Rareth turned her head towards Andersen. “That would be for the best. I believe we…” Her voice trailed off for a moment as she performed a quick search of the Rothian gateway network. “Yes, we do have a gateway that can get us closer, though it is still quite a remote system. No official survey of the system has been performed; only remote observations.”

In mind frustration, Rareth growled softly under her breath. “I doubt we will make much progress with our guesses. We need actual analysis of hard data. These scans would need to come through an FTL medium in order to react to the object at such a distance, and if they are persistent scans, as you suggest, then they would be detectable in historical data. Perhaps now we will be able to look back and find it, now that we know what to look for.”

[hr]

In the evening after their excursion into the simulation, Vreta had personally debriefed with Rareth and Director Valic’Ans in Threria. Even without having yet completed their analysis of the data intercepted from 595, they had still learned enough to act. Rareth and Valic both had several ideas on how they might take advantage of the information, but Vreta first wanted to try a diplomatic approach. He was not sure how much success he was truly expecting, but it came with little risk to try. There was nothing he would be sharing that she did not already know.

It was during the next day that Vreta once again made his way into orbit as a guest of the Barbarossa. He was permitted in the crew quarters already, so he required no special permission to go seek out the agent. He wanted to speak to her privately. Although it was essentially guaranteed that nothing they spoke of would be secret, it was still prudent that they both be able to choose precisely who heard it. Regardless of what had happened to them the previous day, Vreta still doubted that 595 expected to see him when she answered her door. “Good day, Agent. There is a matter I would like to discuss with you. May I enter?”