A human face appeared on a comm screen. “This is Anglic Union Astrographic Service long-range reconnaissance cruiser Langley, Captain Andrew Davis commanding. Greetings to Barham system traffic control. We are on a routine pass through your system. I am carrying a substantial number of message balls for System Fleet Command, System Governor, and various private citizens. We have not touched down since we departed Terra six weeks ago, so quarantine should not be necessary if we land. I have transmitted our itinerary codes so you can confirm.”
Pelham and Wu stared at each other. He nodded.
“Starship Langley, this is Barham System Defense Command. Welcome to Barham,” Wu said. “What are your intentions here? Please confirm your travel time; it seems a bit short.” A bit short? she thought. Six months is more typical.
Davis smiled and leaned back in his command chair. “Courtesy of Eyes on the Skies, we took several ultradrive shortcuts. I’m sure they will be happy to sell you the details at their usual rates.”
Jingfei Wu returned his smile. Assuredly Eyes on the Skies would be happy to sell the needed information to the Imperial Fleet, for a truly remarkable fee, but the Imperial Fleet did not resort to anything as undignified as hopping from star to star in real space when the warp point network already took you to any place of any importance. It was still interesting to learn that there were several points that had to be separated by no more than a few light months that got you from Terra to here that quickly.
“Codes are confirmed,” Vanderwelt said. “And very up-to-date.”
“Welcome to Barham,” Pelham added. “We’ll pass you over to traffic control.” He listened while Vanderwelt made the necessary contacts, then bid Davis adieu.
Abernathy continued his scan of his gravitronic detectors. “Interesting drive arrangements they have,” he said to Wu. “They appear to be accelerating using their secondaries, pushed up to decently high power.”
“Anglic Union custom,” Wu said, “going back several centuries to when the AU couldn’t build a primary drive. Just like their custom of arriving unannounced, rather than being a scheduled flight with flight plan so we weren’t surprised when they were showed up.”
“And now I have decent imaging on the Langley,” Vanderwelt said. “They were kind enough to park after emergence, and kind enough to paint their ship bright white.” A slightly fuzzy white pancake was seen on one of the screens. “Yes, those are running lights it has,” Vanderwelt added, “just as though it was a freighter on Old Earth.”
