The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Eleven

At the docking console, Tila was making progress of a sort, but it was going backward.

She had managed to call up the local flight paths of ships docking with the Solar Forge, but the playbacks were happening in reverse.

"Ellie, help me out?"

Ellie slid out of the captain's chair and leaned over Tila's console. The display showed a three-dimensional model of the Solar Forge, surrounded by a large sphere which Ellie reasoned was the inside of the dead fleet bubble.

"I can't make it go forward," said Tila.

Ellie guessed a button and pressed it. The view changed to a two-dimensional schematic, showing the ship from the top down. In the corner the time counter reset to the present and the reverse playback started again.

"I already tried that," said Tila. "Look, you see those three blips flying away on the right? I think that was us arriving. We came in from that side."

"Hmmm," said Ellie, and wondered what else she could try, when she noticed two other blips leave the Solar Forge. This time they flew off to the left.

"What was that?" Ellie said.

"One of the cargo ships I suppose. It arrived about five hours before we did."

"But it went the opposite direction."

"So? There must be more than one way out of the fleet."

"But why take the long way round to the beacon?"

"That's a good point, Ellie," said Tila. "Mal, come and look at this."

"You found something?" said Malachi. He bounded up the steps two at a time to join them.

"Make it start again," said Tila.

Ellie reset the commands and repeated the sequence. They watched again as three blips departed on the right and two more departed on the left.

"Why take the long way round?" Tila asked Malachi.

"I don't know. There's no reason to unless we came in the wrong way. Maybe our route is too dangerous for their normal shipping? Does everything come in from that side?"

Ellie had been studying the controls while Malachi talked. She tentatively pressed another button and the playback speed increased. Blip after blip arrived and departed from the left, but every so often, another blip came from the right, following a similar route through the fleet to theirs. As two blips converged on the Solar Forge simultaneously Malachi paused the playback.

"Now we have another reason they didn't see us coming. They weren't expecting a surprise visit." said Malachi.

"No-one expects them," said Ellie. "That's why they are called surprises."

"I don't get it," Malachi continued, "It's like they're going somewhere else, but there's nothing else in this system. They're just heading out into space to circle back to the beacon. It's a waste of time and fuel."

"Maybe we got turned around inside the fleet and they know a quicker way?" suggested Ellie.

Tila placed a fingertip underneath the two visible blips. "But then why does this one come in the same way we did if this other one is going the right way?"

"We must be missing something," said Malachi, standing up. "Ellie, can you take over here while I go back downstairs?"

"Done."

"Try and send its display to the centre screen," he said.

"What are you doing?" Tila asked.

"I'm going to check the database again. There should be a record of flight paths of docked ships in there."