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“As you can see, Captain, the impactor debris was travelling orders of magnitude faster than your average piece of space rock,” Cenz said, bringing up the data. “These pieces were annihilated on a level inconsistent with normal speeds.”
Brooks studied the data. He was not as versed in such things as his science officer or engineer, but the data was still clear even to him. He remained quiet a moment as he looked at it.
“How large was this object, then?” he finally asked.
“We have modeled different-sizes, but we expect it was approximately five meters in diameter,” Cenz replied.
“Could it have been a natural object accelerated intentionally as a novel form of attack?” Jaya asked.
“Unlikley,” Cutter replied. “Why go through such trouble when it still appears as attack anyway?”
“I agree that seems unlikely,” Brooks said. “But do you have an explanation for how the object got to be moving so fast? If it was travelling somewhere between 200 and 1000 kilometers per second, that’s orders of magnitude higher than most natural objects.”
“Yes,” Cenz said. “Knowing which reactors were hit and when, along with the ship’s orientation allows us to track the object’s original path.”
The ship appeared in the 3D model, with a red line extending out from it. It zoomed out to show multiple stars.
“Accounting for galactic rotation, it suggests that the object originated along this path. Along that path, we encounter the ternary system of Eris Setani.”
Jaya’s eyebrow arched. “Ominous name.”
“For good reason,” Cenz continued. “The system is a very messy collection of two neutron stars and a main sequence star they are actively feeding upon. The instability of a three-body orbit means that they could easily be the culprit – gravitationally slinging objects out at unnatural speeds.
“What’s more, however, the spectographic traces of the remains of the object recovered from the whipple shield, while not particularly unusual, match the makeup of objects from the Eris Setani system.”
“This system is sixteen hundred lightyears out,” Jaya said.
“Yes. But due to its unusual qualities, it is also a highly-studied location,” Cenz replied.
“My people dispatched long-distance probes to system one thousand years ago,” Cutter said. “Though we ourselves never visited, we understand it very well.”
Brooks was quiet again for a long time, considering.
“So you are saying,” he said, breaking his silence, “that this object was sent out of the Eris Setani system something like half a million years ago, and the Maria’s Cog just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?”
“As we have not yet ascertained its exact speed, its time of origin would have been between 480,000 and 2.4 million years ago – but in essence you are correct, sir,” Cenz said.
“It seems too impossible,” Brooks said.
“I believe I have one more piece of data that may help, sir,” Cenz said. “As Cutter noted, his people have been placing probes in systems for study for millenia, which includes nearby systems.”
A chart appeared, showing small spikes – with a single sudden spike rising far beyond the others.
“In that time, their probes have detected seventeen spikes such as these, through their own systems or nearby systems. They were actually dismissed as sensor ghosts, simple errors. But the data matches exactly what we would expect from small objects travelling orders of magnitude faster than expected.”
Cenz paused, leaning back. “In other words, this area of space is simply in the line of fire for Eris Setani. For whatever reason, in ages long past it sent numerous pieces of incredibly fast debris flying this way.”
Brooks sat back.
“Frankly, I thought that discovering this was not an attack would make me feel better. But to think that such objects are truly flying around is far more disturbing than even a hostile force.”
“Would they have had any chance to see this coming?” Jaya asked.
“No,” Cutter said. “Drone screen was not sufficient for object of this speed. Would require more and better drones in different pattern. But if sufficient drones had been carried and deployed? Yes.”
“No one could have expected this,” Brooks said. “If it is indeed the case. The crew of the Maria’s Cog did everything right, but this still happened.”
Jaya was leaning forward, still studying the data. “What do you make of this, Urle?”
The Executive Commander was not present, working on another deck, but he had been remotely watching the conversation.
“It’s all possible, and I think pretty compelling. The odds are astronomical – but that’s just why we haven’t seen it before, since even the worst odds don’t mean impossible. We’re not seeing any enemy ships, no actual coilgun slug, Union intelligence has no information on enemy ships in our territory, especially not this deep. I think their theory holds water.”
“I concur,” Brooks said. “You two have done excellent work. I’m going to forward this preliminary work to command, so if you have anything else you want to add to that, get it to me shortly.”
“Captain,” Cutter said. “Time is of essence on different matter. Request permission to focus more effort upon errant escape pod.”
“What is your reasoning?” Brooks asked. “They are already a high priority given their situation, but is there more?”
“Pod’s radio signals display degradation that gives me concern,” Cutter said. “I fear damage may be more significant than initially thought. I must investigate further.”
Brooks nodded. “Permission granted. At this point, all we can do is make sure we get as many people in alive as we can.”
Other Terrestrial 