“Sensors are aligned for a sweep,” Vanessa said. “I can drop our own sensor burst probe now. We should be able to map the dorsal side of the probe, and then pick up our readings a few million miles on the other side of it.” Anders scratched his chin. “That doesn’t give us the options the old man wanted.” “Of destroying it?” Vanessa said. “I can drop an armed probe capable of that, if you wish.” “He’s looking for an excuse to drop speed and sweep in real time,” Tully said. “Maybe,” Anders said. “If we speed on past it…

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Anders stepped onto the bridge. He noticed the empty captain’s console and chair (though he knew his father rarely sat when he was running the ship) and looked around briefly. He noticed the patriarch leaning over the chair at Tully’s messy station, his eyes flitting over a green-lit display. “Sir.” Malcolm turned and raised an eyebrow to Anders. “On time, as usual.” Anders nodded, then relaxed. “What’s the dig, sir?” “Couple of data pulses over the last few hours,” Tully answered. She nodded to Macbeth without taking her eyes off the screen. “Gramps thinks it might be from Earth. Maybe…

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Stars filled Malcom Macbeth’s vision, bright colors shifting and blurring, artifacts of the divergent passage of time as they cruised near the speed of light. He wasn’t just watching space go by; he was watching time go by, the galaxy beyond the ship hurtling forward in normal time while things onboard passed infinitely slow by comparison. His eyes fixed on one star to the left of the ship, a supergiant with far too much cosmic radiation to risk a close approach. It had been slowly shifting from blue to white as they ceased to close with it, and Malcolm knew…

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