“Show me.”

“It moved out of range about 30 minutes ago, but we’ll catch up with it again early tomorrow,” said Victor.

“Ok, show me the viz,” said Captain Amanda Ruth.

Victor pulled it up. But not before daring a glance at the captain’s figure. Sacrilege, sure, irresistible nonetheless.

Amanda leaned in. She examined the first image of the body and in that instant years of underutilized training and two decades of experience kicked into high gear.

To Jake she said, “Assemble the senior staff. Now.” Then to Victor, “I assume we have everybody accounted for?”

“We do.”

“And who knows?”

“Just us.”

“Good. Keep it that way.”

“Aye.” both replied with uncharacteristic precision and attention.

Captain Ruth ran through the book in her mind, mentally flipping through and rejecting hundreds of scenarios. She did it again but again came up empty. Years of complacency would test her and the crew over these next few minutes. Days. Or if they were very lucky, weeks.

Because against all odds, they had been found.