you, too.”

  “Thank you, Captain!” Tashi replied excitedly. “I can’t believe it actually worked!”

  “Sang, set an intercept course. We need to bring it aboard," Soren decided. "But carefully. Ethan, Lina, Tashi—grab our new techs and head down to the hangar bay. First, we confirm that thing isn’t a trap. Then we try to crack it open.”

  "Aye, Captain," Ethan said, getting to his feet. Lina followed him off the bridge.

  Sang worked to bring the Wraith over the drone, matching its heading and velocity before rotating the ship onto its relative side to capture the automated vehicle in their hangar bay. It took some time, but they finally swallowed the derelict into the bay, where Ethan and the others secured it.

  As the outer doors sealed with a resounding clang, Soren felt a flicker of hope amidst the dread. Maybe this was the break they'd been looking for.

  “Captain,” Ethan reported over the comms thirty minutes later. “We’ve scanned the drone top to bottom. There are no signs of unwarranted tampering, and no indication that opening the ordnance bay will trigger anything.”

  “Very well,” Soren replied. “Open up the drone. Carefully. Let’s see what’s inside.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  Another fifteen minutes passed while the crew in the hangar worked to open the drone’s bay without risking its contents. Soren’s heart pounded, anticipation building over the outcome.

  “Captain,” Ethan finally commed. “We have it. The Valkyrie’s data recorder.”

  Soren exhaled in relief. Against all odds, they had found it.

  “Lina, it’s up to you now,” Soren said. “Use every resource we have available, but we need to find a way to crack the enemy’s encryption keys.”

  “Understood, Captain,” Lina replied. “I’ll gather all of our techs in the conference room to work on the problem.”

  “I’ll meet you there.” Soren turned to Jack, who smiled.

  “I know, I have the conn.”

  He stood and clapped his friend on the shoulder before leaving the bridge and heading for the conference room.

  CHAPTER 35

  Soren entered the conference room, pulling up with a start just past the threshold. The space that had been nothing but a bare, unfinished compartment when they first set out was now filled with a large conference table and nearly a dozen chairs. All were scavenged from the wrecks of the Vaunted and the other Navy support ships, along with the display hanging on the far wall. The Valkyrie’s data recorder sat in the center of the table.

  Most of the chairs were already filled with members of his expanded crew—Ethan, Lina and Tashi, of course, but also two of the new additions from the Pinto. Sophie sat on the left side of the table. Aiko sat beside Wilf on the right, watching his wiggling fingers with interest and amusement while he spoke to her.

  “Captain on the deck!” Sophie announced, rising and coming to attention upon seeing him.

  “At ease,” Soren replied. “I appreciate your attitude, Petty Officer. But this ship isn’t on active FUPN rolls, nor am I on active duty. This isn’t even a sanctioned operation. Some formality is required to keep order, but I prefer we focus on the task at hand, rather than on military decorum.”

  “Yes, sir,” Sophie replied, sitting down.

  "Captain," Lina said, looking up from her tablet. “I want to be clear with you. This isn't going to be easy. Our encryption is designed to be unbreakable, and the enemy’s is no different. In fact, from what I can tell, it’s using the same or very similar algorithms. If anyone could break them, they would have by now.”

  Soren nodded, unsurprised. "I figured as much. But I’m not willing to just accept defeat. What are our options?" he asked, taking the seat at the nearest end of the table.

  "Well, Captain,” Ethan began, “we were discussing a few potential methods on our way from the hangar bay. Brute force is one option—essentially, trying every possible combination until we hit on the right one."

  "How long would that take?" Soren asked.

  Tashi's expression faltered slightly. "With the processing power we have on board...weeks, maybe even months."

  Soren shook his head. "We don't have that kind of time. What else?"

  “We can try a cryptanalytic attack," Sophie chimed in, her voice still rough from her ordeal. "Basically, we look for patterns and weaknesses in the encryption algorithm itself, try to find a backdoor."

  "That sounds promising," Soren said. “Especially if we already have access to the algorithm.”

  "It is," Lina agreed, "but it's also incredibly complex. We'd need to analyze petabytes of data, look for anomalies. Even then, there's no guarantee we'd find anything. A back door may be impossible.”

  “What else?” Soren asked.

  “There are a couple of quantum-based methods we could try,” Ethan said. “But we’d need to hijack critical systems to run them, and again, no guarantees.”

  “Which systems?”

  “Flight control,” Lina said, “fire control, and communications. They all use quantum processing.”

  “Can we just divert the resources from one?”

  “We could, but even using all three, it could take us a few weeks to break the encryption.”

  Soren sighed bitterly. Every second they spent trying to crack this damn box was another second the enemy was moving forward with their plans. Whatever those plans were, it had already affected both of his children. And he was certain it would only get worse.

  He slammed his fist down on the table, making everyone jump. "Damn it," he growled. "We don't have time for this. My daughter and her crew have been out there for far too long already. We need answers, and we need them now."

  A heavy silence fell over the room, the crew exchanging uneasy glances. They knew how much this meant to him, how deeply personal this mission was. But they also knew the dangers of rushing headlong into the unknown.

  "Captain," Aiko said hesitantly, "what if we can't crack it? What if, after all this, we still can't get to the data we need?"

  Soren stared at the innocuous black box sitting in front of him. His hope of uncovering its secrets faded with every second. Meanwhile, a new thought began creeping into his mind. An idea crazier and more reckless than he might have ever considered if the stakes weren’t so damn high.

  "We're going to make contact," he decided, voice quiet and calm despite the boldness of his blossoming plan.

  "Sir?” Ethan replied, confused. “Make contact with who?"

  "With whoever took Dana," Soren replied. "We're going to hail them on all channels, and offer them the recorder in exchange for Dana and her crew.”

  A stunned silence met his words. Lina was the first to find her voice. "Captain, are you sure that's wise? We don't know anything about our enemy, their capabilities, or their motives. We'd be flying blind."

  “And…” Ethan started, hesitating momentarily. “I’m sorry, Soren. But what if Dana and her crew are already…”

  “Dead?” Soren finished for him. “Then the enemy can’t make that trade, can they? But if they want the recorder badly enough, they might try regardless. We’ll have the vortex cannon reconfigured by then. We’ll be ready if they renege.”

  “It’s risky,” Wilf said.

  “Everything about this has been risky,” Tashi countered. Wilf glared at him, but Tashi smiled back in an attempt to be disarming, following Soren’s request.

  Wilf’s glare softened somewhat. “True,” he allowed.

  "Keep working on the decryption," Soren said, shoving his chair back and getting up. "Exhaust every option, try every trick in the book. But in the meantime, I'm going to see if I can get someone’s attention.”

  With that, he turned on his heel and strode from the room en route to the bridge, noting the handful of heads that turned his way when he walked in. He ignored the unspoken questions in their eyes, at least for now, every fiber of his being focused on one singular purpose.

  "Samira," he said, crossing to the communications station.

  "Captain?" she replied, her voice tinged with curiosity. “What can I do for you?”

  Soren nodded. “Open a hailing channel. All frequencies.”

  Samira's eyes widened. "All frequencies? But sir, that's..."

  "I know," Soren cut her off. "It's risky, maybe even foolish. But right now, I don't care. We need to do something.”

  Samira hesitated momentarily before nodding, tapping on her control board to complete his request. “All channels are open, Captain. Whenever you're ready."

  Soren took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts. Then he began to speak.

  "To any vessels receiving this transmission, this is Captain Soren Strickland of the starship Wraith. I am searching for a missing FUP Navy research vessel, the Galileo and her crew."

  He paused, emotion threatening to choke off his words. But he pushed through, his voice growing stronger with each passing second.