“You’re on.” Dathan leaned a hip against the table. “Nothing in that system but space rock and solar flares.” His gaze zeroed in on Eos. His eyes were once again mountain-lake blue. Hisgaze traced down her hair before flicking back to her face. “BEll, extrapolate the maps.”
“A please wouldn’t go astray,” the computer responded.
Dathan sighed. “Please.”
The projectors on the roof flared to life and a three-dimensional image of the stars filled the space above the table.
“Amazing,” Eos breathed. It looked like a sprinkle of diamonds hanging in the air. When she turned her head, she saw Dathan watching her. He was staring at her lips.
She looked away and gestured to a small system on the map. “Zoom in on this area.”
The image changed, showing a lot of empty space and one small star system. Dual suns with three planets, each with abundant moons.
“It’s here.” Eos pointed to a small moon circling a ringed planet. “On the second moon of the second planet. The mining company labeled the system Amori. The planet is Amoris and the moon, Beta7.”
A heavy, pressing silence. Eos forced herself not to fidget.
“That’s outside the known galaxy,” Niklas said slowly.
“Uncharted fucking space,” Dathan bit out.
She lifted her chin. “It isn’t far outside known space. I’ve been told you frequently made expeditions past the outer rim.”
“Not that far out.” But Zayn’s eyes narrowed. “Could be interesting, though.”
Dathan pressed his palms against the holo-table. “Or we get attacked by space pirates, or hit some weird-ass anomaly, or worse, run into the Devil’s Nebula.”
She had no idea what the Devil’s Nebula was, but all those options did sound bad.
“Or, we find Star’s End,” Niklas said.
Dathan made a sound. “There’s no way Terran colonists could have made it this far.”
Eos felt a tingle imagining such a harrowing journey. “They did. Their captain was a man named Galileo Hawkins. He was an experienced spacefarer. There are surviving documents about his voyages to Saturn and Neptune.”
Niklas crossed his arms. “Terrans had barely traveled beyond the edge of their own system. Their interstellar technology was still in its infancy.”
“A crawling baby still gets where it’s going, it just takes longer.” She pushed her hair back. “I’ve found legends and stories recorded by the Tupi, the Solara, and the K’hori. Stories telling of colonists on a great journey who visited their planets.”
Niklas zoomed out the image and traced a finger to the planets. “Those worlds are certainly in a rough path between Beta7 and Earth.”
“The colonists could have been from anywhere.” Dathan studied the map. “Show us the mining scans.”
BEll obeyed with no comment. Thermal images filled the holo-table.
“Not great resolution,” Niklas said with a frown.
Eos gripped the edge of the table. They couldn’t pull out now. “They’re from prelim exploration scans.” Mining companies sent unmanned probes all through the galaxy, taking prelim scans of anything. Any worthwhile hits then warranted further exploration.
Though poor quality, the layout of a town was clear. A regular grid of streets and some outlying complexes.
“And look here.” She pointed to one spot. “A temple.”
Niklas leaned closer. “They called them churches. The cross shape looks right. Classic marker of a Terran colony.” Now there was excitement in his voice.
“Whether it’s Star’s End or not, we won’t know until we get there.” Dathan’s gaze caught hers. “But it’s definitely something and we’ve gone in with less info than this before.”
“The moon’s covered in several meters of sand,” she said. “The climate’s obviously changed over the years.”
