We have been ordered to return to the Luther. It seems our contact has gotten back to us faster than we could gather new information. Marcus and I return to the hangar and touch down. Lewis is waiting for us at the base of the ramp as the door opens.
"Captain Lewis." I said, "What are you doing here?"
"I get a call that someone needs to speak with Commander Demi from Federal Investigations, of course I would be a little curious."
"Fine."
"And there is a guy named Darrin here. He says he's with you.
"Correct, have him meet me in the war room."
"Lets do it."
Marcus and I make our way to the war room in the front of the ship. Darrin is already there waiting for us, reaching out his hand to shake ours.
"Good to see you again. Shall we go inside?"
"Lets."
"After you."
We enter the room, and Barret is already waiting for us on screen. He smiles when he sees us and proceeds to stand from his chair and head for the door. Some clicks in the audio. I presume he is locking to the door to prevent people from entering. He sits down about the same time we do and begins.
"Hello everyone. Glad to see you all here."
"What did you find?"
"I checked some intelligence reports over the last seven years to see if anything comes up. Nothing stook out at first, but I did find an investigation into the same gridlock from ten years ago."
"What was it about?"
"Nothing related to your case. But they were transporting goods that required to be documented, I guess they were caught smuggling."
"What were they transporting?" Darrin asks.
"Six jump engines."
"Six?" Marcus asks. "What kind of ship would need that many engines?"
"None. My first thought was this was just a transport of cargo, that's what the original investigators thought, but then it hit me. This a war ship. What business does this thing have transporting cargo? Then I thought, what if this has been going on longer than we thought? What if we caught this in the end phase?"
"You are suggesting they have been at this for a while?" I ask.
"Possibly."
"Didn't you say Cadence was building a peace force?" Marcus asks
"Yeah, but it was only a couple of ships. If this has been going on for years, who would build that many?"
"Then there is the issue with Varamount Industries." Darrin said
"Varamount industries," Barret says. "They are squeaky clean; I have nothing on them."
"So, it looks like we haven't found anything yet. Why are we here then?" I ask
"Well, I never said I didn't find anything. As I searched through the records, I got curious. We know the rules of jump space, it requires a lot of energy, so it got me thinking. I noticed a pattern in the reporting on the day of the incident. There were hundreds of reports of scientists picking up a spike of radiation from multiple different directions in multiple locations."
"Mutiple?" Darrin asks.
"Yes and no. More like on location picks up a spike for one direction, another picked up a spike from another direction."
"I see."
"Do you have the data?" I ask.
"Yeah, it's already sent over."
I access the files sent over and boot up a map of the galaxy, then I have the computer map out all the locations of the reports on that day. Mutiple red dots are placed on the map along with the overlay of all the country's borders. Then I upload the signal data picked up on the day of the incident and the computer starts to calculate.
Everyone sits patently, wondering what the computer is going to spit out.
"What are you doing?" Marcus asks.
"If my suspicions are correct, all the stations picked up energy signatures."
"You think they all picked up one big energy signature at the same time instead of multiple?" Darrin asks
"Yeah, and if that's true, we can find the source."
"Genius."
The computer continues to calculate for another 30 seconds before it finally stops. The red dots reappear on the map along with white lines all pointing in the direction of its signal location. As I zoom out the map we see the pattern. All the white lines converge on one location. I was right they all picked up the same energy. I zoom out the map a bit more and when we finally find the location, we recognize, I stop. Everyone is quiet. They all see what I see, and it was very unexpected. Barret falls back into his chair, shocked. All the lines point in one direction, inside Nekomon.
"No way. There is no way!" Marcus says.
"So, what does this mean?" Darrin asks.
"A lot," I said. "It confirms a lot of things, and I hate to say it."
"What?"
"This confirms the planet that attacked the cloud system came from Nekomon."