Kirrik looked thoughtful for a while, and then nodded.
After the buoy had been released Marchero had managed to get a label for the nearby stars.
"The red dwarf nearest to us is Wolf 1421, apparently. Not a catalogue I recognise, but it's twelve hundred light years from Esdi."
"Bloody hell," Arrachachak said. "Has anyone ever been here?"
Marchero shrugged. One of the other people on the bridge, though, started to laugh.
"What?" Aeyris demanded of him.
"You really aren't going to believe this," the man said. "But several dim stars in the general vicinity of Sol are named 'Wolf' something."
The human members of the bridge crew started arguing amongst each other in surprise, and Kirrik was looking thoughtful. Arrachachak rolled his eyes in an overdone expression of amused tolerance.
When the noise eventually died down Kirrik pointed out that Marchero could easily check against the charts. She scowled at him, and then examined the console for a few minutes. Shaking her head in disbelief, Marchero said, "You're right. Sol is forty-five point eight light years from here." More arguing, until Kirrik shouted them down.
"You want to go there? Have you any idea what we might run into?"
There was a sudden silence, until Aeyris spoke. "We're going to have to get some help. The device here looks out of it."
"There's a good chance that there won't be anyone around here who would want to help us."
"Say what you mean," Marchero snapped.
Kirrik glanced at her, irritation in his eyes. "Why haven't we had any contact from your home systems for over three hundred years?" he reminded her.
"The Thargoids are sitting around at our end," Marchero said.
"We don't know what they've been doing in the other direction, though," Kirrik pointed out.
"If we stopped them in the Co-Operative then they will have done so here, too," Aeyris said.
"Who knows? And do you want to risk leading them to a back door into the middle of the Co-Operative? You might not have much loyalty to it, but I'll wager you have less to the Thargoids. They might be able to slip a fleet through that portal, not just the few raiders they can get through our lines at present."
"You're paranoid," Marchero said. Kirrik just shrugged in reply.
"What's so great about coming here, though?" Aeyris asked. "Sure, it's nice to get a link back to Sol, but why all the secrecy and illegal activity?"
"Probably for the technology," Kirrik answered. "Or an opportunity elsewhere. Who knows how the tech here corresponds to ours? Especially since we've had Thargoid trouble to force us to advance."
"Can I remind you," the man who had identified their location interceded, "that we've got more immediate concerns. Like what do we do now?"
"Jump range?" Aeyris asked.
"Twelve l.y.s on the original," Kirrik said. "They were based on the latest Asp engines."
"This one can manage ten," Marchero said, her station clearly displaying the information. "But we've only enough fuel for half that."
"What's within five light years?"
"That one unimpressive star."
"Remote place," Arrachachak commented.
Marchero nodded in agreement. "The easiest inhabited system to reach is rho1 Cancri. Well, according to this," she indicated the map on her console, "there were people living there three hundred years ago."
"How far?" Aeyris asked.
"We'll need to sun-skim Wolf 1421, then jumps of nine and eight and a third light years. There are a couple of other inhabited systems closer in a straight line, but they'll need more jumps to reach."
"What sort of name is rho1 Cancri?" snorted Arrachachak.
The expert glared at him. "These stars were seen from Earth before we even left our planet. The historical reasoning would be lost on you."
"Stop it," Aeyris snapped at them. He turned to Kirrik, and gestured to him.
Kirrik walked over to Aeyris. "We haven't enough supplies to last long enough to get there," he said quietly.
"I know," Kirrik replied. "And so, I imagine, does everyone else."
"Suggestions?"
"The charts are three hundred years out of date, and not very detailed. There aren't many stars without something nearby."
Aeyris frowned. "Back home, that's true. Things could be different here. And even in the Co-Operative nobody would bother with an remote red dwarf with nothing of interest."
"Fine, let's just not mention anything and go for it anyway."
The passage to Wolf 1421 did not take long, and ignoring Co-Operative regulations they brought the ship out of Witchspace dangerously close to the star so as to minimise real-space transit time. Immediately upon exit the bottom half of the viewscreen was filled with a glowing sphere, red around the edges but pure white in the centre where the cameras for the screen had been saturated. Close up even a small, cool star was an impressive object. The view quickly dulled to complete red as it adjusted to the light levels.