Captain Andersen stood in the centre of the bridge with her arms crossed. She was surrounded by a swirling mass of hurried staff. Half of them were working with the ship’s AI to close the Barb off to further cyber infiltrations, and assess the extent of the hack. The other half were working with the Rothians to identify the source of the signal.

From what she understood, whatever scanned them had been achingly sophisticated and efficient, even by Rothia’s lofty standards. The signal also appeared to originate from extremely far away. As Captain, she had duly informed Fleet Command of the intrusion. She wasn’t in the Need To Know loop, but Andersen suspected most of the Outreman Navy was now on high alert and moving into position around their homeworld. If it hadn’t been already, that is.

For now, they were on their own with the Rothians, with zero Navy support on-station. Measures of last resort had been unlocked on her panel. Nothing could take the Barb in one piece, those were her orders.

Now, she was waiting with bated breath for more information. Rareth stood nearby, looking intimidating as usual. Andersen had half a mind to request she vacate the bridge, but was mindful of strained relations at the moment. “Ma’am, we’ve narrowed down the vector.” One of her chief engineers called.

“Well?”

“Gurguris XII. Middle of nowhere, ma’am.”

“Put it up.”

A tight cluster of suns, strewn with galactic debris, appeared on the vast 3D holo in front of them. It lay far beyond the bounds of Human and known Rothian civilisation.

“Any idea what’s scanning us?”

“Not yet, we’re working on it.”

“Ok. Any advance on how much they got?”

Another science officer answered, from the other side of the Bridge. “We’re still tracing the steps they took, ma’am. But it looks like they got to most of the top network.” Andersen grimaced. "Keep looking."