Elana strode onto the bridge. She was small, slim through the hips, but her fitted, navy-blue medic jumpsuit left no doubt that she kept in shape. She swaggered like she was six feet tall, her black hair swinging in a ponytail behind her.
“Okay, let’s see these scans,” she said.
Rynan pulled out a chair for her. “We’re looking for anything that could be a starship wreck.”
Nissa watched the woman settle in beside Rynan. It was clear the two had an easy camaraderie. Nissa leaned in close to Justyn’s ear and lowered her voice.
“Are they…?” She nodded her head toward the couple.
“Nah. Best friends. Thick as thieves since Elana joined the crew. Ry wouldnever, ever sleep with her. He never shares his bed with the same woman more than once, and he’d never jeopardize his friendship with Elana.”
Nissa watched the way their heads were close together, saw Elana elbow Rynan out of her way in a practiced way that said she did it daily. Rynan flicked her ear in retaliation, then pointed to something on the screen.
Hmm. Rynan might keep women at arm’s length, but this one was so far under his skin, he hadn’t even noticed. Nissa smiled. It might be fun to watch the fireworks when he realized that fact.
“There’s definitely something here on the surface.” Elana tapped the screen where a vaguely rectangular blob appeared on the moon’s striated surface. “It shows a few features you’d find with a ship’s wreckage.” She zoomed in on another part of the scan. “This area is promising too. The contrast with the surface really stands out, but it’s more broken up.” She frowned peering in closer. “Hang on. There’s something moving! It’s really large…no, wait…it’s gone.” Her frown deepened. “That’s strange. Must be a radiation artifact. But the other two are definitely targets I’d check out.”
“Okay.” Dare moved forward. “We need visual confirmation next.”
“The broken mass is close to the equator,” Rynan said. “We’ll be in visual range in another few minutes. The other is close to the moon’s northern pole. I’ll send in a recon probe and see if it can survive the radiation long enough to get any clear images.”
They waited. Nissa tapped her fingers against Justyn’s chair until he grabbed her hand and twined it with his.
“Coming into view now,” Rynan said.
At first, Nissa couldn’t detect anything in the shades of gray, then she saw a darkened area. She squinted. It still didn’t look like much.
“Running ship recognition software now.”
“Recognition software?” Nissa asked.
Justyn squeezed her hand. “Ry put it together. It’s a database of all known ship designs in the galaxy and what we’ve come across in uncharted space. He can run scans and it checks against the database.”
Patrol had simple databases, but it still required technicians to run the comparison. She thought of all the applications of Rynan’s software. “He could make a fortune selling it.”
Justyn grinned. “Ry doesn’t like sharing his toys.”
The console chimed.
“Damn.” Rynan shook his head. “Itisa ship, but it’s the remains of a modern runnership.”
Justyn huffed out a breath. “Probably a pirate ship.”
“Or a smuggler,” she said.
He pressed a kiss to her knuckles and winked.
Okay, one down one to go. Her heart thudded hard in her chest. It had to be theNero. It had to be.
“Probe launched,” Elana said. For a medic, she seemed very at home at the bridge controls.
“Give it a few minutes and it’ll start sending back images.” Rynan leaned over to look at another screen. “Probe hull integrity is holding.”
Elana tapped her screen. “Radiation is affecting it though. It’ll probably only last ten minutes, max.”
“Let’s hope we get what we need then.” Rynan straightened. “Put the images on the viewscreen. First image coming through.”
Nissa saw an icy surface, then what looked like…a dark-gray box. She tried to make sense of what she was seeing. The image was far from clear. “That software tell you anything?”
