''I do know how to leave bread crumbs.''
Abby and Chief Beni picked that moment to step onto the Resolute's bridge. Jack had serious questions about taking leave to accompany Kris's expedition. ''Anytime I'm within five light-years of you, Princess, I'm working. Or dodging incoming.''
Beni had no such questions. ''You bet I want to be in on whatever you're up to. It pays good.''
Kris had said nothing to Abby. She'd actually planned on leaving the maid behind. But Abby had shown up waving a fur bikini. ''You'll need this if you have to make a formal appearance as a Barbarian Princess to these folks.''
''Just how secret is this little shindig?'' Jack remarked.
Kris shrugged… and remembered the steamer trunks trailing Abby aboard the Resolute. All twelve. None got left behind.
Jack raised an eyebrow as if to say ''You sure you want to do this? Even Abby's magic Ouija board is saying it's dangerous.''
Abby didn't trail any trunks onto the bridge just now.
''Anything interesting?'' Beni asked, chomping on an apple left over from lunch.
''Doesn't look like it, just another jump,'' Kris said.
''I've only got two more cameras to mount on the buoys,'' the chief said.
''We've only got three buoys,'' Captain Drago pointed out. ''I do wish you'd let me order some drones. It might mean a delay, but we'd be better prepared.''
''And why would the Resolute be ordering a batch of remotes,'' Kris said, shaking her head. ''We don't want questions raised. Don't worry. It's all taken care of.''
The look the captain gave Kris didn't look persuaded.
The second buoy's exploratory trip through the next jump brought back more strange stars… and something recorded in the radio bandwidth.
''Can you make anything of it, Chief?'' Kris asked.
''It's more static than anything else. It's just that it's static in the wrong place and static with too much organization in it to be ignored.''
''Go through?'' Sulwan asked.
Captain Drago raised an eyebrow to Kris.
''You see anything in the buoy's report that says we'd be in danger if we went?''
''Can't say that I do,'' Beni said, almost making it sound like he wanted to.
''If you would, Captain,'' Kris said, and the Resolute followed its buoy through the jump.
This time they found themselves deep in a system's inhabitable zone, orbiting a distant moon of a planet that had several more closer in. A planet beautifully blue and green.
‘''That's where the noise is coming from. Right down around the equator,'' Beni reported.
''Do we go down there?'' Captain Drago asked.
''Just a moment. Nelly, do you have design instructions for remote deep-space probes in your gizzard?''
''I have such designs in my memory banks, Your Highness,'' Nelly answered formally. Very formally. Did I hurt her feelings, Kris wondered. No, not possible.
She must have thought it too solidly, because Nelly answered. I do not like it when you make fun of me in front of your friends. I want respect.
Okay, girl, I'll remember that.
''Abby, I have three ten-kilo bars of Smart Metal in my trunks.''
''Of course, ma'am.''
''And some extra self-organizing computer goo, don't I?''
''You know you do.''
''After Turantic, I never leave home without the stuff,'' Kris said, giving Jack and Captain Drago a big smile. ''Abby, please get one bar and a vial of the goo and meet me in Engineering. Let's get ourselves some outriders before we go anywhere. Who knows what might be in our way.''
An hour later, Kris and Nelly had conjured up a dozen remote probes and fueled them with antimatter and reaction mass from the Resolute's power plant. Captain Drago was much more enthusiastic about shifting his ship to a lower orbit, now that he was following behind a scout force that verified it was safe.
They settled smoothly into a comfortably low orbit and turned on all the cameras and sensors Kris had snuck aboard her leased ship. After two orbits of the planet, Kris was smiling from ear to ear. Oceans covered 65 percent of this blue-green world. Ice caps glistened at the poles. Two large continents had grass plains and forests spread over their temperate zones. The tropics were either desert or jungle with a really lovely area of green savanna. What looked like a major tropical storm system was swirling its way north from just above the equator.
''Kind of reminds you of Earth before we got done with it,'' Abby said.
''What do you make of these?'' Kris asked Beni, highlighting several large mounds. Some were in huge meadows amid forests. Others were scattered widely among the grassy plains.
''I'm more interested in this one,'' he said, pointing at a section where the high canopy of the tropical rain forest made way for lower mounds and one tall spire. ''This is where that radio noise is coming from.''
''Nelly, make us up some small drop scouts to send down to look that place over closely.''
''They will be ready for the next pass over that site.''
''Call it Site One.''
''What about these?'' Jack said, pointing to one of the savanna pictures. A herd of something on eight legs was racing along. ''Looks like they're running from something!''
''Or someone said ‘last one in the river is a rotten egg','' Abby said.
''Animals don't waste their metabolic economy on frivolous things like that,'' Jack growled.
''Unless the fastest girl gets the fastest guy,'' Kris said. ''Let's launch the probes and get a closer picture.''
Three hours later, and two more orbits completed, they were no nearer to any solid answers. ''They got big animals and little animals,'' Abby said.
''They got animals dining on plants, and others that dine on them,'' Beni pointed out.
''I say those are ruins,'' Jack said, pointing to what looked very much like ruins… or large rock outcroppings in the middle of plains and forests.
''And none of the animals we're looking at look at all like any of the Three species that built the jump points,'' Kris said.
''Assuming anyone built them,'' Captain Drago put in.
''And assuming the pictures your Great-Grampa Ray saw on Santa Maria really were of the Three,'' Sulwan added.
''Questions, assumptions, everywhere and not a drop of data to hang a hat on,'' Nelly finished.
''So let's go down and see some of this up close,'' Kris said.
And ducked at the onslaught of ''not now.''
''we're not ready,'' and ''you can't be that crazy'' that followed.
''Okay, okay,'' she said, raising a hand. ''I want to go down there, so we are going down there. What do you bunch of nannies insist on us doing before we go?''
Actually, Kris wasn't at all surprised at the safety burden laid on her. If they'd given her a minute of peace, she would probably have outlined everything they said. Still, it must have made Jack, Captain Drago, and even Abby feel good to tell her what to do. So she let them.
Kris brought the shuttle down in a spray of water, waited until she'd bled off most of her speed, then swung the shuttle around gently to head it for the bank of the river. With no sandy beach to aim for, she settled for the foot of a trail that seemed to be where most of the locals came down to drink. The shuttle lost the last of its momentum among what looked like reeds and planted its nose gently onto the muddy bank.
''Not bad,'' Jack said. ''Now to get out of here as easy.''
Kris held up her arm, encased in a fully armored space suit. ''I won't drink the water. I won't breathe the air. What more do you want, my loyal security officer?''
''A nice safe chair by a crackling fire… at home,'' Jack said. He'd been so happy to find that the Resolute's storage included full battle armor for this trip that he hadn't even asked just how it came to pass that a simple merchant ship happened to come so equipped.
Kris had. ''I bought them surplus. Armored suits were cheaper than the usual spacewear. I was saving money,'' Captain Drago insisted. Leaving Kris to wonder if Captain Drago and Maid Abby shopped the same sales.