Page 39 of Enthraller

Ed nodded. “There was something a little too pat about her ’honesty’ for my liking. And I don’t think Ludlow would have included people on his team who could expose his experiments as unworkable. They’re either out of their depth, or they’re with him all the way.”

“What do you think he’s really up to?” Hatch asked.

“I suspect he’s looking for an ancestral spaceship signal. That would be easy enough to hide in a signal experiment project.” Ed just wondered why they needed to find a signal if they already knew the location of the ship.

“I don’t think I’m wrong about the wreck being an ancestral spaceship, but the men who were hunting me said something about a partial wreck.” She wished she’d heard more. “I was injured, only half-listening, but I think they’d already found some of it, and that’s why the cult is on Ytla to begin with, as cover for their search. If a massive mothership broke up on entry to Ytla’s atmosphere, there could be sections of it all over. They might not have found the part with a working signal yet.”

Ed gave a slow nod. “Maybe the site you stumbled on doesn’t have anything interesting enough for them. They’re looking for tech.” He gave her just the faintest hint of a smile, because he knew she had gotten the most interesting tech of all.

The nanos acknowledge his nod to them with wave of humor.

Wren couldn’t help smiling as they fizzed with joy. They liked being seen by someone else, she realized. They liked the connection.

“Ready when you are.” Bailey turned, all suited up.

“Happy hunting,” Wren said, and, arms full of dishes, went to observe the enemy in the canteen.

16

“How wasyour first night on the obs station?”

The question came from Cora, who had been introduced to Wren last night as a research assistant on the academic team. She was slight and moved like she didn’t know what to do with her hands.

She stood beside a pile of dishes, gripping those hands together in a tight hold.

“Not wonderful, but that’s how it always is for me the first night I stay somewhere new.” Wren stacked the dishes in the washer, and then stepped back to let Cora stack hers. “I travel a lot for work, so I’m used to it.”

“I’m still not used to it,” Cora said. “There’s something about the air pressure, and the faint hum of the environmental system, that just won’t let me relax.”

“How long have you been up here dealing with it?” Wren asked, although she knew from Ed the team had been up here three months.

“Two months. Some of the team have been up here longer, but they decided they needed more people and I volunteered.” Cora shook her head. “I’m putting in early for home leave. I can’tstand to be here for the full three month rotation, and we’re not having a lot of success with the project, anyway.”

Wren made sympathetic sounds.

“How long areyouup here, then?” Cora asked.

“We’re not sure yet.” Wren smiled. “At least two weeks. Maybe longer.”

Cora nodded. “What are you doing? I didn’t catch that part of the conversation last night at dinner.”

“We’re scanning the incoming freighters.”

“Oh.” As if suddenly understanding something, Cora looked up at her, eyes wide. “Ohhh. That’s why there’s a line of freighters stretching past the moon cluster?”

“That’s why,” she agreed.

“You’re scanning them all?”

“We’re being thorough,” Wren said with a shrug.

“I can’t imagine anyone’s happy about the delay.”

Wren gave a laugh. “No.”

“She doesn’t care.” The tone was spiteful, and it was no surprise to Wren to find Trish had stepped into the canteen.

“It’s true. I don’t,” she said cheerfully. “We found so many reporting infringements yesterday, it looks like a thorough check is long overdue.”

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