Page 4 of Alien Viking's Plunder

That was Josie’s beat. Like most people onUnity, she had two jobs — one was her main one as astrophysicist, and the other was a squad leader in the Security forces that kept the peace inside the station. That job didn’t require much from her. Not just anyone was allowed to work on or visitUnity, and the people aboard were mostly disciplined. Drunken brawls among miners fresh from the asteroid belt were not uncommon, but every Security officer had a way of dealing with that.

“If this is true, it’s one of the biggest discoveries ever made,” she finally said. “You may have discovered tachyons.”

“Oh, this is bigger than just a particle,” Aretha said. “This is a heavy thing coming at us going faster than light. Areallyheavy thing. Which is… yeah. I don’t even know.”

“Have you asked for time on the other telescopes?” Josie asked, getting excited. “They may give priority.”

Aretha zoomed out on the image. “I haven’t, and I won’t yet. I want to be sure about this. And if itisan actual discovery, I’m not about to share it with anyone but you.”

Josie grabbed her friend’s shoulder and squeezed. “Hey, you saw it first. But I’d be happy to have my name on that paper, if you’re beingthisgenerous. Damn, this could be our ticket out of this depressing can! Did you run a Tambs analysis?”

“Exactly!” Aretha exclaimed. “They can’t keep us here on the Unity any longer if we just made the most important discovery of the century! Anyway, I was thinkingyoucould do that analysis.” She zoomed in again. “Good grief, if this thing doesn’t slow down, it’ll be here in less than an hour.”

Josie sat down at the bank of secondary screens in front of the main screens on the wall. “How close will it pass?”

“Close,” Aretha said tightly. “I’m actually getting nervous.”

Josie looked at the numbers that filled her screen, quickly focusing on the important ones. “No deviation in any direction? Just straight towards us? As in, not towards Earth, but towardsUnity?”

“Looks like it,” Aretha said. “That’s the only thing that could sink the discovery — accuracy like that is too improbable. It screams instrument error or miscalculation.”

“Unless it reallyissomething coming at us,” Josie said, frowning at the displays. Whatever it was, it looked real. Still, she was confused. “If it were really moving that fast, it should be here before the light it emits. Why can we see it?”

“It’s a mystery,” Aretha agreed. “But really weird things happen when something gets close to light speed. No, wait — the spectrum just changed. Now it’s below light speed. Way below.”

“But still on collision course,” Josie said tightly. “And much closer than before. I make it… two AUs. Closing fast.”

Aretha glanced at her. “Should we tell someone?”

Josie had the same thought and hit the side of the small headset by her ear. “Dispatch, this is Fourteen,” she said, using the code number for her Station Security position. This was looking a lot like a Security matter. “Astronomy is seeing an object coming straight at the station at great speed.” She checked the screens. “Almost a quarter of light speed now. It’s slowing down, looks like. Recommend notifying the station manager and the Security chief. There might be a collision.”

“Copy collision warning,”the dispatcher said quickly. “What’s the time frame?”

Josie looked at Aretha.

“Six minutes,” Aretha said, pointing at a graph on the main screen. “It’s slowing down, but not enough to not hit us. One percent of light speed, slowing fast.”

“Six min—,” Josie said into the comms, but didn’t have time to finish before the collision warning sirens began wailing all over the station.

“Sounds like the automatic collision sensors are picking it up, too,”the dispatcher said. “What exactly is it? A rock?”

Josie frowned at the screen, zooming in. She could see the object now. It was red and had curious, regular streaks swooping away from the center. “Probably. But it looks like… some kind of a ship?”

“A spaceship?” the dispatcher asked.

“It’s… a sailing ship,” Josie said, incredulous. Then she heard how ridiculous it sounded. “No, it has to be a rock. It’s bigger than any spacecraft we have.”

“Copy that, Fourteen.”The dispatcher closed the comms,

Josie frowned, looking from screen to screen. “Ari, please tell me I’m not seeing a pirate ship coming at us.”

“You’re not,” Aretha said calmly as she turned off the collision alarm in the room. “That thing just has some parts of it that look like old-timey ocean-going ships. Sure, it looks like a hull made of planks and there are masts, I guess. But if so, where’s the sail? Actually, now that I think about it, smart people have proposed making spaceships that would use sails, driven along by the solar wind. Maybe this is something like that?”

Josie was starting to feel queasy. “So weareseeing a spaceship being flown? Being controlled?”

“Absolutely. It looks nothing like a rock.”

“And it looks nothing like the ships that we use for mining or exploration?”

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