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Across the roo the scene too bizarre for Molly to cohter and horror didn’tlike oil and water

A distant voice called out a out of your cut!"

And that really got the

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Anlyn pulled out of Edison’s embrace as the hyperdrive traces flared up on the nav screen She tapped hilanced at her screen and grunted at the results

"We just ht up a different display on his own screen and typed so on the keyboard The info showed on Anlyn’s as well, but she couldn’t read any of the numbers Still, she didn’t have to knohat they said The intensity of the signatures was h

"This is impossible," Anlyn said "You don’t see traces like this except for right after someone jumps These are too fresh to be--"

"They’re a week old," Edison said

"No, love, these are brand new" She hit the zoo the scope out The traces were spread throughout the entire system Hundreds of them "This doesn’t make any sense"

"The computer says they’re a week old, and it has a destination"

"A destination? They all go to the saht This doesn’t make any sense"

"What? Where do they lead?" She hated not being able to read the screen, relying on just the raw i it up on both screens He zoole point

"Here," he said

Anlyn couldn’t read the nanized the symbol from Bern charts It was a star A class V star

"They jumped into a star? So the traces are blowback" Anlyn shook her head "That explains the strength and age Maybe they are a week old But still, ould theywhy ju fan of the prophecy," Edison said "You know that But I also don’t like coincidences Do you think--?"

"That the Bern are gone? Mass suicide? No Only because I’ve learned to not jump to my favorite conclusions"

"Give ht for athem out of our hands"

Edison frowned

"Or theyra thenatures come up as the same class and model as this one"

"Maybe there’s a rift in the center of that star!"

Edison shook his head "Wouldn’t work The mass in the star would just leak out to the other side No, I think they did it on purpose Maybe they figured out so Drenard right now"

"Don’t say that And ere on Drenard a week ago I--should we still go explore one of these stations, or should we ju a few trade routes until we bump into someone? There’s a ton of settled worlds on thisafter them?" Edison asked

"What? Jump into the center of that star? Have you estion," Edison said "Then again, think about it, think about where we are This is the front line of the Bern-Drenard war We’re standing in the trenches of the most important standoff in your history Do you really think they just left? Or that they killed themselves? I think it’s more likely they aren’t here because the front has moved elsewhere"

"I know you hate it when I say this, but I don’t understand Even without the English"

Edison blew out his breath, then sucked in another deep one "At ale a tactic that has been in place for thousands and thousands of years, the moment they decided to move out of their arm of the Milky Way, the Bern disappear? Like I said, I loathe coincidenceshi more than a prediction, or a well-reasoned theory with flowery language A major coincidence like this? I just don’t buy it"