Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

Nico was analyzing the data from the Blarg computers when she suddenly had an epiphany. "I know what happened to the ship that we were following. It started at another ship and ended at a dead-end, but it wasn't the only ship in the region at either point. It seemed like the most logical choice, given its size and designation, but I don't think it was a freighter at all.

From what I can tell, I think we were tricked into chasing a probe with a false warp signature. One of the other ships sent it out and picked it up in order to hide their tracks. That's not a technology that most species have, so it's possible that they can disguise the warp signature of their ship as well.

They won't be able to alter the actual warp signature, but they might be able to overlay it with something else to make it look like a different ship of the same pattern."

That was an incredible breakthrough but a very annoying twist to this search. If they could disguise their trail, he would not only have to track them. He would have to do it while searching for the smallest traces of the true signature in every ship's trail that they passed.

Nico was more excited about the possibilities for infiltration than their actual mission at this point, and her surface thoughts were all about how to modify that ability for her own use by layering a false secondary field signature on their own warp field so that they could appear to be a completely different ship every time they went to warp.

It would be useful for Absolution as well. It left a huge trail through space for anyone with the technology to follow. But if this plan of Nico's worked out right, then she might be able to make it decay more quickly or appear to be a fleet of smaller ships heading in the same direction.

The human militaries already did that without the subterfuge by having their fleets fly so close together that the Warp signatures blended into one, but even having hundreds of Cutters fly around Absolution might not be enough to completely disguise its trail, and the incoming signature was so large that they wouldn't fool anyone as to what they were during an attack.

Max checked up on Annabelle quickly and saw that she was focused on learning a lot of the smaller details about warp navigation and the effects of gravitational fields and debris on Warp Fields.

It was part of the answer that she was looking for since Max had adjusted the course to avoid a shipping lane at one point, and he was slightly impressed that she had realized that much already, even with the efficiency of the learning device.

"I think she will make an excellent researcher when she grows up. Maybe we should feed her more varied information for the week and give her a solid base for her early experiments?" Nico suggested when she saw that Max was looking at the little Innu, who appeared to be asleep in a soft recliner.

"That's certainly an option. We could have her moved to a more specialized course of studies when we return as well. I see that she's taking a general education course aboard Absolution right now." Max agreed.

"Should we put trade and technical schools on the new floor of the ship that we're modifying for amphibious species?"

Max thought about that for a few seconds. The floor was mostly for the Innu and the tourists who would love a bit of time off on a tropical island, but people would live there as well, and it was the size of a large country, so there would need to be quite a variety of facilities. Having them specialize in high-tech would make sense.

Every region needed general education, but you only needed to put specialized courses in a few regions if you were willing to relocate students or bus them in, as would be the logical solution for many students aboard Terminus.

They would be seven hours until the next stop at the planet with the unique atmospheric phenomenon, so Max created a blanket and tucked Annabelle in on the recliner while she studied. Hopefully, she would get the hint since the stop was input into her device on a timer. But if she didn't, she could always wake him up.

She might be good at hacking, but she wasn't going to get past Nico's security codes to alter anything in the ship's course, so having a good rest while they had spare time wouldn't cause them any problems.

Max settled into the soft padding of the mattress and was nearly instantly out cold. It was designed perfectly for his preferences, and he was so deeply asleep that he didn't even notice that both Nico and Annabelle joined him for the evening.

He did notice that he wasn't alone when he woke up, though.

The next thing that caught his attention was a notice on his wrist device from Nico. [She's afraid of the dark, and the ship lights turned off automatically when we were all asleep.]

That explained it. She must have woken Nico up or alerted her if the cyborg was still busy with whatever she had been studying for the evening. Nico didn't sleep much anymore, as she only needed enough to rest her mind, and a few periods of REM sleep were enough to satisfy that requirement. So, as a result, she was up at all hours of the day and night if there was something to keep her interested.

He carefully transferred Annabelle onto Nico and climbed out of bed to get breakfast and Coffee ready. Six hours wasn't quite enough sleep in a bed that comfortable, but they were near their destination, and he wanted to be fed and ready when they arrived.

The planet itself was interesting enough to study for weeks, but they would only stay here half a day to make notes and hold the daily meetings with the Envoys back aboard Absolution. That would give them a chance to make sure that the message to Annabelle's mother had been received as well and get some second opinions on everything that they had seen yesterday.

It was going to be another full day, but somehow this little ship seemed to be much more relaxed than either Terminus or Absolution. It might just be the absence of anyone who could bother him or the fact that there were only two other minds in his range, but it was more relaxing than any other vacation he had ever been on.