Surveying in Circles

Terran Dominion Warship Casa Loma
Beyond the Frontier of Terran Space, UK-203 System
13 Jumps from Sol

“Six months since we pulled out from Jan Mayen, and still no sign of them.”

Commodore Tvorok grumbled as he shifted in his command couch, setting down his book and looking across the main survey display. The holographic table showed the current system, a trio of stars glowing silently. The primary was a yellow G7 that had a terran-compatible planet orbiting it, mixed among a collection of less-hospitable worlds. Somehow it had been paired with a M8 red giant that ensured there was no kuiper belt to speak of, and precious few comets. Those that did exist were thanks to a more distant G2 star that orbited as the distant binary component. It had the full set of orbital attendants, even including a few notably large Kuiper belt objects. And it had its own terran-compatible planet. This one even had the beginnings of a biosphere, its ocean a thick soup of simple organisms just beginning to colonize its landmasses.

“Seven months, sir.

“If I wanted to know exactly how long we’ve been out here, Roquefort, I’d look at a calendar.”

“I’m just saying-“

“You’re just saying that we’ve been out here for the better part of a year now, and we haven’t seen even a sign of these aliens who visited Jan Mayen. You’d think that out of all the data they dumped us, they would have seen fit to give us a roadmap.”

“Something like that, Sir.”

A soft beeping called out, and Commodore Tvorok sighed and leaned onto the survey display, pushing a small stack of beaten up paper novels to the side. A sharp stab answered the call, and he barely smothered a growl at the interruption.

“Tvorok here.”
“CIC, Survey central.” The voice was sharp with professionalism in stark opposition to Tvorok’s attitude “We’ve completed probing the two identified warp points in-system. One leads to a single star system; orange primary, no habitable worlds or energy signatures. The other leads to UK-211.”
“Understood CIC. Tvorok out.”

Tvorok looked at Roquefort, his face twisted into a frustrated, exhausted expression. “So now we’re going in circles. Wonderful. Alright Roquefort. Pull the survey fleet together and get them headed towards that orange star. If it doesn’t pay out, then it’s time to pull back a couple jumps and try something else.”

Roquefort nodded once, relaying orders to pull the survey group into transit order for the next star system to survey. Tvorok picked up the top novel in his stack, flipping back to his bookmarked place. ‘I hope the next supply run has a better selection of books. I’m getting tired of this stupid french detective…’